The one with the twins

Today we did a trial run of getting up, packing and getting ready to see how long it takes us. We had 10:30am tickets to attractions but tomorrow we have to be on the other side of downtown at 8:15am. So we woke up at 8am, packed all of our things and dropped them at the desk because we had to change rooms today. (We originally booked two nights but added a third when our flight to Inverness was cancelled–they didn’t have the room we wanted available so we are now in an upgraded room with a two bedrooms and a living room). We were able to do all of that and have breakfast in 65 minutes. Since it was only 9:05am we decided to try the public transportation ferries. Our hotel is on the river Thames and so was our destination. The ferry was pretty luxurious. It was a fun and relaxing change from subways and we all enjoyed it.

Nova showing off her ponytail which she said she needed because London blows her hair into her ice cream when she tries to eat it.

Then we split up on the dock because Nova really wanted to do the London Eye (giant ferris wheel). Nole and the kids went to “Shrek: The Adventure”.

Meanwhile Nova and I saw the city from above.

The following pictures were taken by Nova:

Then we met up with the rest of the family at a park that Nova spotted from the ferris wheel.

We walked to see the Faraday statue. He’s a scientist that Nole admires. We also checked out the obelisk which we read is part of a pair and it’s twin is in New York. It was made in 1405 BCE (wow!) and brought to England in 1877. It was gifted to England by the Egyptian ruler but England didn’t want to pay for the transportation fees. A private citizen paid over £10,000 to have it brought here (a considerable sum at that time). The sphinx were added, and not authentic, especially given that they were installed backwards and instead of protecting the obelisk, they seem to be admiring it.

Then we went shopping at Canary Wharf Shopping Centre which is just across the river from our hotel. We had a couple of objectives. First, don’t buy anything too large because space is tight to make our maximum of 6 bags for our EasyJet flight on Tuesday. Second, look for a Sudoku book for Asa (he has been very interested in playing and prefers pen and paper to digital versions). Third, find matching outfits for Esme and Nova. They want to look like twins and have been asking for matching clothes. Finding things that they both like was a bit of a challenge but we finally did find something. We got matching hair accessories to complete the look.