Day 4 - London

This is a brief update from Starbucks in the middle of Soho. It was supposed to rain today, so I took everyone to the British Museum, arranged for Dinner at a recommended Thai restaurant at 6, and told them to go learn. Thanks to Rick Riordan, Jeri was in heaven in the Egypt Rooms and the Greek Rooms including taking pictures of the other half of the Parthanon (Elgin's Marbles).

 Exhausted, we stumbled out two hours later and had a bite to eat at a Crepere. We then went in search of the used book stores. Unfortunately, I got my 'C' roads confused and ended up in the Judicial District. Several miles of walking later, we found the right spot, fell down at least one set of basement stairs heading for the Science Fiction section, and didn't purchase anything. So, we are resting and taking advantage of brewed coffee, chairs to sit in and free wi-fi.

Next we wandered off to find our dinner location.  Good thing we left early, I went in the wrong direction again.  Dinner was really good for two reasons.  First, they could seat us all at the same table.  Second, the food was fast and good.  Sarah and Merry ate quickly and then ran off to try to get student tickets to Les Mis. The rest of us finished up and wandered down the street to M&M World.

Day 3 - London

Today was our first serious day of class.  We were all up nice and early with the time change and figured out breakfast.  The Hostel has an included breakfast of cereal, toast, juice, tea, and (instant) coffee, but you can buy up to a better breakfast if you want.  I thoroughly enjoyed my big bowl of musili.  We won't talk about the coffee.

I was nearly the last one out of the hostel since when I went out the first time, I turned around and went back to the room for my scarf.  It turned out to be a great decision since is was quite a bit cooler than yesterday.  I just wish that I had remembered to grab my London maps at the same time.  I didn't mention to the students that I was navigating completely from memory all day.  First, we took the tube out to the quays and transferred to the Dockside Light Rail for the ride to Greenwich.  We spent a good deal of the trip traveling with a large group of 9-10 year old school kids which had its disadvantages (they giggled) and its advantages (we couldn't get lost since they were also going to the Observatory).

The Royal Observatory Museum is in several parts, but we had to pay to get into the Time part so we could see H1, H2, H3, and H4 plus some great paintings of Naval Disasters.

Posing at the Prime Meridian

H1

H2

H3

Tierra del Fuego

H4

From there, we went up the hill a little higher to the other part of the museum which had great displays of Astronomy.  The special exhibit was on the transit of Venus and how it was used to measure the distance between the Sun and the Earth.  We were all surprised to learn that there is one more transit of Venus in our lifetime, it will be observable during sunset in Iowa, and it will be in June.

After leaving the Museum, we had decided to eat lunch together and let people be on their own for dinner.  We had another delicious pub meal at the Greenwich Tavern.  From there, we checked out the Cutty Sark exhibit from the outside and made our way back to the tube and on to Westminster.

At Westminster Abbey I discovered that 18 year olds aren't students, they are schoolchildren and that saved us fourteen pounds for the admission to the Abbey - thank you Freshmen!  Photography is not allowed, but the audio tours are included in the price of admission.  I told the students that I would see them tomorrow morning at breakfast and they were welcome to explore on their own.

Jeri and I left the Abbey and thought about returning to the Hostel, but she wasn't free again until 7, so we headed up the river in look of a small something to eat.  We walked up to Trafalgar Square and found a lovely little bookstore.  Jeri's ankles didn't hurt nearly as much when I agreed to purchase the new Rick Riordan book which isn't available back home.  We found a nice little sandwich spot with a children's menu.  From there, since we were so close, I had to stop in the Twinings store, but they were out of what I was looking for, so I just picked up a couple of bags to tide me over.

One of the evening papers has a nice article on an interview with Terry Pratchett about how children should not be allowed to text since it hampers their language development.   Finally we got on the tube going the wrong direction, but since the tube is so complicated, we were still able to transfer to the Central line going that direction and return to the hostel.

Day 2 - London

We were off the plane by 9 AM, but probably not out of the airport until closer to 10.  We were all pretty groggy with lack of sleep and the fact that it felt like 4 AM, but we were excited to go explore London.  Unfortunately, when we landed, it was raining pretty hard and we weren't sure London was ready for us.  Because of the weather, we thought about indoor activities.  We dropped off things at the Hostel and spread out for lunch.  After getting back together, we took the tube to the British Library for a couple of hours, walked to King's Cross Station and then tubed to the Guildhall to see the Museum of Clockmakers.

Day 1 - Cedar Rapids to London

We had no unexpected events on the first day.  We left Waverly on time.  We found a geocache on the way to the airport.  We got through security with no trouble.  We only ran a little to catch the plane in Chicago.

London Ho

Made it to rainy London and checked in to Hostel. Lessons are being learned right and left. For example, Dr. Birgen meant it when she told you to bring an ATM card. The Banks don't want your cash dollars.