A day in the City

After a long hiatus, I have resolved to bring this blog back to life (pre-New Year's resolution).  So, at the end of a happy year and just before the beginning of a new one, we decided to explore The City.  A long time ago, before I had a job or children, I went on a walking tour of The City...but today, with Jim and the girls, I saw it with fresh eyes.

After getting rained on a little bit, we made our way to the Bank of England...which is massive and beautiful.  Something wonderful about London is the mix of old, beautiful architecture and modern, sleek architecture.  We channeled Mary Poppins and enjoyed checking out a statue of the Duke of Wellington and discussing whether or not the boots he was wearing were actually Wellington boots.

 We also were mightily impressed with the size of some of the doors on the Bank of England.

 We pointed out the shrapnel marks from WWII on the walls to the girls and then, forgetting how innocent they are, had to try and explain what a bomb is.   Then, what a war is.  I wish that they could stay so innocent and I'm glad that they don't know what horrible things people are doing to each other with bombs and wars all over the world right now...

 Before the sky fell out again, we made it to the Guild Hall Gallery, where we enjoyed looking at lots of paintings of the Great Fire and Covent Garden Market back in the olden days. But the highlight was the Roman Amphitheater underneath the gallery.  If you didn't know (I didn't know before I lived here), the Romans seized part of London in about 43 AD and turned it into a settlement called Londinium.  So there are Roman ruins all around certain parts of London and when they were excavating to build the Guild Hall Galleries in the 1980's they came across the remains of a Roman amphitheater. Again, the mix of modern and very, very old...with ancient walls and drainage systems and computer generated gladiators and spectators on the walls.

 We were lucky that the Guild Hall was open, too.  And deserted!  Guild hall was the scene of many a gruesome trial...most of which ended in violent deaths at the Tower of London.  But we didn't dwell on that. Instead we enjoyed romping around in the vast and empty hall and admiring the architecture.

 Following Guild Hall, we visited the London Museum, which is an amazing place!  The museum walks you through the history of London, from the pre-human days when hippos and elephants lived in London to the modern days.  Since we were already on a theme of death and destruction, it was only fitting that the girls learn about the Black Plague and the Fire of London too.  They also enjoyed looking at fancy period clothing and trying on old fashioned fireman hats. 

 The London Museum is attached to the Barbican, so there were also lots of funky art deco details.

 Next stop was Covent Garden, where we parted ways because Covent Garden has a TK Maxx (same as TJ Maxx, in case you were wondering) now and everyone knows TK Maxx and husbands and small children do not mix.  A different kind of culture!