A Kentish New Years...

After our 2 a.m. bedtime on New Year’s Eve, we really weren’t looking forward to having to be on a train at 9 a.m. to head to Kent. Our grumbling quickly stopped when Tristram picked us up and brought us back to his and Camilla’s cute cottage in the countryside (they own the right 2/3 of the house). We were sad when they moved back to the UK in July, so were thrilled to be able to spend two nights with them. Although it’s a bummer that Tristram has a two-hour commute to work in London, we can see why they love living at the intersection of Ham and Sandwich.

New Year's Eve on the Thames...

After dinner, we headed to Sally and John’s hotel, which was just a block from the Thames River. The kids watched a movie in the room and we snuck a bottle of bubbly into the bar. At 10 p.m. it was time to bundle up and stake out a place along the river to watch the fireworks. We managed to beat some of the crowds to this particular stretch of river and secured front row spots. While it’s true that we stood in the cold for two hours for a 10-minute firework show, it was worth it. The fireworks were actually shot off of the individual pods on the London Eye and were quite spectacular. The crowds were so intense afterwards that it took us 30 minutes to make it back to Sally’s hotel then another hour to get far enough way from the river to be able to access a Tube station for a ride back to the hotel. Regardless, it was a great way to start 2010!

Sightseeing in London...

We started our day at the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms. This underground museum was opened to the public in 1984. Over 100 strategical meetings were held here from 1939 to 1945. I especially enjoyed seeing the room with all typewriters and the other with all the phones--so amazing to think of what was accomplished there without any computers.
After lunch, we made our way to the Tower of London. Somehow failed to get any views of the overview, but here’s an idyllic scene just across from the infamous Tower Green where Henry VIII had his queens beheaded. We enjoyed seeing the crown jewels (stored in the Tower of London since 1303), including one of the world’s largest diamonds at 530 karats. Afterwards, we took a nice walk across the Tower Bridge. We got lucky and found a wonderful restaurant offering a special 3-course meal that could squeeze us in. Considering it was New Year’s Eve, we were surprised by the quality considering the low price (especially with the free bottle of champagne).

Hanging with Friends in London...

We were so excited when we realized that we’d be in London at the same time as Sally, John, David and Andrew. We were even more excited that we could share New Year’s Eve during the boy’s first visit to London. And what a great day we had! We met up at 9:30 a.m. for a full day of sightseeing, great food (Sally helped earn us a free bottle of champagne by staying calm after the waiter spilled a tray of Kir Royales in her lap), and fireworks.

Living Big in the Big City...

Jimmy’s connection with the general manager of the Landmark Hotel in the Marylebone neighborhood of London paid off with a behind-the-scenes tour of this majestic hotel housed in what was once the national rail headquarters. Our tour included going up on the roof (unfortunately it was cold and sprinkling) and into the basement, including the kitchens and the laundry. We were especially impressed with the Presidential Suite, which we imagined must have been where Michelle Obama and daughters slept when they stayed there.

Future Thespians?

Quite a few of the acting exercises had us busting up with laughter. Nicolas brought his buddy David Hall, an ex-chemistry teacher turned Shakespearean actor, to help and he was hilarious. He was the first to recognize Richard Griffiths, who plays Vernon Dursley in the Harry Potter films, in the actor’s cafeteria where we ate all our meals. Other than gawking, we left him in peace. While neither girl is likely to ever be a big star like that (and hopefully never that big!), it was fun learning acting skills in such a memorable place.

Our Little Actresses...

Here the girls are performing a scene from Oscar Wilde’s comedy The Importance of Being Earnest that they had prepared in advance. The rest of the two days were filled with acting exercises. Some were completely weird and involved crawling around on the ground. Others were really fun like “Quick Change Fast.” We partnered up and assigned each other a subject to talk about using a chosen emotion. Then our partner would shout out another emotion and we had to immediately switch gears, which resulted in some very funny speeches.