Day 7 and I think that this is the first official day that the entire gang is over the jet-lag. We had a different itinerary in mind but looking at the forecast we switched it up a bit since there is rain coming on Th, F, Sa. The kids got up early so we were able to start our day early and headed off to the London Eye, the top-notch British Museum, and Fortnum & Mason's to try to indulge in afternoon tea. Here is a link of our itinerary.
London Eye (5 of 5)
Word of advice, book online ahead of time (even the morning of the same day) and you will save yourself a lot of waiting time. We did just that, went to the kiosk, printed our tickets and went straight to line-up. We heard some people were lining up for 30 minutes just to buy tickets. With each ticket though, two attractions are included: the London Eye, and the 4D London Eye Experience. For those that don't know, the London Eye was constructed in the year 2000 to mark the Millennium celebrations. It is essentially a huge ferris wheel that takes 30 minutes to traverse an entire cycle. There are many enclosed "capsules" that house up to 15 people and are entirely made of glass. The ride is extremely smooth as people load/unload while the capsules are moving. The reason for my rating is that you get to see a bird's eye view of London which is spectacular. What I've heard is that we should really try the London Eye at night time too. There you will get an entirely different view of London which is even more fantastic. Can't describe the view from above - but my pictures can ;) The kids will love it! [Cost: 19.50 GBP/Adult; 11.90 GBP/Kids 4-11; Free/ Kids<4; for Flexi-Standard Tickets that allow any time during for a specific date]
The British Museum [5 of 5]
Quite simply put, the British Museum is the best museum I've ever been to. If there is another museum in the world that can top the artifacts, the presentation, and the sheer volume, please let me know. I posted something on my Facebook recently stating something to the effect: "One advantage of conquering 4 civilizations? Is that you get to take all their stuff and put it in your museums!" Back in 2001, Siew and I were in Greece for our honeymoon. We went to countless sights and museums in that country and there was a common theme that was often told to us: "Oh, btw this is a replica. The real artifact is in <insert country name that has conquered us>". What a shame it was to see back then since the Greeks have been conquered, pillaged, and plundered 3 or 4 times in their history with the English and French taking turns. Greece's loss is Britain's gain as the British Museum containing more significant pieces of Greek artifacts than Greece itself. They hauled back huge pieces of the Parthenon just for fun apparently. For the Egyptian exhibit, they have the friggin' Rosetta Stone. The list goes on. I think the biggest difference though, was the presentation of the materials. Ninety-five percent of the artifacts were not behind glass. They were just displayed like coffee table books since they had so many. You could really get close to them and study the intricate details... which is about the time we lost the interest from the kids. Thank goodness for scavenger hunts. [Cost: Free]
Fortnum & Mason's [3 of 5]
Established in 1707, this department store is uber-luxury with a weird product line. They mostly specialize in food items but they also have two floors dedicated to stuff like stationary and pajamas. They have 5 restaurants and the St. Jame's restaurant is supposed to be the premier spot for Afternoon Tea in London according to Siew's cousin. We flip-flopped on trying to go there the day before, but decided not to. For Afternoon Tea though, there is a strict dress code that needs to be adhered to - jackets as a minimum for the men. Somehow I don't think my Columbia rain jacket would've made the cut :)
