The London Blitz (Wed July 4)

We had a very event-packed day.  Can you believe that everything is open here on the Fourth of July?   Looked like everyone was headed to work too!  We spent much of the day practicing "The London Shuffle" (jacket on--jacket off--jacket on--jacket off).  It rains 4 minutes per half hour, on the hour here, with 7 minutes of intervening sunshine.

Today we headed back to the Tower of London for the full tourist visit.  We arrived early and got to see the Crown Jewels without all the crowds (not shown...another one of those "No Photography Allowed" sections).  We enjoyed the Beefeater tours and the boys really liked the Suits of Armor, etc. in the White Tower.  After lunch it became progressively crowded so we ducked out after a quick run through of the remaining areas.  There is a lot to see there, but after a while "old castle stuff" is just "old castle stuff," and it all starts looking the same.

The Boys in front of one of the regimental guards.  By the way, these are not "Beefeaters," they actually are active duty infantrymen on a special assignment for a few weeks (beats road side bombs in Afghanistan any day).

An actual "Beefeater" (Yeoman Warder) giving his tour

Davis' favorite suit of armor

The White Tower, the center of the Tower complex, built by William the Conqueror circa 1080 AD.  In pretty good shape considering it's pushing 1000, and was a government building project.

After we left the Tower we wandered upstream and across the river to the South Bank, where the Tate Modern, the London Eye and other neat stuff is now located.

St. Paul's Cathedral, on the way there.

In front of the museum they had an old piano, just left out on the sidewalk for anyone to play.  I think they do this on occasion in New York City as well.  Ethan actually started to draw a little crowd, we were very proud of him.

Attempted Video Insert Below:

THE TATE MODERN 
(Or as Scott refers to it:  "The Museum of a few good things and a bunch of ____").

In an effort to culture our children and ourselves we visited the Tate Modern, London's prestigious museum of modern art.  The museum is free and for a nominal fee we rented these nifty little handheld computer gizmos that give you an electronic tutorial about what you are seeing.  The Boys got the "Kids Version."  Since we are on the same level of art appreciation, so did we.

Ethan in front of Matisse's The Snail.
What?  You can't see the snail.  Hint:  It has a spiral shell.

This one seemed reasonable enough.  It's called Lunch with a Mug of Beer or something like that.

This room contained multiple florescent light bulbs randomly arrayed.   Looked more like a messy garage to us.

Scott gives Two Empty Boxes with Lights two thumbs down.

Scott was still willing to "think outside the box" after that, but this was too much.  Seriously?!  This looks like the stuff that was just left over when they remodeled the building.  Put a rope around it and voila!

Davis also downgraded Three Leftover AC Exchanges by I.M. Lam'eau

This came near the end.  Yes, that is poo on a stick.  Sheep poo to be exact.

It occurred to us that many of these exhibits resembled the junk...er, creative projects, that Everlie's father, Dwight Davis, has around the backyard.  He may, in fact, be the world's greatest undiscovered modern artist.  Behold, Exhibit A, below.   It is titled The Trucktor.  The artist believes in "using readily available materials."  This work is "functional and experiential," and meant to "fully involve the audience in a visual, tactical and olfactory experience."  It speaks to the increasing supremacy of machinery such that ordinary typology is blurred:  "It is a truck, or is it a tractor?"  We remain uncertain...

The Trucktor viewed from the rear-side

The Trucktor front-side view.  Display ropes
were removed for photographic purposes.  Background was also
constructed by the artist to add "an agrarian milieu."

After that we needed something real and concrete.   Churchill really believed in concrete, and had 30 feet of it around the underground WWII era Cabinet War Wooms.  These bunkers survived the London Blitz and were the allied military nerve center.   It was really cool--certainly better than "pooh on a stick."

Outside the Cabinet War Rooms

Logan listens to a description of the activity in the Map Room

We wrapped up our busy day with a ride on the London Eye, the largest ferris wheel in the world.

Everlie does not like heights and was less than thrilled.

You're inside these giant pod things.  The ride takes 30 gentle minutes.

It starts off easy enough.

But it does get a little dizzying 

Back safe on solid ground.   Everlie did fine, although she was not interested in a second go-round!

Tomorrow we will conquer the British Museum.  Cheers!