The London Eye

London, England -- Day 2

It was a slow morning at 15 Barlby Road. I went out for a run to explore the area and discovered that Portabello Road is just half mile from the house. There were 150 year anniversary banners hung over the road and people out and about just setting up stalls with food, clothes and other wares for sale. Mike educated us later that Portabello Road is featured in the movie Mary Poppins.

For much of the morning, we explored the area, buying street food and browsing shops. The iconic corner bar with gold engraved lettering really is a fixture of the area.

Still getting used to the time zone, the Hanuschik clan took afternoon naps while the Hoornaerts caught up on the Olympics, reading, and playing with toys upstairs. Browsing the Lonely Planet guide, I learned about a series of 15 minute BBC podcasts exploring human history through 100 objects from the British Museum (something like the Smithsonian). It sounded like a perfect educational opportunity. I listened to four and have resolved to play these for the kids. We'll see how that pans out...good intentions....

Around 5:00 p.m. we decided to abandon the idea of actually visiting the museum and instead set our sights on the London Eye. Certainly, that would be more to the youngsters' liking, and, lucky for us, the clouds and rain from earlier in the day seemed to have scared most of the tourists away. The need to upgrade to the fast track tickets (just an extra $52) was thankfully unnecessary. (Meg, though, was concerned that the sun might produce too much glare -- damn sun!) In any event, it was an awesome 30 minute loop around the super-sized ferris wheel built like a bike wheel with many steel spokes. If you get the chance, there's quite a view.

As the sun set, we let the kids play at the nearby playground; we rarely pass up an opportunity. It was extra fun having little Cole along who couldn't get enough of running around and playing tag. On the other side of the Thames, we searched for Indian food, but gave up after seeing some huge Friday night queues. Dex and Kylie, however, were delighted, when we passed a Chipotle, the first we’d see since California. We finally greed to give it a go, and I have to admit, it was pretty tasty.