Saturday, April 11: A Full Day

As I write this, I’m sitting in the bar in the basement of the Latvian House of London. Latvian pop music is playing, and people of Latvian descent are drinking Latvian beer and sitting in clusters around tables in a small, dark room decorated with Latvian folk art. 

Why am I here? Because we are staying in the Latvian House in the portion of the building used as a guesthouse. For a very reasonable price, the 5 of us are staying a family room with breakfast included (in one of the few that doesn’t share a bathroom, hostel-style), across the street from Kensington Gardens. The location is fantastic. The Latvian Welfare Fund bought this building in the 1950s for Latvians who had left the old country, so that they could have a meeting place that would feel like home. And they’re still meeting here!

This morning, however, we woke up in Wales. We got everyone going good and early, because we were trying to squeeze a few things in before we had to have the rental car back to London at 5.

First up was the town of Bath and the Roman Bath Museum. The Romans who conquered what is now England built baths and a temple over a hot spring almost as soon as they arrived. The first signs of that complex were discovered about 300 years ago, and now the museum showcases what was once a gorgeous and sophisticated hot springs bathing complex. 

Now tourists can see what it probably looked like, and you can still see where the water drained from the “sacred spring” into the pool and other bathing facilities. I knew there were baths there but had no idea it was also considered a sacred place.

I would like to point out here that those ancient Romans could somehow make a bath complex that ran hot water into a multitude of rooms and pools. And yet our toilets are in constant need of attention. Andrew told us last night, "this toilet never gets stopped up. It's magical!" While this may mean that my son and I have differing ideas of what the word "magical" means, it still makes the Roman baths more impressive in my non-plumber eyes.

Upon exiting the baths, we took a brisk walk to the Jane Austen Centre, where I realized there was really no way we could also squeeze in a tour of the Centre. The gift shop was tempting, but it somehow seems inappropriate to turn to my husband to ask him for money to buy an “I [heart] Mr. Darcy” t-shirt. And so reluctantly I went back to the car with my family and drove away. We did drive past some of the famous Georgian structures, imagining the 19^th century folk strolling in front of the Royal Crescent in all their finery. At least that’s what I was imagining. Brian was just trying to keep us out of the way of oncoming traffic.

Next we drove to Stonehenge. After lunch in the car, we saw stones, and we saw a henge. Yes, a henge is an actual thing—it is a sort of raised berm that was dug in a large circle around the standing stones. While I can’t say I find them particularly mystical, I can see that it was an enormous feat to somehow get those huge rocks there and standing up pre-cranes. And Andrew pointed out that more time elapsed between the construction of Stonehenge and Christ’s birth than has elapsed from Christ’s time to now. So not only are they big, they are old. You can probably guess that archaeology and anthropology were not my fields of study. Allison expressed that her feet hurt. I said, "Oh, I thought you were finished complaining" [see yesterday's post for more info]. She responded with surprise, "No, that was yesterday!" Ah.

Back in the car, we had to drive the rental car back to London. Things got a little tense again as we moved into busier traffic in town, but it was really not so bad. Still, we were pretty happy and relieved to be out of the car and back on foot.

And so we checked into the Latvian guesthouse. The kids and I lounged around while Brian brought the car back to the rental company. By the time he got back, it was getting too late to hit many of the big tourist sites, since they all close around 5:00. Eventually we went for supper, and we had dissension in the ranks. Some wanted to get pizza, others wanted something more London-ish. We ended up finding an Italian restaurant near the theater district, and we ducked in to see if they could seat us. The man who greeted us looked a bit like Gru in the “Despicable Me” movies, or possibly someone from “The Godfather.” He drew us in, told us it would be about five minutes. We thought, okay, no problem. He pointed to a table where a group was finishing up and said they were about to go. After a few minutes, he offered us glasses of water.

Meanwhile, our kids were eyeing the very nice-looking chain restaurant next door, Pizza Express. We’ve been seeing these restaurants everywhere, and finally we were near one when it was actually time to eat. It was ridiculously close and stuffy standing there waiting for someone to finish their dinner. I believe it was right about now that one of my dearest children let us know that she had had enough of all of us and She. Can't. Even. But the man had given us water, so we couldn’t just ditch, right?

Which I'm sure was just what he was counting on, judging by the way he finessed the crowd waiting for the next 20 minutes at least. Three of us were still holding his water glasses. Andrew decided to make a break for it, and deposited two glasses on the bar counter so we could run out the door. He didn’t realize that I was also holding a glass, so I couldn’t just walk out. Just when he was about to dump my glass too, Gru came up to us to let us know our table was ready. So close, but we couldn’t escape, so a bigger, slower, more expensive dinner it was. Fortunately, an appetizer was just enough to bring back some family harmony.

Okay, I'm finally in a photo, proving I am actually on this trip.

We were all exhausted, but we decided that we wanted to try for one more thing yet. The London Eye is the huge Ferris wheel that was built for the new millennium. We did not expect to get on it this week, but the free evening made us wonder if we could. We got on almost immediately and got a great view of all the lights and sights of everything in London. Since few people were in line, there were only 4 other people in our big capsule, so we had plenty of room to roam and take pictures.

But now we are wiped out. We have a few plans tomorrow, and sleep is calling. I couldn’t even think straight with the Latvian music, so we came back upstairs and I’m sitting on the bed and I’m rather close to drifting off to sleep. Everyone else is already there. So, goodnight!