London, Day 2 -- Sarah’s Birthday!
Well, to say we slept well would be a big understatement! There’s not much morning left as we arrive at the London Zoo, which proved to be a great way to spend the day with Meredith. She’s a big fan of the Bronx Zoo, but didn’t voice any displeasure at the “old school” structure of this much older model. We spent a good amount of time with the monkeys, chimps, and an enormous gorilla, then headed to see the tigers (one of Meredith’s requests) and a new exhibit called The Web of Life that endeavours to explain the concept of an ecosystem to young and old alike. Meredith loved this, especially when we got to see some clown fish (Nemo and his dad, Marlin) and a blue tang (Dory).
She taught us a song with hand motions:
Les petits poissons dans l’eau
Nagent nagent nagent nagent nagent
Les petits poissons dans l’eau
Nagent nagent comme les gros*
Les gros et les petits
Il nagent bien aussi!
(*since we returned, Meredith has corrected us on this. The lyric is actually
Nagent si bien que les gros)
The Zoo was sponsoring some Halloween-oriented activities, including a make-your-own spider project that Meredith dove right into. After a wild goose chase to find the baby pandas (would that be a wild panda chase?), which did get us to the lion’s den and to see the sloth bears in their big habitat, we enjoyed some marvelous, freshly-made donuts. Delicious!
I have to say that I never heard a lion roar in person before, and something inspired one of these English lions to unleash in full voice. Truly blood-curdling!
We said hello to the flamingoes, three giraffes, and some gorgeous owls before getting back on a bus to get some lunch and a nap, and to get ready for the big soirée!
A group of Sarah’s pals arrived to help celebrate her birthday. Most of them are grad students in counseling psych, as is she. We enjoyed several hours of conversation and snacking and even managed to get Meredith to bed at fairly reasonable hour. Sarah’s former roommate, Silvia, stayed until the wee hours of the morning. She’s from Spain, but speaks excellent English, and is clearly a dear friend and a convivial personality. I’m very glad to have met her, and Sarah’s other friends, too. Can’t remember the last time we stayed up that late!
London, Day Three
Poor Sarah, she had to get up and go to work at 10 in the morning! We had the luxury of sleeping in, fatigue compounded by the dreary weather – our dose of London rain for the visit. Slowly, slowly, we got ourselves ready, stopped in to see Sarah, who was very busy at the optician’s where she works, got some breakfast at Starbucks (a US phenom that has not yet made it to France, and given the café culture here, probably never will), and took the underground to Baker Street, where we embarked on a ½ day double-decker bus tour of the city. Our guide for the majority of the trip was both knowledgeable and witty, making priceless remarks about the Morris dancers in Trafalgar Square, London bobbies, and the ongoing unofficial postal strike (“When in residence at Buckingham Palace, the Queen receives her mail by horse-drawn carriage. The rest of us, on the other hand, don’t receive our mail at all.”).
A bizarre occurrence prevented us from crossing the famous Tower Bridge. Apparently, a single man dressed in a Spiderman outfit selected this particular day to climb up on a crane at one end of the bridge so that he could unfurl a banner in support of fathers’ participation in joint custody cases. Why Spiderman? Why climb up a crane? Why today? Oh well.
We got off the bus and boarded a boat (cruise included in our bus tour ticket price), for an hour-long ride along the Thames. As the sun set, we got a better look at Big Ben, the Tower of London, and assorted other sights. After the tour, we got back to our original location, Picadilly Circus to pick up some souvenirs before heading back to Golder’s Green.
Tired and hungry, we were thrilled to get back to Sarah’s and find that she had made a big pot of delicious lentil soup. We ate well, packed up our stuff, and spent the evening just hanging out. Getting to bed early was a welcome treat, especially since we had to get up early to catch our 7:40 Eurostar back to Paris…
A brief visit, but filled with pleasant activities, lots of buses, and many views of Big Ben!
We sincerely hope that Sarah will come spend a weekend with us in Paris in the spring so that we can return the favor!
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