London Eye and the Broadway of London

Beautiful sunny day in London, this is rare right?

Today we went to Coppélia's top dream destinations The London Eye and Estee was able to finally  get a good view of what was on top of her must see, Big Ben.

It took about 30 minutes to make our way around, the views were amazing.

House of Parliament

Buckingham Palace 

They called this their GeoTrax bridge.

A view from each angle... all these views made the girls want to sketch.

After the ride we went in search a park they spotted from above.

We then went back to Kensington park to feed the swans and ducks that float on the pond in front of the palace.

Then we headed home for a bit of down time before we hit up West End, the Broadway of London.  

Daddy spoiled his little ladies with great seats for Matilda!  We missed this show in New York by a week but by coming to London to see it we got authentic accents.  Such a great show, we have been watching the clips from the Tony awards since this summer and singing along to the soundtrack which we finally bought last week.  The cast is full of young kids making it a treat for any little one to watch.  The girls have also been reading the book, they were discussing what scenes they thought would be cut because of the safety of the actors, but they had those scenes and the girls were amazed by the tricks they used to make it happen. 

The girls said it was the best day of their life, 2 parks, the London eye, Big Ben and Matilda!

I'll leave you with one of the girls favorite songs from Matilda the Musical, "Naughty".  We had the Matilda on the right.

The Tower of London

We had a slow start this morning, I had grand plans to do more exploring then we did but all the girls really wanted to do is go to Kensington Park or Peter Pans Park as they have begun to call it.  How could I say no, the place truly is magical and every time we go I feel like I to should own a St. Bernard and sit down on a bench with a pad of paper and pen to write.  Instead I have two five year olds and a heavy backpack full of umbrellas, coats, snacks and a camera, I gladly let them write the stories of life for me.

Eventually we set off on another "Katie in London" adventure as we went to The Tower of London.

They brought their flat Stanley cousins to the castle.

I knew that the Crown Jewels were here and that prisoners had been tortured here but really that was all I knew and I thought this would just be quick trip to look at the Crowns.  What we got was a mid-evil castle!  The girls really didn't have any interest in me reading every historical detail what they really wanted to do was explore and we did for three hours.

 
We ended up showing up just in time for The Word which is the changing of the password.

We had fun playing the guards protecting the castle.

Turns out the girls weren't all that interested in the crown jewels they all started to look the same.  Although Coppélia thought the royal orb was a royal bomb...this is why it's important to actually read the information.

The only room where the girls wanted me to read and explain things to them was room that held the items from the torture chamber.  We ended up becoming the entertainment of the room as the girls kept asking what the items were used for, all eyes were on me as adults wondered how this was going to go down.

"What is that, read it to me."
"Um...give me a minute, I want to read it and then I'll decide what I'm going to tell you."

"These are manacles, they would hang your hands above your head for like 5-6 hours."
"Thats not so bad."
(ok I'll make it sound more horrible)
"what if there was like razor sharp edges that were cutting into your wrist."
"Not that big of a a deal."

"This is the Scaverger's Daughter it would force you to be all scrunched up for a long period of time."
"Easy"

"That's the rack, they would tie your legs to one side and your arms to the other and then they would stretch you."
"That sounds relaxing."
"What if they stretched you so far your arms were going to rip off?"
(shoulder shrug) "I could handle it."

The other room that freakishly fascinated them was the tower were the two princes were held and then vanished then Richard the III was crowned king.  I tried to avoid telling them the story but there was a video playing and Coppie kept asking.  I ended up telling them the story and a few of the theories.  As we continued on our journey we came to a stairwell where they discover two bodies of young boys (possibly the young princess) and of course they asked.  I could tell the wheels were turning in Coppie's head, eventually on the way home she said, "I think it was Richard the III, their uncle that became King that killed them."

White Lodge: Home of the Royal Ballet Lower School

I couldn't sleep last night, I was up till almost 4 in the morning tossing and turning, I felt like a child trying to go to sleep on Christmas Eve.  I have wanted to go to the White Lodge Museum and ballet resource center since the moment I learned of it's existence and when planning this trip all other adventures and exhibits had to work their way around this one.

Since before the age of two I have sat down with the girls to watch clips of different ballet's, choreographers and dancers.  It was only in the past few weeks during one of these viewings that the girls began asking questions about these amazing Russian dancers and the why, hows and who's of dancers that defected.  Sometimes the non stop questions of my 2, 5 year old can feel like an interrogation.

So this is how they came to learn of Rudolf Nureyev.

It just so happened that the newest exhibit at White Lodge was "Rudolf Nureyev: In search of Perfection" so I was extra excited that they would be familiar with his work when we got there.

We also have been learning in our Mommy School time about children who actually go away to special school to study dance along with all their other academic studies.  The purpose of these schools is to create dancers who will go on to become professionals.  White Lodge among it's rich aristocratic history is the home for the Royal Ballet Lower School, where kids ranging from ages 11-16 live and study.

The school is outside of London in a town called Richmond.  It may not be far to the city but when traveling by train, subway, bus and then a mile walk it does take some time to get to.  But the town is sweet and the walk through the Richmond park is breath taking.  I felt like I should be on horse back releasing the hounds to go duck hunting, it was the perfect backdrop for a period piece.

On our walk we played with woolly bears.

and then this beauty decided to join us on our walk.  On the hill in the distance you could see between 75 and 100 of them resting and grazing.

Finally we made it to the entrance gate where we met the driver who would take us through the gates.  The house was completed in 1730 and became a favorite retreat for George II and his wife Queen Caroline.  From there it has a long history of royal occupancy but in 1955 is when it became home to the Royal Ballet School.

Through the french doors that lead to the deck in the photo above is the most gorgeous studio I have ever laid eyes on.  This studio is only used for private lessons now but it was in this very room that Edward the 8th was christened. 

Estee immediately took off her shoes and began dancing.

We weren't allowed to wonder the halls because it is the home for these kids and their school was in session.  Also we were not allowed to photograph the students as they walked the halls but the girls were very excited to wave and say hello to them as they made their way to class holding their character skirts.

  

Here Estee is dancing in the grass in front of the Margot Fonteyn studio

Dormitories

Margot Fonteyn's Odette costume

Anna Pavlova's vanity

This is a statue of Margot Fonteyn, the middle finger of her hand has faded because it is a ritual among the students to touch her finger every time they pass for luck.

Coppélia held tight before saying goodbye.

Fortunately for us we had a much easier time getting home.  The driver of the lodge was kind enough to drive us to the nearest train station and later we transferred to a double decker bus where the girls were able to check off on their "Katie In London" tour.

Book Tours and Palaces - Exploring London Day 1

While searching for materials for our Mommy Arts School I discovered the author James Mayhew.  Sadly I've only seen a few of his books in U.S.A. but his books are treasures and worth the price of shipping!  One of our favorites series by him is the Katie books.  Most of the books in the series is about Katie going to museums and climbing into famous paintings, but some of the other books are about Katie visiting cities and "Katie in London" is probably our most read and the reason my little dynamic duo have been begging to go to London.

So today we began a book tour inspired by Katie's adventure.

Our first stop was Trafalgar Square where Katie and her brother Jack climb on the lion while their Grandma takes a nap on a bench.  The the lion comes to life and takes the kids on a site seeing adventure.

Due to time and the spacing of these sites we are not going to be able to do them all in order or in one day but hopefully we will hit them all at some point.

Our next stop was Buckingham Palace, we didn't make it in time to see the Changing of the Guard but we did see a few guardsmen.

This is where the Katie tour had to end for the day because their Daddy wanted to finish the tour and had to go to work.  We decided to head back to Kensington Palace to see the exhibits.  

We were looking forward to the fashion exhibit where we were going to see gowns worn by Queen Elizabeth, Princess Margret and Princess Diana but exhibit on Queen Victoria took the cake!  

Oh if walls could talk... We were able to explore rooms from her childhood home and throughout this palace you found many of her writings on carpets, mirrors and even this little sofa.  Mostly they were words that she had written to Prince Albert the girls were just as excited to read these  as they were to see her gowns.  You could honestly feel how much she loved him.

One room held her childhood toys

Look at that dollhouse, even my girls wanted to play with it!

We found her dancing shoes.

Going up the Grand Staircase to King George's Gallery

Upon seeing the Gallery they began dancing saying "This must be where they held the balls."

But a guard sat there with the girls, telling them that this was King George's private room and only he could come in here and maybe one of his friends if they were invited, the girls asked if his wife could go in the room and he said not even his wife. 

Maybe this wasn't the type of artistic adventure we usually have but by roaming the halls and exploring history we see art everywhere and with these adventures we are painting the backdrops for our imaginations to soar.