Family trip to London

Well I'll start when Charlie joined us in England on that first Thursday afternoon. He arrived to Oxford around 4 p.m., and we met him at the coach station and had to have a quick English pint (since he's been spoiled with all that delicious Belgium beer!) Had to introduce him to the warm, flat English bitter. Took the city bus to our flat to show him the pad and then just chilled a bit and cooked dinner at home. Ate Brian's yummy marinated chicken on the BBQ before we headed out for some culture. Had tickets for the local Oxford Creation Theatre's www.creationtheatre.co.uk showing of The Passion. Typically this theatre company does Shakespeare, but they were doing their own version of The Passion which was half play, half musical and it was fantastic! It was outside in the Oxford Castle grounds and we really enjoyed it. On our way home, we had to have a pint at the Eagle & Child pub (which I've mentioned before, but it's the pub where the Inklings hung out - authors J.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis) for the Oxford experience.

Friday was a big day trip to London. Was the first big outing of the two weeks and I was a little apprehensive as I knew traveling on the train was going to be packed (since it's a Friday in August during the holiday season at 10 a.m.). Surprisingly, it was the first train ride ever for Mom, and I don't think Dad's been on many either. On these short train trips, the cheap seats don't have reserved seats, so it's a free for all. It's not a big deal when it's Bri and I, but for Dad I was mostly worried since he'd need a seat. Well, tried as we might, we couldn't get seats for the first 20-min leg of the trip and then had to switch trains (due to some technical prob). Luckily we got random seats for Ma and Dad on the second leg. When we arrived to London at about quarter to noon, Dad said he was already pooped! Yikes! I think he was pulling my leg (I think!) cause our day was just beginning. But you have to remember, we had to get to the Oxford train station too, and that requires a city bus and walking 6 blocks (or taking a taxi for dad) - so there is still travel required just to get going to London.

Anyway, we arrived in London and had brought a packed lunch. Took the Underground to the Royal area (Mom, Dad and Chaz's first time on the Tube!) to St. James Park so we could eat lunch in the sun and enjoy people watching for a little bit. We had a 1 p.m. appointment with Brian's contact Hans, at the Royal Society for a short tour. He was kind enough to give us a 1/2 of his time to show the folks around the Royal Society and give some history on all the important scientists past and present who make up the RS.


Next was a great way to see all the big sights of London from the ease of a seat for Dad Boy. We took a big red, open top double-decker city sight-seeing bus tour. In two hours, was able to see everything; Big Ben, Parliament, St. Paul's Cathedral, London Eye, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, the Thames River, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, etc. We stopped at Buckingham Palace to see the guards, but they had already done their changing earlier that day.





After the bus tour, found a sports pub for Dad to chill, and Charlie, Brian, Kelly and Marcy took off on foot around Leceister Square, Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square and the West End area. We all met back up for a pub dinner in the West End area. It was the Bear and Staff, which was frequented the most by Charly Chaplin back in the day, as he was in a show across the street.

Train ride back to Oxford had plenty of room for us, but found that out only by just making the train! We were on the platform, but it was shorter train, which meant the end part was only leaving, and we had to run to catch it! I ran ahead and told the conductor my dad is handicap and moving as fast as he can!! I looked back and there is Ma grabbing Dad's arm and pulling him along and he's crutching along as fast as he can . . . it was great - especially because we just made it! (And I'm pretty sure the conductor kept it open for us, since he had some key thing he was using to hold the train open.) Well it was the first "catch the European train last minute" experience, and it wasn't our last on the trip!!!