Out of the city- January 26 to 28.

I took a (really fast) train out of London to visit St. Albans, the cutest little town about an hour outside of the city (or 17 minutes if you take the fast train).

Why St. Albans?  To see Georgie's best friend- Magda!  

Magda and Barborka moved here from Clemson last year.  And it was my first time meeting their little brother, Simon!

He's already used to his crazy big sisters.

As excited as I was to see my old friends, we also had big plans.   Zuzana and I had tickets to the Harry Potter Studio Tour!

It gets a little geeky here.  Hold on, sweet Simonek.  The doors into Hogwarts!

The Great Hall!  With all of the costumes!

Outside the gates of Hogwarts. 

It really was a very cool place.  Someone ad the good sense to keep all of the sets after the movies were made to make major money off of us dorks.

Dumbledore's office!

Snape's potion room!

I really geeked out when I got to see the Wesley's house.

See?  We weren't the only ones there.

You could ever take wand lessons and make a video of yourself flying on a broom in front of a green screen.

Outside there was more!  The Knight Bus!

And Hogwarts Bridge.

We all really liked Diagon Alley.  

Weasley's Wizarding Weezes.

Starstruck.

And the last big thing was the huge model of Hogwarts.  It really was awesome.

Somehow, I managed to accidentally delete the rest of my St. Alban's and London photos.  But I did manage to spend a good bit of time with this sweet little boy.

And hugging him to sleep.

And when we did get out, we visited the the Cathedral of St. Alban- the oldest continuous Christian Church in Europe- built in 1077.  And then we went next door to England's oldest pub- Ye Olde Fighting Cock!  

Before I left for my journey home, I headed back through London and managed to spot Platform 9 3/4 (another Harry Potter site) inside King's Cross station.

London- January 24 to 25.

Now that my traveling companion had arrived, we spent some time getting out to see the city.  

We started at Portabello Market- where we acquired a silver tea strainer for Brandon from a roadside silver hawker.  Because we're that fancy.

I do love a street market.

 We stopped at Harrod's, just to see how ridiculous it is.  (And it IS.)  Also, because I had to pump.  And I pumped in some of the nicest touristy places in London.  Thanks, Beatrice.

You can tell it was cold that day.  

We took the wrong bus and wound up getting spit out by a hospital.  

The same hospital Sherlock Holmes jumped off!  See if you can make out the tributes in the grime on the windows.  

(If you think I spent my entire trip chasing popular sites from TV and movies- you might actually be right.  Just wait.)

On the Bridge across the River Thames.

The same bridge destroyed by Death Eaters in Harry Potter.  I did geek out a lot over this one.

Do something different.

We walked along the South Bank and enjoyed the view in general.

Looking the other way- toward the London Eye, Westminster and Parliament.

It wasn't all just photos of Sara.

Big Ben!

 

The Palace guards!

More cute pictures of Sara looking so British.

That night we showered and went out- without hats.

We headed back down to the South Bank to see a performance by the Punch Brothers- papa's favorite band. 

 He might never forgive us for just happening to be in the same city at the same time and for scoring awesome seats.

And when we came out, there was a Hobbit projected all over the side of a building.  This place just knows me.

London- January 23.

So mom had some airline miles burning a hole in her pocket.  And our friend Miss Sara travels to London every month for work  Sounds like a good excuse for a trip!

Here's the view from our hotel.  

My first stop was Speedy's.  It's a restaurant shown often in the BBC show Sherlock.  Miss Juliet really wanted a coffee mug from this shop.  I also had a really good sandwich.

Next up I walked to the British Museum, which might be the best museum I've ever been to.

I felt a little bad that all of these ancient amazing things had been taken from their homelands to London, but it was very convenient for me to see everything in one place.  

I guess there's one good thing from having your empire control a third of the world.

They had the Rosetta Stone!

And pieces of the Parthenon!

And CLEOPATRA!!  Obviously, I was very impressed.

Next up, I just happened to run into my old friend, Josh, who was working in London and had the afternoon off.  We walked to St. Paul's Cathedral.

Then we went inside and climbed to the top of the dome.

You guys know how I love climbing to the top of things.

This did not disappoint.

Next up, we headed to Westminster Abbey for the Vespers service.  We got to sit in the choir loft with the boys' choir.  It was quite beautiful.  But no pictures allowed.

By the time we got out, it was dark and we were hungry.  So Indian food rounded off an awesome first day!

Totoro drawings- January 18-23.

On Martin Luther King Kr Day, the kids had the day off of school and we spent some sunny time at the park.  

There is an especially smooth blacktop there, so the girls got down to drawing their favorite scenes from the movie "My Neighbor Totoro."  

I especially like The scene were the girls make the acorns grow.

Then they climb down a tunnel under a tree.

And ride the Cat Bus.

Gergie finished by coloring a huge colorful Totoro.

And drawing a picture of herself.

We've been very into Totoro lately.  Georgie decided she wanted to make her own Totoro.

The finished product!

Georgie also wrote a book for her friend Magda.  She named it "5 Little Baby Penguins."

Here she narrates her illustrations.

All that hard work demands some pizza buffet at Columbo's!

Look at my sweet girls.  June just loves Beatrice.

But who wouldn't love this huge face?