Adventures in England 4

Wadda day, wadda day, wadda day!!

We -
rode a train to London . . .
rode the underground ('mind the gap') . . .
walked Piccadilly Circus . . .
saw Big Ben . . .
heard Big Ben strike the hour (and quarter hour and half hour and the quarter till the hour). . .
saw the Thames river . . .
stood under the 'Eye of London' (a HUGE Ferris wheel) . . .
visited the aquarium . . .
saw Buckingham Palace . . .
saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace . . .

But the best (and put a question mark after that one) was when we went to get home and hit the underground at rush hour. People were crammed like something from a New York City sidewalk shot - the sardine thing. All of the sudden there was this fight between these two guys that broke out. One of them was calling the other guys something that I understood 1/2 of (unfortunately) and the other half I didn't (fortunately). Brandee stopped us in advance. She's a good one.

So Robert, Ava and I finally push into this car - Brandee, Rob and Kaia wouldn't fit. It's HOT with all the close bodies and people doing the breathing thing. We were supposed to get off on the Kings Crossing exit. So while we're riding, they announce that Kings Crossing is closed due to overflow of people!!!

Peachy. In London with a month old baby, no cell phones, no food, no diapers . . . . Where's the Zanex? Jackie was freaking out - BIG TIME.

Got off the train and sat back and prayed and sure enough, Rob and Brandee show up two trains later. Brandee looked like she was freaking out (we are so alike in some ways!). Robert and Rob were all cool. It's irritating.

When we got to the elevators to go back up to the street, they are jammed BIG TIME, so we take the stairs.

Here's the picture:
Robert in front with Ava strapped to his chest holding the front of Kaia's stroller, Rob next, holding Kaia's stroller over his head, then me with my knee and Brandee bringing up the rear. We went two flights and I thought, "This ain't so bad". It was then we hit the spiral staircase.

I kid you not - 120 to 140 steep steps, people pushing from the back, and zooming down the other side.

I heard Rob in front of me grunting, my knee was so incredulously offended it didn't bother to berate me - it just screamed, and Brandee kept saying, "I feel the cold air . . . we're getting there!"

Yes we made it. We sprinted to the train only to find that they were running late. There were more people crammed into that terminal than people fleeing from the aliens in 'War of the Worlds'.

We couldn't fit into the first train out. But we made the second - I got to sit with Ava, but Rob, Brandee and Robert had to stand a good 30 minutes. Once seated, a Chinese lady asked about Ava and made sure I knew that in her culture, babies were not allowed in the public until they were 4 months old. Mothers and new babies aren't even allowed to go out of the house the first month.

This was my trip to the town of London. And I have left a lot out.

This is why I live in the country.