Karen's Visit Continued...

So much has happened since I last posted about Karen's visit. Where to begin? I think I left off the story of Karen's visit after our first day exploring around Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace and Gardens a week-and-a-half ago. The following Friday morning, we headed into Southwest London to visit Hampton Court Palace, best known for being Henry VIII's favourite hangout. Every day this summer, they are re-enacting the day of Henry's wedding to his sixth and last wife, Cateryn Parr. Over the course of the day, we met with various characters who each gave their own perspective on the wedding and what it meant, giving us some cultural context, including Cateryn's sister, Thomas Seymour (who was in love with Cateryn) and Henry and Cateryn themselves. Much was made of the fact that women of the time married for duty rather than love, accepting matches that would advance their family's status within the society even if it meant saying no to the men they would truly have liked to marry. After a good but long day there, we headed back to central London to go on the London Eye, London's giant ferris wheel. Karen was enthusiastic about the London Eye, but when she saw hot tall it was, was very reluctant to get on. I was sure she would enjoy it if she got on it, and with the help of the staff there (who volunteered to let her get on and see if she liked it, and told her she could push the emergency button to come down at any time if she didn't want to do it) cajoled her into going for it. It turned out to be a great highlight for both of us; I had been on the Eye last fall during daylight hours, but enjoyed going on it after dark and seeing the city skyline lit up along the river. Karen also discovered pasties that day, a delicious pastry filled with various savoury things. I ordered one to share filled with pork and apple that morning, and before the day was out, she enjoyed two more with various fillings.

Saturday was the last day we could use our London Passes, so I wanted to get as much value out of them as we could. We went to the Tower of London early in the day, where we saw the crown jewels, and some of the instruments of torture used to extract information from prisoners, and various pieces of mail and armour. We passed the Traitor's Gate, where prisoners were brought in by boat, never to leave, except for execution outside the tower.

After that, we took a Thames ferry ride from Tower Bridge to Westminster, where we walked around the Parliament buildings, Big Ben and then up towards Covent Garden to the London Transport Museum. We quite enjoyed that, and we got some pictures of Karen driving a bus. After another long and busy day, we headed home for some spaghetti. As there was a potluck lunch at church the next day, we also spent the evening making potato salad and rhubarb crumble for the dinner.

After a few days of almost frenetic activity, Sunday was a nice quieter day. We slept in and then headed to the London Mennonite Centre for lunch. After church, a few friends joined us at the nearby "Vic" or Victoria Pub for a drink.

On Monday, my friend David joined us for a trip to the Natural History Museum. After a good sleep-in, we dropped David's car off at the LMC and took the tube into central London for the day. We saw the dinosaur exhibit, and and the butterfly conservatory. Karen was delighted when a butterfly landed on her finger. For supper, we went back to Maxwell's again (where we'd been on Thursday evening) for their half-price entrees (Monday Madness). Then we said goodbye to David and headed to Mamma Mia at the Prince of Wales Theatre. It was excellent; we enjoyed the costumes and of course the music.

Tuesday, I had a dentist appointment (already alluded to in my last post) so let Karen sleep in a lot that day while I ran a few errands around town. Then we headed into the city to see and eat at the original 1971 Hard Rock Cafe. It hadn't been anywhere close to my radar to make that a stop on our tour, but Karen was very eager to get there. She got some pictures to take back to her cousin in Canada (who's the owner of a franchise in Toronto) and we had a lovely--if rather pricey--meal. We headed back home to pack our bags for travel the next day and kick back with a movie before bed.

To be continued in the next post...