The Big Smoke

Those of you following along at home may have noticed that I never finished blogging about our amazing summer. Time kind of flew and now it's been an uncomfortably long time, and I know you like to be uncomfortable, so here's another installment.

​The whole reason (well, a good portion of the reason) why we were spending our summer in Pretty Darn Good Britain (it was Great before Brexit) was so Sarah and I could take some professional development classes in London.  Well, Croydon, actually, a distinction which no Brit would confuse.  But before starting our classes we did bum around The City (and the other neighborhoods as well!) a bit.

First things first, we had to check in and drop off our bags. Our hotel was pretty old, but not run down at all.

Oh, we didn't mention? Yeah, we stayed at The Tower. We know people who know people.

One of the nice things about staying at The Tower (other than the amazing experience, the central location, the freakin' history, and the views) was that we could run down and be at the beginning of the line when all the exhibits opened. A four minute jog through the velvet ropes wasn't a bad price to see the crown jewels.

St. John's Chapel in the White Tower.

Henry VIII's armor. Of course.

We also went and checked out the Duke of York's 18th Century Band play at the Royal Military Chapel with its super old apse and super not-old post-war rest-of-the-church.

On the way home The Eldest almost ran over a swan.

Then we got to check out a West End production of Matilda! (To get ready for all three kiddos to perform in ISP's upcoming fall production of Matilda. Which happened a month ago because I'm writing this in December.)

​​Next stop: Ninfield, Sussex, to shack up with the Creaseys!

We then headed down to beautiful Croydon for a home exchange and our educational professional development, ostensibly the reason we were in this continent in the first place. Our home for the next two weeks was just around the corner from the cutest medieval church and cemetery.

We were all dressed up to check out some modernly-staged Shakespeare at the ol' Globe Thee-a-ta. But first a tour of HMS Belfast, a WWII battleship.

Here are the kids on the Prime Meridian.

And here's me, well, here.

Where, exactly? Croydon. While not the most hip-happening spot on the planet, it kind of grew on me. Here's the view from the top of the (yes, double-decker) bus on my way to professional developmentland.

It was actually a nice little corner of the world. (A stunning sunset helped convert me.)

We found some weird stuff in Greater London.

And we did, I have to admit, learn a thing or two.