Hmm, I don’t remember what we did last Wednesday. Hopefully it was a nice relaxing day.
On Thursday we (Dale and the kids and I) had an afternoon in London. We got a nice fast train and after a tube ride to the London Bridge station, we arrived at the HMS Belfast at 11:15 a.m. It was a good day to visit it as it sprinkled most of the day, but we were in the depths of the ship and not wet at all.
I have always liked battleships (Mom used to take me to the Battleship Texas when I was little, and I still remember loving the stairways, very steep and with very thin steps), and the Belfast is well kept and has some quite interesting exhibits and video (Jonathan was captivated by one about the capture of the Scharnhorst). Kayleigh was a little trooper, climbing everywhere (Dale took her down some of them, but eventually we heard her little determined voice saying, “I can climb this one myself!”) and being very good about the whole thing, which of course didn’t mean much to her. She did like seeing the ship’s cat posed in the flour and potato stores though!
The Belfast has an honored history and supported the landings on Gold and Juno beaches in World War II. It helped bring alive some of the Axis & Allies: D-Day board game that we play for Jonathan.
After spending two hours aboard the Belfast, we reluctantly departed and had a delicious meal at The Horniman at Hays—sausage and mash for Dale, fish and chips for me. We made it home before the trains got crowded with rush hour.
Posted by elizabeth at July 20, 2008 05:15 AM