Wow, we're flying home tomorrow. We know that we scheduled the vacation for the right length, because we're half looking forward to getting home and half sorry to be leaving so soon.
Yesterday we did fine, even with Curtis' tender ankle. (We only walked ~11,000 steps, according to his pedometer... that's light for us in London.) We rode on the London Eye, which was just as cool as everyone said it would be. Also, by doing it on a Monday our total standing-in-line time was < 30 minutes. I'm looking forward to getting home and sorting through all the pictures.
Also, we went to the science museum and totally got our geek on. It was awesome. They have a 3-D IMAX film about the International Space Station (for which Curtis does systems engineering) that you have to see if you're there. It honestly brought tears to my eyes, it's such an amazing thing. The museum also has one of the Apollo capsules, and the display pointed out that at its peak, NASA spending was 5% of the USA federal budget. I can't even imagine what we could do if we had that kind of money now. Anyway, the whole museum was awesome, from a Cray-1 computer, to an early Random Number generator, to glass-blown Klein bottles, to space suits, to V-2 & V-1 rockets. It was a moving experience for the part of me that studied Physics and engineering.
A note that I forgot about on Saturday: seeing The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Globe Theatre was awesome. We had the standing room tickets, and we got to stand in the pit that was inside the stage. Best £10 we ever spent. Basically there were walkways extending out from the stage surrounding the pit, and we got to stand inside them, so that sometimes the actors were all around us. Seeing it live, with all the accents, timing, music, and stagecraft, reminds me of why Shakespeare is so great. It's never as good when you're just reading the words on the page. Seeing it performed brings it all to life, and the cast did a fantastic job.
So tomorrow we're flying home. The next post from me should be written in Texas once more, on Thursday, since Wednesday will be devoted to flying. It's been a wonderful vacation, and I've got a lot to think about.
3 comments:
Hope you have an uneventful trip home, and that Curtis' ankle is better soon. Glad you liked the science museum. I figured it would be right up your street. See you in Denver.
The Globe is brilliant - definitely one of my favourite things to do in London. And standing gets you right into the action. Haven't seen Merry Wives of Windsor yet - looking forward to catching it soon.
Hope your trip back goes well.
Nick - I can definitely recommend "Merry Wives." One of my fondest hopes now is that the next time I get to London, they'll be doing "The Tempest" again. We missed it in 2005 (didn't realize that you had to buy tickets so far in advance), which was a real disappointment.
However, we made up for it by wandering over to Westminster and catching a first-rate organ concert. That's what a really world-class city give you: options!
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