"london town of fish" ("the fishes are in that water"--the thames river)

"this is a map of owen's shadow"--here we are in london town, right there where owen is pointing from daddy's shoulder. we started our tour along the albert embankment where we walked alongside the thames river, and made our way from the waterloo station underground to covent gardens and explored the london transport museum. the morrells took the train in and met us there for a hands-on history tour of horse drawn carriages and steam engines and double decker busses and all things delightful for little boys. owen says his favorite part of the museum was dressing as a bus driver and then getting to ride on a double decker bus.

sunday was michael's birthday and we had a proper toast during owen's post-museum nap after a stroll through picadilly circus, through soho and wandered about until we found a pub. for dinner we found a great curry place in vauxhall aroudn the corner from our hotel and sang happy birthday over a mango ice cream "cake." it wasn't chocolate, but it was tasty!

on monday the boys indulged me by following the footsteps of virgnia woolf's mrs. dalloway through london. it was a full afternoon's hike, but i did mangage to find flowers on bond street and enjoy a scone in regent's park. along the way we saw the changing of the guard at buckingham palace and owen liked the boys in funny hats on the horses. we headed back on the number three double decker bus through oxford circus, past westminster abbey and over the lambeth bridge. there we quickly caught a taxi to victoria station and rode the gatwick express train to catch our flight back to allesund. good night london, good night trains, good night big ben!