London!!!!

London, England

We are in a tiny basement level flat under and behind a florist shop and hairdresser in London. Our flat is accessed through a series of gates and uneven stairs behind the street and no one would ever suspect that there are residences back here. Well, I wouldn't anyway, if I hadn't seen them. Our flat consists of a main room that is living room, dining room, kitchen and bedroom to Liam and Ronan and then a bathroom and bedroom opening off either side of it. Both bedrooms have limited walking space, and Fionnula's being deep into the flat, and thus under the sidewalk, is basically a dark cave in which she could sleep all day and never know the sun had risen. The bathrooms are too small for showers and are so each equipped with a shower unit right on the wall and a drain in the middle of the floor. The whole room is the shower, they call it a wet room and hang shower curtains across the doorway and add an extra lip to the doorstep to keep water from running out the door. Its quite clever really, though I do keep tripping as I go in and out and the bathroom does tend to be rather, well, wet after anyone has showered. The washing machine is in the kitchen and the drier is actually in a shed out in the tiny courtyard out front, though there is also a laundry line hanging across the kitchen. It is all very adorable.

We arrived in London around 10 am after an overnight flight in an under booked plane where the kids each claimed their own row and felt so spoiled by the flight attendants that Fionn asked if we could just live on the plane and then made our way to our flat on the tube with all our luggage in tow, including Ronan's very damaged duffel. We realized pretty quickly that we were ill equipped to deal with this year's very cold spring in London but we found a few essentials at a thrift store and made do. Everyday we get on a bus or the tube and head out to explore. We have been to the Tower of London to see the crown jewels and walk where Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I once did.  We have been to the Natural History museum and the Science Museum. We have stood over  Geoffrey Chaucer's and Charles Dickens' and Isaac Newton's  graves at Westminster Abbey.  We have wandered Trafalgar Square and have taken a tour of Harry Potter sites and inspirations. We have gaped at Van Gogh's Sunflowers and Degas' ballerinas at the National gallery. Today we found platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross station and bought lunch in the market just outside. At the British Library we saw a Gutenberg bible, the Magna Carta, and scraps of paper on which the Beatles scribbled original song lyrics. We saw Peter Pan in Kensington gardens and Paddington bear at Paddington station. We are loving grocery stores that carry a variety of breads and jams, cheeses and curries but missing the fresh mangoes and pineapple of Costa Rica. The ease of communicating, and shopping, and getting around when we can actually read all the signs around us and understand what people are saying cannot be overstated. And we got to actually visit with cousins on Saturday and are doing so again this weekend. We haven't met up with people we already know for months and it was really very refreshing and comforting after so many weeks of  just us five and a lot of new faces.

We have six more days in London and then we are off to Paris. Six days to see everything we can, soak up all this luxurious English, find the boys a full English breakfast, and wait for the airline to finally deliver the replacement to that damaged bag.