Saturday started with a theater workshop. We took a fairly long bus ride down to the city center and then to a church where we met with a pair who led the kids through a fabulous workshop. There were movement games and then singing in pairs with music from Wicked which we will be seeing on Monday evening. I was a little concerned that our kids might be shy because not all of them are into theatre. But they were fabulous! They sang and participated like champs. I was so proud, and I think they had fun. Many of us will be wanting to sing along on Monday night with What Is This Feeling?
On to Covent Garden for a quick lunch. Kids were enamored with Covent Garden, fabulous shopping district with high end shops and lots of street performers. We gave them an hour to grab a bite and meet back with us. Like clockwork, they came directly back to the meeting spot on time.
When I informed them that we would be leaving Covent Garden and going to Tower of London for the remaining bit of the afternoon, there were lots of sad faces. But why? We want to shop! Yes, I know you want to shop but you can do that at home. They were semi-surly teens for a bit but plodded on obediently to the Tower.
On the walk over, I did make arrangements with our leader to let us come back on Monday so they were appeased a bit.
When you arrive at the Tower, one of the things that they tell you is that unaccompanied or unruly kids will be evicted from the Tower by one of the _______ Yeoman. I sort of liked that, but I thought it would be more menacing if they had threatened with locking them in one of the cells or sending through the torture chambers. I discussed this with the kids and let them know how they were expected to behave and off we went. Hand kids are so awesome and they never let you down. No one was evicted or placed in dungeons. 
During our visit we knew we couldn't see it all so we made quick work of the map and chose a few highlights . . . Specifically the Crown Jewels. It was a rather long line to see the jewels so we hit Google and found out a few fascinating facts about what we were to see. How large do you think a 530 carat diamond is? Why was the crown re-designed in 1937? Truly those crowns are so tremendous that they must be a real bother to wear. When we finally reached the jewels, we were all in awe. A moving sidewalk carries you past the actual crowns so that people don't gawk for too long. We also got to see the royal banquet ware including a gold punch bowl that would hold 144 bottles of wine!
Our dinner was scheduled for 5:30 and we had a bit of a trek across the city to a fish restaurant for fish and chips. This was a fabulous meal in a great little restaurant. We each had a huge piece of fish complete with large fries (or chips). Ice cream was our dessert. I am sorry that I didn't write down the name of this restaurant as it was fabulous! It was much better than the place where we ate on our previous trip.
A few students elected to go on the Harry Potter walking tour with Ms. Davidson while the rest returned to the hotel with me. I was rather nervous bringing them all back to the hotel so early without a real plan, but it was 8:00 by this time, and most of them were a bit bleary-eyed, so I hoped that they would settle down. No such luck. They hung out in the lobby and the rec room until after 10, but we saw that everyone was tucked into their rooms at 11:00 with strict instructions to turn out lights and go to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment