Maxfield Adventures - Living life to the Max: London - Changing of the Guards, British Museums, Les Mis

Changing of the Guards * St. James' Palace * Piccadilly Cir * Hamley Toy Store * British Museum * British Library * Les Miserables

This city is massive! We've been in some big cities this summer, but this city is so much bigger. We started our day at the changing of the guards, but instead of battling the crowds in front of Buckingham Palace, we walked down to St James Palace and had front row seats as the guards lined up, did some marching, and then played a few songs before marching off to the Palace where only the people on the front row can see. We wandered a bit, exploring a few parts of the city before heading to the British Museum. We walked past fancy, upscale men's clothing shops and even found a Laduree, our favorite Macaroon store from Paris (we couldn't resist getting a macaroon either). Charlie's favorite stop was Hamley's, a 5 story toy store that is insane. Employees are dressed up as huge stuffed animals, they are walking around the store playing/selling things from remote control helicopters, to styrofoam planes, to flying disks etc - it's a very high energy store. We gave ourselves a partner and 20 minutes inside. I had Charlie and we couldn't get out in less than 30 - gratefully with only 1 small purchase too (a small playmobile English guard - like we'd seen at the changing of the guards).

We spent our afternoon in the British Museum and the British Library. The British Museum is amazing - it basically houses the entirety of western civilization. We saw Egyptian artifacts, mummies, the Rosetta Stone, Assyrian winged lions, cuneiform writing tables, and huge junks of the Pantheon in Greece. We saw a gravestone from the City of Ur (probably a friend of Abraham) and stones from Easter Island. We saw a 2 headed turquoise mosaic snake that Charlie had studied last year while learning about the Incas. He thought that was pretty cool. It's one of those museum you could return to time after time and discover something new every time.

The British Library, although small, was just as cool. We only spent 45 minutes in the special collections rooms, but what we saw was moving. Here are just a few examples; Handel's handwritten music for The Messiah, a note Michelangelo wrote to his Nephew, a letter Anne Boylen wrote, handwritten lyrics to Hard Days Night and Ticket to Ride from the Beetles, Guttenberg Bible, and a letter from Winston Churchill. It was an amazing collection.

Tonight we surprised the kids with tickets to Les Mis. We had originally thought we'd just try for the 1/2 price day of tickets, but we were worried we'd end up with something lame or inappropriate or we'd have a hard time finding 7 tickets for the same show. So we just bit the bullet and got tickets to something we knew everyone, even Charlie, would love. We surprised them and didn't tell them until we walked past the theatre and picked up our tickets. They were thrilled - even Charlie. Charlie's all time favorite song is from Les Mis and multiple times we had to stop him from singing along. It was am amazing performance - the theatre was intimate and our seats were great. So glad we did this!

Photo credits of animals go to Charlie.