The American Thanksgiving holiday afforded us a long weekend to take an Air Berlin hop north to London. We left the house nice and early for our 6:30am flight to London-Stansted airport. Our flight was a quick 2 hours and with the time change, our feet set foot on British soil well before the first museums were open. We took the Stansted bus shuttle to Victoria Station where we left our luggage with the friendly staff of the “Left Luggage” Company. A great idea for tourists in this city, you can pay to drop off your bags for 24 hours or longer and eliminate the hassle of carting around suitcases in town. Since our hotel was a good 20 minutes by metro from London proper and we were so early in town, we wanted to tackle some sights first before checking in to our hotel.
We promptly made our way to the British national museum, free to everyone and home to the most famous rock, The Rosetta Stone, which was key to deciphering hieroglyphs. We could have easily wandered forever in this large building but we made the wise decision to rent the children’s audioguide which led our kids to the most “important” pieces of their collection. A big draw for the kids was the Egyptian gallery, primarily because the pieces are HUGE, sphinx and statues which reach into the sky and a good number of creepy things like mummies and masks. My favorite collection was from the Greek period, including the Parthenon frieze and sculptures featuring perfect symmetry of figures. Just looking at them makes you feel calm and in balance. For lunch we stepped outside the museum and crossed the street to find a small cafe featuring sandwiches and pizza. We returned to the museum for just a bit more time to join a free tour which featured pieces from ancient Israel and the early Christians including some very funny cartoons poking fun at Jesus as a boy.

After the museum, we made our way to our hotel. We stayed near the North Greenwich Tube stop at a Holiday Inn Express. We were happy to find a Pizza Hut nearby with a family special; it was just what the Rietkerk family needed.