Blog 3 – How to have a great week-long visit with your adult son
First, move to London. Make sure you acquire a comfortable space which allows for sleeping and bath independence. Make the bed, buy a weeks’ worth of snacks and then encourage the child to visit in all manner of ways.
Then, ask the child what he would like to do – after you have already purchased tickets for some events. Plan for live theater shows. If you can, buy tickets for Hamilton; let the son buy tickets for the show he wants to see, Company. If you will be together for New Year’s Eve, go ahead and plan something for that night too.
In our experience, this plan works.
What follows is essentially an accounting of the places, shows, and events we attended during the “winter break” between Christmas and New Year’s, plus a few extra days.
It takes at 9 – 11 hours to fly from Dallas to London – so day one, don’t plan on doing too much. If you insist on walking your child around the new neighborhood, the high street, and to a great pub on the River Thames, etc.; he will almost fall asleep walking. Plan some nap time for day one. Dinner at a close café.
Day two; hit the ground running. A top priority for this trip was seeing the Renzo Piano exhibit at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/ Upon entering we found there was also a separate exhibit on the drawings of Klimt and Schiele. The architect, Renzo Piano has been responsible for some of the most iconic buildings in the world. It is Piano who joined with architect Richard Rogers to create the Pompidou Center in Paris. The models and drawings presented at the RA demonstrated some of his thought processes in making this now famous building. It was Piano who designed the New York Times building in Manhattan. From this show I learned that what appears to be a steel rod frame surrounding the tower also has very thin ceramic cording which helps control heat gain in the building. This extraordinary exhibit was finely detailed with models, drawings, notes and pictures for 12 of Piano’s most famous works, we were there for hours. After a lunch break we went on to the Klimt/Schiele rooms. This did not take as long. In addition to these ‘special’ (read extra cost) exhibits we also saw “The Secret to a Good Life” A project by Bob and Roberta Smith. This women-family-artist-centered exhibit defies description; but I loved it and will share one quote here: “Bob’s mum taught him that the secret to a good life was a good pencil – What’s your mother’s secret to a good life?” This mum is still working on an answer.
Continue the day by walking through the Christmas market at Leicester Square, going back through China Town for Chinese food and then finishing the evening by seeing Company at the Giulgud Theater (http://www.gielgudtheatre.co.uk/) featuring Patti LuPone whose rendition of The Ladies Who Lunch brought the audience to its feet. We waited for her at the stage door, but she did not leave the building that way. Such a treat to see this show.
Day three; hit the ground running again. Go to the Victoria and Albert Museum to see it and to the “A Home for All, Six Experiments in Social Housing” exhibit. The exhibit’s premise is that as housing reaches a critical shortage again in the United Kingdom, it is time to look back to the 50’s and 60’s efforts to recover from the war and slum clearance when various models were enacted by joint efforts of architects and government. As the cry for ‘quantity’ is heard repeatedly, the need for ‘quality’ ought not be ignored. Spend the rest of the day viewing at least some of the rest of this huge museum. Fashionistas take note, the V and A is number 3 on Culture Trips list of “The 10 Best Museums For Fashion Fanatics In London”. https://www.vam.ac.uk/
Time for a change. Go home and put on the warm jackets. This is the night for Christmas at Kew Gardens. It is not possible to describe the beauty of this garden and the Christmas lights can truly only be enjoyed by being there. Take a look at the website to view all that goes on at this Royal Park. https://www.kew.org/kew-gardens/whats-on/christmas-at-kew/everything-you-need-to-know-for-christmas-at-kew
Day four; Hit the ground running, again. Today is the day for Westminster Abbey. Not especially looking forward to this – we’ve seen a lot of Catholic Churches; we have been to Italy already and not big Royal Family fans either. But the child said we had to go and in addition to the regular entrance we also had to pay five more pounds to see The Queens Diamond Jubilee Galleries. https://www.westminster-abbey.org/visit-us/plan-your-visit/the-queens-diamond-jubilee-galleries/ He was right; so right. The galleries just opened this summer. They are still something of a secret, very few visitors compared to the crowds downstairs. Essentially, they cleaned out the attic space above the church, installing museum types of exhibits and railings to look down into the church. Again, we spent hours here. Please visit the website for more information; this is a very worthy trip. They have the Magna Carta there!
As it turns out, Day four was New Years Eve. As written earlier, I had gone ahead and made plans for us to watch the fireworks put on by the Mayor of London because the trick here is how to watch fireworks at midnight without standing outside in the cold for six hours – the solution? Book a restaurant on the river. Las Iguanas is a Latin restaurant at Southbank, right down river from the London Eye, the center of the fireworks. They put together a great evening of food, drinks, music, a champagne toast and access for attendees on the river bank just in time for the show. No achy feet, plenty to eat and drink. Happy 2019!
Day five; Take a break! We slept in a little while Aj went for a run. Great way to start the new year all the way around. After that, we made our way to Kensington to visit the Design Museum. The Design Museum was named European Museum of the Year 2018. It is new, beautiful, and had a great exhibit on “home futures”. The theme is: Are we living in yesterday’s vision of the future? The answer was that in some ways yes; the Roomba has a cousin from the 50’s and a screen in every room is not a new idea, they reality is we live is just much smaller screens than the CRT versions from the 60’s vision. This is another great museum that we would all recommend. https://designmuseum.org/# Since we were in Kensington, we had to track down Churchill Arms. The pub does not belong to the Churchill family, though it is said that his grandparents did frequent the place, but it is dedicated in drink and decoration to the great man. The outside is always extensively decorated – and at Christmas, that means Christmas trees. It is something to see. And, if you are hungry, they claim to be the first pub to offer Thai food, which is now combined at many pubs. https://www.churchillarmskensington.co.uk/about
Day six; I pushed this off as far as I could in the trip; we had to go to the Tate Modern Museum. The building was originally a power station on the Thames. The entry is nice with trees planted and almost always buskers out front entertaining the crowd. The building itself is big and all brown brick. It is imposing and unfriendly and it houses modern art – my least favorite. But, its on the river, its free and it has several cafes and shops, so there is that. During our visit, it also had an extensive exhibit on Anni Albers, a weaver and artist from the 40’s – 80’s. https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/anni-albers We can always learn something from a fabric artist. Some of her designs were exceptional, still in use today, and her life story of coming out of the Bauhaus in Germany in the late 30’s is a lesson for all time. Turns out to be another museum where we spent the whole day.
But, then, we had to leave. We had tickets to Hamilton! Finally, our chance to see this play. It did not disappoint. The singing and acting were excellent, and while it is long, 2 hours 45 minutes; it still felt like it was over too soon. The theater it is playing in is the Victoria Palace Theater. Beautiful! It was completely renovated prior to the Hamilton run. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Palace_Theatre
Day seven; Answer the question: “Where do the ‘Fuller’ brand pubs get their beer?” Why from Fuller’s Brewery in Chiswick. (https://www.fullers.co.uk/brewery) Beer making has been going on in some of the same buildings on the same site by the river for over 350 years! They do charge for the tour, but it is 2 hours which ends with all the beer and/or cider you can drink by the end of the time. This becomes another day when nap time needs to be included. After the nap, go to Trafalgar square to see the inlaid brass markers that have codified standard measurement lengths since 1876. https://untappedcities.com/2013/02/05/london-trafalgar-square-standard-units/ Back to Leicester Square where you see the best Lego store – ever. You are greeted by a replica of the Leicester Square Underground entry, which is next to an 18-foot recreation of Big Ben. The entire store is filled with demonstrations of Lego creativity – on a very large scale.
Day eight; send the child back to America. Spend the rest of the day reading and being lazy. It is another day that nap time needs to be included. What a week it has been.
Excel spreadsheet summary to-date:
| Location/ Name | Special Events | Recco | Cost |
| Hydepark | Winter Wonderland | Absolutely. | Free to enter, all else expect city prices |
| Kew Gardens | Christmas at Kew | Absolutely. | Reserve well in advance 25 pound |
| Chiswick House and Gardens | After Dark | Probably. | Buy tickets online. About 10 pounds each |
| Royal Academy of Arts | Renzo Piano, Klimpt/Schiele | Absolutely. | Free to enter, 17 pounds special exhibits |
| Leicester Square | Christmas market, Lego Store | Probably. | Free to enter, all else expect city prices |
| Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) | A Home for All, Six Experiments in Social Housing | Absolutely. | Free to enter, special exhibits extra |
| Westminster Abbey/Galleries | The Queens Diamond Jubilee Galleries | Absolutely. | 20 pounds online plus 5 pounds for Galleries |
| The Design Museum | “home futures” | Absolutely. | Free to enter, special exhibits extra |
| The Churchill Arms Pub | Outside decorations | Absolutely. | Free to look, extra for beer, dinner |
| Tate Modern Museum | Anni Albers | Probably. | Free to enter, special exhibits extra |
| Victoria Palace Theater | Hamilton | Absolutely. | 20 – 250 pounds. Book only through their website |
| Fuller’s Brewery | Brewery Tours | Absolutely. | Tour is 20 pounds |