Camp school days 5 & 6

 Wednesday morning we were at our designated bus stop at 6.50am...

Too early.

But we were heading into London in morning traffic... you gotta do what you gotta do, right?

It took us nearly three hours to get there.

Our first stop was Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

Our guide Mark grabbed the kids attention from the first "Oh yeaaahhh..." and held it with great wit and humor through out.

Personally I loved listening to his Scottish accent.

 We looked around the theatre and learned about the history.

Apparently not everything back in the day was like in the movie Shakespeare in Love ;)

Then the kids had a drama work shop.

I wish I could share the video material.. brilliant.

The kids were using a bit of script from Midsummer Night's Dream between Helena and Dimitrius.

So many laughs.

After a nice lunch at Pizza Hut ("They have free wi-fi here!!!") we headed to the Seven Dials at Covent Garden for some entertainment.

We saw Matilda the Musical, based on Roald Dahl's book.

 I love being able to catch one of these big production shows in London.

Just the stage setting and technique leave me in awe.

Niina said to me before the show started "Ooohh.. this is a musical, I hate musicals.."

Once it finished "Mom! That was soooooo good!!!!"

Us adults had this song stuck in our heads for quite a while.

Added plus: swings on stage.

After a day of sitting on the bus, sitting in the theatre and sitting on the bus again I experienced something I hadn't since I was pregnant with Niina: swollen ankles.
Ugh.

And what fun.. back at the bus stop at 6.50am on Thursday morning as well :)

We were heading nearly three hours north to Alton Towers.

The kids were a bit wound up waiting.

The weather was pretty miserable.

Very rainy and cool.

Didn't seem to bother the kids too much, they ran off to find the most horrid rides they could find.

The grounds are beautiful centered around this fairytale like gothic castle.

After stopping at a café a few of us adults headed to the Skyride to take in views of the place and to stay dry.

We had just been discussing of how when in one these gondolas, you should never think about what happens in James Bond movies when the whole ride stopped.

At the highest point.

We hung there for a couple of nervous minutes passing the time admiring the gardens below us.

I don't do heights very well, so I was glad to get back on solid ground.

This ride was horrifying.

I can't handle roller coaster rides, you'd have to pay me an insane amount of money to get on this.

It has a 87 degree drop underground...

Here's a front seat view video for you I found.

The water drop mad ean dandelion puff like mark on my shoe :)

There was a small Sealife park, I never knew fish like broccoli...

At the end of the day, our driver Paul welcomed happy, tired and very wet kids back on the bus.

I did find something interesting.

Doctor! I have my tea and am ready to run...

After dinner Inari and I decided to take a walk to the Waitrose, the local grocery store and then meet up with a couple adults.

Abingdon is pretty at night time.

Whenever we visited the pub behind me, The Nag's Head, my phone gsm placed me in the River Thames :)

That evening we ended up at another pub on quiz night.

Good fun!