Well, no one killed anyone on the London trip. We saw the Changing of the Guards (actually, just the outside parades – there was too big a crowd to see whatever happened inside the gates), the Queen’s Gallery, the Royal Mews, the Tower of London, some shopping including Liberty, Hamley’s toy store, and Waterstone’s (biggest book store in Europe), the British Museum, the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, and Westminster Cathedral. (The latter is Catholic, not Anglican. Mom left her camera there and when we realized it, we didn’t have time to go back and get it before leaving to catch our bus to the airport, but the nice lady who answered the phone said they’d hold it for her.) We stayed in Morgan House, ten minutes’ walk from the Victoria Station toward Belgravia – the room was tiny but reasonably priced, and the bed and the breakfast both were good. (Or at least I assume the breakfast would be if you didn’t happen to dislike both eggs and the floppy stuff the English refer to as “bacon”.) I’ve concluded that the best way to travel with my mom is never to be in a hurry and to try not to mind having total strangers told where I’m from and where I live. There’s a line someone in Josephine tey’s Miss Pym Disposes that says something like “If you allow everyone three faults, most people are remarkably easy to deal with.” Along those lines, if you ignore a tendency to potter back and forth for an hour before going out in the morning or going to bed, a habit of spilling her life story to everyone she meets, and an occasionally, er, interesting dress sense (as in, ankle-length tiger-print raincoat with mammoth 1980s shoulders, worn with a baseball cap whenever it’s actually raining) …. oh, wait. Perhaps it would be better to file the clothing as “charming eccentricity” (this was London, after all) to allow for ignoring the loud honking noseblows every time we sit down to eat. Anyway, if you ignore those things, my mom is actually quite a good person to travel with. She’s friendly (and how), amenable to suggestion, and willing to see anything I’m interested in. You can’t rush her, but once you finally get her moving she doesn’t ever seem to get tired (I’ve concluded she has an endurance that I didn’t inherit). She can enjoy shopping, which isn’t true of my husban, and so I was able to stock up on sock yarn and get a couple of books too. (She did spend a large amount of time at the racks of keychains and refrigerator magnets in any number of gift shops, but it’s not like I’m forced to spend my money on that stuff.)
Also, she really never criticizes me or tells me how I should be improving myself; based on other people’s stories of their mothers I can probably put up with a goofy raincoat and excessive pottering.
Back to the Netherlands, we spent a rainy Saturday at Het Loo, the palace built by Stadthouder Willem III of Orange, who with his wife later ruled England as William and Mary. It’s gorgeous inside, and just about all of it is restored with period furnishings (of several different Willems) and open to visitors. Sunday was a bit nicer; we debated between the Keukenhof and Madurodam, deciding on the latter because we hadn’t been there and because we really thought Mom would like it more. I think it was a good choice: this way she got to see all the sights of the country. If she didn’t get to see the Keukenhof, at least she got to see the bulb fields next to them (in 1:25 scale) and if she doesn’t get to Utrecht to climb to the top of the Dom, she’s at least seen it – in a version not quite three times as tall as herself.
before she leaves, we’ll spend a couple of days in Amsterdam, so Rudder and I will finally get to the Anne Frank House. She wants to see the Jewish Historical Museum; I think we may split up then, because We’ve already seen it. Then again, the Scheepvaart (Maritime) Museum, which Rudder’s been wanting to see, was just closed for two years for renovation (oops) and the Rijksmuseum is mostly closed ditto, so maybe not. Or maybe we’ll go see the Rembrandthuis, not far away from the Jewish museum. At some point I’ll post a photos on Avontuur, but it may be a while – hard to spend the time messing with photos while we’ve got company, and we will have company through the end of this month.