We Made It!

Whew!! Day 1 was traveling.  Our first flight was delayed so we missed our second flight but we rearranged it so we caught the next flight.  Note:  If your flight is delayed call the 800 number for the airline.  Trust me, you will get a flight much quicker than waiting behind the 10 other people that are waiting to get their flight changed.

 

Sorry if the picture makes you dizzy.  Blame my husband.

We made it to our hotel, the Holiday Inn Kensington Forum.  Kudos to the hotel staff.  They had our room ready at 10:00 am.  That allowed us to clean up a little before we started off on our first trek.  We hopped on the tube and went to the Tower of London.  I have been to London 7 times now and had never been to the tower.  Debbie had only been to London once before and hadn't seen it either.

That night we fell into bed exhausted.

Day 2 was great too.  We were up at 4:00 am.  Left the hotel, caught the Eurostar and in 2 1/2 hours were in Paris.  That was an experience.  We won't discuss it here but sometime ask Debbie about the train ride and her long gone handbag.  Then we met with a tour group loaded on the bus and went to Monet's gardens.  Debbie and I didn't have a clue how much we had in common.  One of which is our love of impressionist's painting.  Monet is both our favorites.

On Day 3 we took the tube and the train to meet my sweet step daughters and their families to go to the Greenwich Maritime museum and the Prime Meridian.  It was fantastic!  I highly recommend that you read Dava Sobel's Longitude.  It is about John Harrison's work to make a clock that will hold up on ocean voyages and will allow sailors to determine their longitude using time instead of the stars.  It is at the Greenwich prime meridian that Harrison's clocks are displayed.  This is the perfect example of what I want to teach my students.  Harrison used his love of science and put it to an a problem and solved the problem. 

Debbie and I standing on opposite sides of the Prime Meridian.

 

Louis, Emma, me, Sara and little Sophia.

The dome at the Prime Meridian.

The day was wonderful and it is always good to share my love of science with others (especially children).  Louis loved it.

Monday we will be traveling to Simon's school, Trinity School in London.  We are very excited about talking to teachers who are teaching the same subjects as they do and find out what resources they use and what techniques they use to get their subject matter across.

Check with us again in a couple of days.  We have to  pay 5 pounds sterling for every hour we use the internet.  We are saving up our info to put as much on at a time.