Day 16: London

Well, today was a better day considering sleep happened last night. The tiny loveseat was better than the bed. Mrs. Koog's side of the bed seems better than the side I was on, so she opted to stay in the bed and also got a decent night's sleep. The boys, well, they traded beds with Mrs. Koog and it was no bueno for the guys. Hopefully, we will hear from the management company before they hear from me again. We headed to the Tube again this morning and got on the train to Greenwich. On the agenda was the Maritime Museum, National Observatory and Prime Meridian. Also on the agenda, rain. Luckily, we still have all our waterproof clothes, so we were dry and trekked on throughout the day. As we arrived at the Farringdon Tube station around the corner from the flat, we got a note from the management company apologizing for the unsleepable beds and they let us know they would be around to the flat today to deliver mattress toppers. Excellent! The boys enjoyed the ride on the Tube, especially E-koog, our train guy. We switched trains a few times and then arrived at Cutty Sark station and walked about 10 mins (it's probably a 5 minute walk if we didn't take a wrong turn due to a hit and spun sign) to the Maritime Museum. Beautiful building and what a place! They had so much there from so many centuries. It was really well done. Many interactive, touch screen exhibits and other things for kids. Our Koogs were a little too old for some of the hands-on stuff but they enjoyed the informational exhibits just as well. The information was very accessible for almost all ages. We very much enjoyed our time there, especially our favorite Maritimer, Mrs. koog. After the museum, we headed up the hill to the National Observatory and Prime Meridian. This was also very interesting to Mrs. Koog and B-Koog. It was over my head, but I liked looking around anyway. Now I know what Mrs. Koog felt like everytime I dragged her to the Museum of American Finance in NYC. At this point in the day, we were losing E-Koog fast to exhaustion. Poor guy. I sat with him as Mrs. Koog and B-Koog made their way through the exhibits. It was cool observing B read every last word in each exhibit case. He used all the touchscreen interactive exhibits and was just drinking in all the information. We made our way outside to straddle the Prime Meridian with one foot in the western hemisphere and one in the eastern hemisphere. Mrs. Koog was supremely happy to have her photo taken doing this...nerd. (I can't really talk since one of the highlights of my trip was standing next to the Adam Smith statue in Edinburgh...nerd) It was really raining now and E-Koog was moving very slowly. We needed to feed him stat! On our walk to the Tube, we stopped at Greenwich Market for lunch. Quick decision making for these boys is not a core skill. They had to survey every stall. Finally they decided to get food from the same stall. At least that part was easy! Done with lunch, we walked back to the tube and headed to Tower Pier. Our bus tickets also included a boat ride. It was like trifecta day for Mrs. Koog! Maritime Museum, National Observatory/Prime Meridian and a boat ride! We were very happy she was happy plus we love boat rides, too! We floated up the Thames to Westminster Pier and caught the Ho/Ho bus for a tour around the city with a driver that seemed annoyed people would want to be picked up! Turd. Again, it was a nice ride but we NEEDED to get E-Koog home while he was still ambulatory. So, we got off near Kensington Palace and took the Tube back to Farringdon. The kid was nearly comatose when we walked into the flat. Poor guy. We broke E-Koog was all I could say to my wife! He's sleeping as I write this. Neither kid wanted to go out for dinner, so me and Mrs. Koog had another date night! We went to a wine bar/bistro around the corner for a glass of wine and a quiet dinner. When we returned, E-Koog was asleep and B-Koog was on his way. I am excited to try and sleep in an actual bed tonight. Tomorrow...more London!