Gitesh and I took the boys to the Sea Life Aquarium which is near the London Eye. It is said to be the largest aquarium in London. It has a glass bottom where you can see sharks and other species. It also had a clear tunnel where you can see all the sea life above you. We saw lots of sharks, massive turtles, sting rays, and other large species. All in all, it was a lot smaller than I had anticipated, but we had fun. After the aquarium, the boys wanted to go to the London Eye, again. So, off we went to ride the 30min rotation wheel. It worked out well since it was raining that day so, we got a great view of London on a rainy day. Even with the rain, the town was busy. The rain doesn't stop anyone in the town.
During the week, I took the boys to see the Tower Bridge. I always thought it was called the "London Bridge" but I was corrected very quickly by Aarav that it's called the Tower Bridge and that the London Bridge is the next bridge upstream. Who knew! The bridge opened on June 30th, 1894, the same date I had taken the boys to see the bridge, only 121 years later. How cool is that! The walkways that connect the two towers has glass flooring and Aarav and Aayush just loved lying down and watching the cars, people and boats pass by. We also got to witness the bridge opening and it only happens 3 times a day. The best part about the trip to the Tower Bridge was when Aayush told me for the first time how much he loves being in London and how happy he is that we moved here. The trip to the tower was worth it!
The next day the temperature hit in the 90's. Now I know, in some parts of the U.S. that's not much, but when you living in a home with no fans or no AC, it make a BIG difference in how horrible it feels. So, off we went to cool off the boys to a nearby park that had a splash pool. The boys really loved being in the water on a hot summer day. It's really rare to have temps in the 90's. The last time London had hit in the 90's was over 10 years ago.
Happy Birthday Aarav!!! I can't believe you already turned 8. Aarav had a wonderful day since his best friend, Preston, from Raleigh just happened to be visiting London the same time. So, we planned on having him and his mom stay with us on his birthday. It was so wonderful to have them over, it felt as if we never left Raleigh. For his birthday, we went mini golfing and had dinner at a place Aarav had chosen. The other great thing that happened on his birthday was Aarav got to talk to his other friend, Hayden over the phone. It's so great to see them connect. The next day we all went to the British Museum to see the Rosetta Stone that Aarav and Preston have been talking about for the last 6 months. They had learned about the stone in class and were eager to see it for themselves, it was something Aarav wanted to do with his buddy. They were in awe when they saw it. The Rosetta Stone is granodiorite that was inscribed in 196 BC into three different scripts: the upper text is Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the middle is Demotic script, and the lowest is Ancient Greek. All three scripts are saying the same thing and therefore, it was key to understanding Egyptian hieroglyphs. It came to the British Museum in 1802 and has remained there ever since. After the museum, we took the boys to the oldest toy store in the world, Hamleys. It was like walking into a kid's dream, 5 full storeys of it. There are over 50,000 toys that can be found in the store, some that are well known and some I have never seen before. The boys did pretty well despite the fact there was toys everywhere.
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