Always Something Fun Going On

It seems that there is always something going on in this city. Yesterday we headed in to town to explore the events of "Open House London," an annual celebration of local architecture, where they open up numerous (normally private) buildings to the public. We wandered in to Guildhall and the Chartered Accountants' Hall, although the line to enter the Bank of England stretched around the block and we decided not to wait for that one. It was fun to see the interiors, and we had guided tours of a few places. Our friend, Kevin, joined us for the day, which was great.

After going in to a couple of different buildings, we walked down by the Thames and discovered the Great River Race, which is London's river marathon. There were loads of boats paddling up the Thames when a thunder storm struck and they had to fight a huge current. All these people in their costumes were yelling and rowing like mad, it was quite exciting and we found shelter to watch them for a while.

When we got tired of watching the boats, we ducked in to a cafe for coffees and treats. Franny had a large hot chocolate and a triple chocolate cookie, so the sugar quickly set in and she was able to trudge along for more. We didn't need to convince Greta to carry on, as our next stop was Somerset House to see the happenings of London Fashion Week. This was very cool, and we spotted lots of models, photographers, journalists, and fashionistas, while watching the catwalk on a large screen in the courtyard. It was pretty amazing to be right there soaking up the ambience, so we hung out for a while before heading back to the tube.

There really is some event going on somewhere in the city all the time, and we're trying our best to take advantage of this as much as possible. This will be a bit different when both of the girls are in SCHOOL. Yes, Greta is finally going to start secondary school here and we're all very relieved. Her first day is set for this Wednesday, and we had a successful meeting with her advisor last week. She'll be doing the English Baccalaureat program, and her classes look quite interesting. There will be an adjustment to figuring out the bus there, and learning all the routines, but they plan to match her up with another student for the first week, who will show her around a bit. Will certainly have more to report next week.

Oh, and Franny's team won their football match today and she earned player of the day, which means that she gets to keep the little silver cup for the week. Wish we had a mantel on which to display it! :)