The saga of Monday August 12, 2024 in London, England

Today was the first day I took the boys out on my own to the center of a large city. Make that one of the largest and busiest cities in the world. I’m not going to lie. I was a bit nervous about how it was going to go so I opted to pay for one of the London Hop-On Hop-Off Toot Buses, which I thought would help make it easier and more fun for the kids. According to the website there was a kid’s friendly audio tour that they could listen to while I listened to an adult audio tour on the bus. Boy was I wrong. The cost of the bus for the five of us was absurd for the two, maybe three, times we “hopped” on and off. Plus, the audio didn’t really work. When it did, it sounded more like an advertisement for specific locations than a real tour. Eitan ended up falling asleep for half of it. Frustrations aside, we ended up having a wonderful day and I learned to avoid all of the Hop-On Hop-Off bus tours in the future.

We started our day by taking the train from Golders Green to Leicester Square. Take children on the Tube, check. As predicted, the boys were floored by how long and steep the escalators were. If you haven’t been before, they are not for the feint of heart. Above ground, we walked about five minutes before Amichai noticed the huge LEGO store 100 yards from our bus’s pick-up location. “It’s still summer vacation, so what the heck” I thought to myself. Into the store we went. The boys were enthralled by the size and scale of the LEGO buildings they saw. Big Ben, a dragon, Harry Potter, a car that honks and lights up. It was a dream come true. Matanel and Shai wished they could buy toys, but there is no room for us to buy anything and lug it around with us. It was the first of many important lessons about the ability to make memories instead of collecting items we don’t need. Twenty-five minutes later I, finally, managed to coax them out of the store and onto our tour bus.

Although the Toot Bus was not worth the money, the boys felt accomplished when they saw the real Big Ben and Parliament, the London Eye, and crossed the London Bridge and Tower Bridge. We hopped off at Covent Garden thinking it would be a good place to move a bit, but we never made it. The boys spotted a gelato shop. Four delicious gelatos later and multiple visits to the toilets, we headed back to the bus. We were going to go directly to the Tower of London – our main attraction for the day – but one of the boys needed to pee desperately. As soon as the bus pulled into the St. Paul’s Cathedral stop, we flew off the bus and into a Wagamama. I had no idea if they’d let us use the restroom without purchasing food, so I immediately said I was there for drinks. Twenty-five GBP later, all of the boys had delicious fruit drinks and a toilet to use. Just as we were about to leave, poor Shai had a sudden nosebleed that took several napkins and tissues to stop. He left Wagamama with two paper napkins shoved up his nostrils. As the product of my own parents, I kept us moving and taking photos of the boys even as Shai was still managing his nose. There’s even a pic of them across the street from St. Paul’s Cathedral as evidence that I am sure he will use against me at some point.

Since we were at St. Paul’s Cathedral anyway, I walked them up the steps to see if we could go inside. After stopping at the outside security checkpoint to throw out Shai’s tissues into a much-needed trashcan, we waited in line to enter the cathedral. I was not inclined to pay for a ticket, but wanted the boys to experience even just a small bit of the cathedral’s grandeur because it is truly breathtaking. We got just far enough inside along the ticket line for them to get a glimpse and then ducked out of the ticket line to leave. Although they didn’t get to see the cathedral to the extent that I would have liked, that small moment made them much more interested to see other churches and cathedrals we would come across.

Back on the Toot Bus we watched the city go by as we waited to reach the Tower of London. By the time we arrived the boys were exhausted and complaining. This was an important lesson for me. While I could visit two to three big places in a day, it would be important to schedule only one big excursion per day for the boys and be judicious about where that would be.

Since we had already paid for a membership at Hampton Court Palace, we entered the Tower of London for “free.” The crowd was relatively small, making our visit more enjoyable. Even though the boys were tired, they were quickly enamored by the Tower and spent three hours exploring just a few spaces. The boys decided we had to see the Torture Room and the Armory. I decided that we had to see the Crown Jewels because I had spent weeks learning about the Koh-i-Noor Diamond again and needed to see it now that I knew more about its history and complicated place in modern day international relations between Great Britian and India. In fact, the Koh-i-Noor diamond belonged to Maharaj Duleep Singh, father of Sophia Duleep Singh the goddaughter of Queen Victoria I and featured as one of the female characters in the Hampton Court Palace reenactment the week before. If only objects could speak. The diamond has been witness to many epic moments in Northern Indian history.

Indian lore says that the Koh-i-Noor diamond is cursed. Every man who ever wore the diamond ended up either dead, dethroned, or had family members murdered. It was one of the most prized possessions of Indian rulers, from the Mughal dynasty to the Sikhs, changing hands as each ruler of Northern India toppled his predecessor. Eventually, the East India Company was responsible for seizing the diamond from then eleven-year-old Maharaja Duleep Singh and gifting it to Queen Victoria I. Duleep Singh was brought to England and lived in Queen Victoria I’s palace and was treated like one of the family for a while. At some point, Queen Victoria I brought the Koh-i-Noor diamond to show Duleep Singh when he was still a minor in her court. He took it from her and after a moment or two “gifted” it to her again. Only after this, did Queen Victoria I wear the diamond. Years later, Duleep Singh accused Queen Victoria I of taking advantage of him when he was but a child and that the “gift” he gave her was not legally binding because he was a minor. In short, he felt the Koh-i-Noor rightfully belonged to him and should be returned. Today, millions of Indians believe the Koh-i-Noor belongs in India, not with the British crown jewels. The status of the diamond is so controversial that Queen Camilla’s decision to or not to include Koh-i-Noor in her crown during King Charles III’s coronation ceremony was covered by multiple news outlets. In the end she opted not to include it.

When I explained the diamond’s background history to the boys they had a few different responses. Amichai wondered if everything in a museum was stolen and returned, would it even be possible to fill a modern museum today. Eitan asked, “If we were to steal it and give it back to India would that make it okay?” He and I mulled over his question as we walked through the rest of the exhibit, never quite deciding on a clear answer.

As we left the Tower of London, the boys spotted an ice cream truck. Earlier that morning, Carine had told them to try the “99”, named for costing 99 pence. The boys loved it, but it’s nowhere near 99p anymore! Afterward, we took the Tube back to Carine’s house for our seudah mafseket (a pre-fast meal before the Jewish Fast of the 9th of Av). Figuring out how to make this Tisha B’Av a meaningful one for all of us took some thinking. Chaim isn’t as inclined to go to shul/synagogue as I am, so Carine and I went while he and Simo stayed back with the boys. Later that night, while everyone was asleep, I worked on a lesson plan for the day to teach the boys about Tisha B’Av.

Overall, it was a great first day out and about with important lessons to take on the road. Below is what I learned from this excursion along with some important educational reminders for myself.

Lessons:

  • Always have tissues available. You never know when a nosebleed might strike.
  • Avoid the hop-on, hop-off buses. Best to figure out how to navigate public transportation instead.
  • Pick one major stop and schedule it for earlier in the day.

Reminders:

  • History has always been and will always be complicated because it is full of human emotion and humans are complicated.
  • Children appreciate being spoken to as an adult and being given honest answers.
  • Children appreciate the opportunity to wrestle with big questions that have no easy answer.
  • It is okay to tell your child, “I don’t know.”
  • It is important to think about big questions together as thinking partners with your child and not pretend to know everything as the parent.