Churchill and Harry vs. Hitler and Valdemort
You get double bonus points as a parent if you are able to both educate and entertain in a single day. Today we might have even scored triple bonus points with a double dose of Harry Potter!
After a leisurely morning enjoying ‘the village’ as we have now come to call Hamstead, we set off by the exceptionally convenient nearby Tube station to central London. Our first stop was the Churchill war museum housed in Churchill’s underground war headquarters beneath 10 Downy Street.
The advantage of pre-planning your visit to London was evident as we walked past the 2 1/2 hour long queue of people waiting to purchase tickets to go into the war museum. By 11 we were underground and walking through the fascinating basement bomb shelter that served as Churchill‘s headquarters. The excellent audio tour provided insights into both the person and the efforts during the war.
Having survived the visit to the museum where seemingly unnecessary information was jammed into their unwilling brains, the kids were rewarded with a double dose of Harry Potter! Tom had secured tickets to the sold out performances of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child playing at the historic Palace Theater. The first 2 1/2 hour performance started at two and we managed to squeeze in a lunch on the go including Tyler doing one of his favorite things to do when traveling internationally – eating at McDonald’s!
Our seats were excellent and substantially less expensive than seeing the same performance in the US – almost half the price for comparable seats in San Francisco for example.
Somehow the performance lived up to the hype and while the story started slowly by the mid point we were gripped and by the end of the first 2 1/2 hour performance we were eagerly awaiting the second performance which scheduled for 7:30.
Between performances we walked to a nearby and surprisingly not very good Chinese dumpling place. Tyler did the ordering in Mandarin which we counted as ‘doing homework.’ With plenty of time between performances we enjoyed strolling and window shopping in Covent Gardens.
The second performance was as fantastic as the first and at 10:30 we rolled out of the theater beaming from ear to ear.
A quick Tube ride home to the village and into our cozy beds. London goes 3 for 3!
