London

Kathy and Ben were invited to Ben’s cousin Rebecca’s birthday party in Radley, outside Oxford. We decided to see whether we could add a London visit to cousin Federica, her daughter Greta, and S-i-L Nirav. Turned out that there was room at the inn, and Greta was celebrating her birthday, as well. Plus she was combining that with a send-off party, as she was about to leave for Afghanistan for three months as an OB/Gyn with Médecins Sans Frontières.

We arrived a couple of days before the party, flying in to Luton airport and renting an EV. We had reserved a small car but ended up with a behemoth Ford Explorer. Despite filling more than a lane on every road, we arrived at Steeles Road unscathed.

The next day we met up with Ben’s Israeli cousin, Ayalah, who also came to the UK to attend Rebecca’s event. We decided to visit the newly-opened Battersea Power Station. The old power station, famous from the cover of Pink Floyd’s “Animals” album, had been decommissioned long ago, and after many years had been turned into a shopping mall and tourist attraction. They have build a lift into one of the chimneys and for a nice chunk of change you can ride it to the top, where, from inside the glass elevator cab, you can look out over London. Sadly, the location of the power station doesn’t provide a great view of many of the iconic London landmarks, like the Tower of London or St. Paul’s. Much better views can be found from the Fenchurch Building, known as “The Walkie-Talkie“, which we had been to on a previous London visit. As a museum for the old power station, it does not hold a candle (pun intended) to the MAAT next to us, where the old machines still loom above you as you wander through the building.

In the evening Federica hosted a large crew of cousins for dinner and great conversations, a preview of the family events to come.

The next day we went down to the British Museum for a brief visit, checking out the Sutton Hoo exhibit and lucking into getting a tour of the Islamic rooms that a docent was just beginning. Ben, with his short attention span, loved the tour, as it allowed him to focus on just a few items and understand their meaning, instead of looking at a whole slew of artifacts without any real context.

On October 1 we were invited to lunch at distant cousin Charles and Caroline’s place near Holland Park. The park has a lovely little Kyoto Garden with koi and a heron plucking them out, but it was very pretty and peaceful. Lunch was very nice indeed, and Charles told us about his adventures riding his bicycle across the US from the southeast coast to Seattle in three separate legs. On the way back Ben hopped off at Bond Street and walked up the hill through Regent’s Park and Primrose Hill, passing the rose gardens and enjoying the air.

That evening was Greta’s party. Her husband Nirav had returned from Chicago, where he spends about half his working life. Bailey was particularly happy to see him. At the party we met many of their friends and enjoyed good food, wine, and conversation.

And the next morning after breakfast we headed off to Radley.