Kiera's London Reflection

simonedsouza
Aug 15, 2022
5 min read

Hi, it’s Kiera! Today I’ll be writing about all of our amazing time in London! Each of us is making one London blog of everything because we’re a bit behind (mostly me). Here are some things I’ll write about: - Harry Potter world - The changing of the guards - Our evening in Kings Cross - London Markets - Horrible Histories play - Sherlock Holmes Scavenger Hunt - My week at camp Luke, Daddy and I went to Harry Potter World (Luke came because he didn’t want to go to Peppa World). On the bus there we watched the first movie and then we got off and walked into a huge hall with shops. We looked in the stores for a bit then got in line for the tour. On the top of the hall there was a huge dragon (either a Hungarian Horntail or Ukrainian Ironbelly but probably a Ukrainian Ironbelly because of the chains around it’s neck) that looked a bit like the whale at the top of the Natural History museum in NYC. The lime led us to a room with lots of posters of Harry Potter movies with their titles and the set from Harry’s cupboard under the stairs and I got a picture with it. After the room filled up we went to a room with screens and our tour guide showed us videos from visitors and staff. Then we went to a room that looked like a movie theatre, got front row seats and a man turned a video from Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson (Harry Potter actors) on and they told and warned us things. The man led us around the screen and we saw the huge decorated doors of the Great Hall. They opened and we got a lot of pictures with model characters inside the Great Hall. When we left the Great Hall there were lots of videos of various movie directors and bios on posters about them. Our dad moved us on and we walked past Another morning we went to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace with our friends who moved back to London, Holly and Sam. First we saw the less popular part, the soldiers preparing for the changing and then crossed the street to the crowded area to try to see the changing of the guards. For a while we couldn’t see anything, but we moved and the kids climbed the gates to try to see better. There were a bunch of soldiers crossing and I climbed high and used my mom’s phone to get a video (see video), until the police officers told us to come down. Then we went to a mall to eat at Nandos (one of my dad’s favorites restaurants, that they don’t have in New York). That evening we went to King’s Cross to have dinner and watch a movie. First Dad and I stopped by platform 9 and 3/4 at the train station to get a picture and then I joined Luke and Ryan playing in the long water fountains they had. Then we got pizza and ate on the steps of the canal watching Sound of Music. We explored a bit further and then headed home to sleep. Me and my mom took a bus to Notting Hill to go to Portobello Market on Saturday, the biggest market day. We walked up and down the the street and got a painting, a magnet and some earrings. We ate at a really yummy cafe called Mikel. Later that day we went to Camden Market with the boys and ate in a food hall at an Asian restaurant. It was a circus day so we got to make lions out of plates and tissue paper and there was also an area where some adults were teaching circus tricks. On our way out we saw a family in a boat and got to watch two men lower the water using a lock, so the boat could get through. Me and my mom did our own Sherlock Holmes scavenger hunt (which her friend did in Scotland) with 20 clues and 15 suspects around Regents Park. The hardest clue was the fifth where we had to decode an innocent suspect through four bandsmen's names. We did four clues in Queen Mary’s Gardens and it was really fun. We had a great last day in London where we got to watch a spectacular play called Horrible Histories and Terrible Tudors. It was two actors playing the important parts from the reign of the evil Tudors. We got there and they were showing the defeat of Henry VII’s predecessor. They showed a bit about how mean the Tudor’s were, and then acted Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn (his second wife). They showed a funny scene of Henry trying to write a love song for her and then sang a song about how even if he didn’t stuff his face with as much he would still be so mean and added a song to remember what happened to Henry’s six wives: Divorced Beheaded Died, Divorced Beheaded Survived (this action which is thumbs up is my favorite). They ended with a performance on how Elizabeth I thought she was so great after risking her country’s lives against Spain and when she died everyone paraded the streets on the day King James I got his crown because he wasn’t a Tudor. The play was really funny like when Henry VII couldn’t figure out if he was the 23rd King Henry or 9th and I highly recommend it. After that we went to a pretty park with a great view of the London Eye. Now I’m going to write about our really fun week at our camp, Tails and Beau. I mostly hung out with our friend Holly from our building on 70th street who’s family moved back to London recently but the second day we made a friend called Mandy (Amanda) who was really nice. Our group was the Hedgehogs and the other three were called Rabbits (Luke’s group), Squirrels and Owls.

At the beginning of the day, they had coloring pages at every seat and we could pick one to color and then when we finished we put it in a pile for the competition then we went outside and me and Holly played with Velcro pads and tossed a ball and then we went inside for snack and story time and then the groups took turns (two doing each activity) making art or doing sports. The paper things were (in day order) a poster about us, a wooden colored kind heart and letter about someone in camp who was kind (it was Kindness Tuesday), a crown decorated with tissue paper, pompoms and pencil, and a poster with stencils of London landmarks, and we were allowed to pick one to ship home (we all picked our personality posters). The other thing we would do at the same time was the sports competition, parachute games and relay races or just free play. Before the second activity that we had we had lunch after it