We shoved off from a cloudy country paradise, and hit the road. We had a two hour drive to London, where John dropped us and the bags at the apartment, and then he went off to return our euro-wagon at the airport. Our apartment is in Little Venice, which is super centrally located in this enormous city. It's 10 million large, and the biggest city in Europe. It doesn't feel as big as it is though, because it seems a little more spread out than some big cities. Still, kind of traumatic coming from the country to here. The top pictures below are the exit out of the Cotswolds, felt like a nod to the contrast of these two worlds was important.
I had the littles and Lucia, and Ava opted for one more night with her friend. Everyone was starving so we set out to find food and something cool to see. Our neighborhood is called "Little Venice" because it's adjacent to a canal waterway lined with houseboats and water taxis. It's very lovely, and the water is almost completely covered in much of the places in tiny green leafed plants. Gia pointed out it looked like the Grinch went poop, and it kind of did.
We had a good long lunch near our place, at a successful 'something for everyone' Italian restaurant, and then with everyone refueled and civil we walked to Portobello road which was an easy 25 minutes away along the canal. Graffiti lined all the places that looked to be untouched by the gaze of the surveillance cameras (that seem to be almost everywhere, but not quite). Portobella road is a funky eclectic mix of antique stores, vintage clothing stores, tourist shops and a large market lining either side of the street. John met us at some point and he wasn't a huge fan of the area....too "grunge" for him, but I prefer to think of it as hipster cool.
We looped thru Notting Hill and part of Chelsea, and then headed back home to deposit Gia would threw another massive tantrum about something or other. She went home and fell asleep at 5:30 p.m. for the night. Sleep and eating, the two hardest things to keep consistent while traveling and the two hardest things for kids to do without. Throw in 10 miles of walking and you've got a tough situation.
John, Romeo, and I went to dinner, picked up some groceries and did even more walking in the evening. Long day, super cool city, excited to explore more tomorrow! The last city of our trip is always a little bittersweet. I'm excited to be here, but keenly aware that we're going home in a few days, and it's hard not to think about/plan re-entry back home. For so much of the trip coming home feels so distant, and everything else so immediate that I rarely think about home or "home life", but at this stage, it's hard not to think about it all the time and it's a little distracting. I'll be sad to end our trip, but I'm getting tired too, and I think it will feel really nice to be back home. This past week has given us a reminder though of how it will be with the older kids though. Ava has been off and preoccupied with her friend, and barely with us. I'm sure it will be like that when we get back, she'll be with her friends all the time (like a normal 16 year old I suppose), and Lucia as well, so family time with all 6 of us will be a rarity rather than the norm and that makes me sad.
Lastly, I snapped a picture of the packaging on their cigarette packs. One entire side of the package is dedicated to a horrible, gruesome picture depicting something bad that will happen to you if you smoke cigarettes. When they open the cabinet at the supermarket to pull out the smokes, you basically look at a whole sea of hideous pics, everything from heart attacks, to lung disease, people with huge scars, gum disease, throat cancer etc. etc. I did a quick search to understand the history a bit, and it looks like France, the UK, Ireland, Australia, Turkey, Nepal and a TON of others... have all implemented this packaging which is called "plain packaging." In the U.S. Congress passed a law under the Tobacco Control Act in 2009, but apparently it was challenged by the tobacco companies, the law vacated in 2012 and the government hasn't challenged it since. The UN has a treaty called, The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) which was negotiated under the World Health Organization back in 2004, of which 180 countries are party and is one of the most widely embraced treaties in the UN's history. The U.S. is a signatory, and one of the things recommended by the treaty was plain packaging. Our challenge to it (of course, spearheaded by the tobacco companies who love and care about our health) was free speech.
OK, plain packaging lesson over.
Signed, ME {lv}
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