Our trip to London

A Photographic Panorama by Dori Stern (Age 12), Zoe Sistrom (Age 11), and Aaron Stern (Age 7)

[with a little help from Steven Stern (surprisingly young)]

• Itinerary

• Dori's Thoughts on London

• Aaron's Thoughts on London

• Dori's Comments: Madame Tussaud's is a museum with wax figures. They look like real people who are famous sports, music, and political people. The basement is extremely scary with villains and severed people.

• Aaron's Comments: I didn't like Madame Tussaud's. It was scary. There was skeleton in a jail on the ceiling.

• Dad's Comments: Madame Tussaud's is a museum with wax figures. The historical ones are really interesting. The ride through London's history is very interesting. The basement was too scary for kids (though Zoe was brave enough to do it).

• Dori's Comments: The British Museum consists of very historical, famous artifacts from different parts of the world like mummies, Greek statues, old money, and very important stuff like the Rosetta stone. It has an amazing library where Karl Marx studied.

• Aaron's Comments: There was a mummy inside of the coffin.

• Dad's Comments: The British museum is amazing, especially the Egyptian collection. However, getting Aaron to look at the mummies required the physical efforts of Dori, Zoe, and me. Once he saw them, he felt much better. On a side note, Dori and Zoe are considering the synthesis of Hegelian philosophy and Marxist historiography after having a chance to study in the British museum reading room.

• Dad's Comments: Aaron was excited to see Ancient Egypt and decided mummies were not so scary after all.

• Dori's Comments: On the Thames shore are many really cool buildings, places, and bridges like the Eye, the Tower of London, and Tower Bridge.

• Aaron's Comments: I was scared of the Tower of London. I liked Big Ben.

• Dad's Comments: We took a ride on a boat on the Thames. Dori was a bit excited, so Zoe had to get her to "chill."

• Dori's Comments: We didn't visit here. But I learned that it was a dungeon, and it still has a spooky feeling about it. There are no more bad people in it.

• Aaron's Comments: We didn't go there. It was scary.

• Dad's Comments: Aaron is very nervous about the Tower of London, probably because in a former life, he spent much time there.

• Dori's Comments: I think Dad was scared of the camera when we took this picture.

• Dad's Comments: The three children kept trying to become London guards (see the picture from Madame Tussaud's above). They kept on getting caught and will have to remain students in the US for now.

• Dori's Comments: The Globe Theater is a "remodel" of the old one where William Shakespeare himself worked.

• Dad's Comments: The Globe Theater was a great tour. Here, the children got to practice their English accents. Zoe's was quite good. Dori's needed work (it sounded Australian to Zoe). Aaron's sounded Indian.

• Dad's Comments: Inside we went on an excellent tour got to see a class on fencing (acting).

• Dori's Comments: There was an awesome view of London from the top. Warning: Do not climb up in anything but sneakers!

• Dad's Comments: We all loved St. Paul's. I thought it was a beautiful, spiritual place. The kids liked climbing to the top of the dome and seeing me collapse despite my wonderful physical shape (they are really rotten kids).

• Dad's Comments: Westminster Abbey is a nice place to die, but only if you come from the right British family and have lots of money.

• Dad spent one day at the Economics Department at University College London discussing his brilliant paper, entitled Long-Term Care, Informal Care, and Home Health Care.