This morning we kicked off another packed day and used a new form of transportation taking the train...
out to the Wimbledon part of London to tour the All England Lawn Tennis Club...
most famously home to the annual Wimbledon Championship…
the oldest tennis tournament in the world, and the only major still played on grass...
It was a fabulous tour...
Check out this view of the London skyline in the distance...
Our guide took us ALL around the club...
the press room...
{nope, not a recreated photo op area ~ it's the real one!}
the private area where the players eat...
that overlooks the special member area below...
and of course, THE Centre Court...
Wait...brown grass??? What???
That's right...
Less than two weeks since the tournament concluded, preparations are already underway to clean up and get set for the next year...
All in all, we had a truly awesome visit...
My only suggestion, if you're planning a trip anytime soon, is to try to visit in the months or weeks leading UP to the tournament, not right after it concludes, when you're much more likely to find some greener grass...
Before leaving, we toured the museum...
{may it be noted that we visited 150 years & 3 days since its founding}
and grabbed lunch at the café on site before heading back into London to meet up with my cousins for afternoon tea at the Royal Garden Hotel in the Kensington area of London...
bordering Kensington Gardens and the private road leading to Kensington Palace...
{see that sign on the brick wall? PRIVATE road}
{and the CROWN on top of the lamppost?}
{it's all in the technique, and yes, the pinky placement IS really important}
The story of how we're even in touch with these cousins at all, generations later and with an ocean between us, is really awesome...
At least, I think it is. I'll let you judge for yourself...
To make a looong story short, once upon a time there lived some brothers in Germany. All but one immigrated to America. Of the ones that did, one settled in Pennsylvania (the others settled somewhere in Michigan).
Years later, right after the war, the granddaughter of that one brother that stayed in Germany, Ursula, was living in West Berlin, isolated by the Soviets in the middle of East Germany, and in dire need of help for her young family. With limited options, she wrote a letter to the address that she had for her great uncle in Pennsylvania (my great great grandfather). Miraculously, his daughter (my great grandmother) was STILL living in that SAME house...
She promptly passed the letter on to her son and his wife (my grandparents), and they connected with Ursula and her family... My grandmother really related to her, as she herself was raising two young children very close in age to Ursula's children. My grandparents, who didn't have a lot themselves, started sending packages (which, per the government, had to be a certain size) to Ursula and her family, packed carefully with vitamins for the children, food, and seeds that they could plant in order to begin growing their own vegetables. My grandmother orchestrated a clothing drive, collecting items from both the neighbors and members of her church. When Ursula's son needed shoes, she sent a paper tracing of his foot to my grandmother who promptly took it to the shoe store and bought a pair of boys shoes based on the tracing.
Ursula told her children that without the packages from Pennsylvania, they likely would not have survived...
Years later, the families met in person when my mother and her sister (after her college graduation) went and stayed with Ursula on their first trip to Europe. Since then, there have been several trips back and forth by many different family members.
Well, in the end that was not exactly a short story, but it does span going on 6 generations now, and it is a pretty good one, I think!
So, bringing us back to the current, two of Ursula's granddaughters (and MY 4th cousins), D & J, now live in London with their families, and I think that it is one of the neatest things ever to get to introduce my kids to two of their 5th cousins... ...
{just a few 5th cousins enjoying afternoon tea in London}
After tea, which was literally enough food to call it dinner, J, Hubby, and I took the kids for a walk through Kensington Gardens into Hyde Park and over to splash in the Diana Memorial Fountain...
while D hung back with my mother...
Such a fun afternoon...
After parting ways, we walked back toward Kensington Palace...
Evidently, neither Kate and William nor Meghan and Harry had heard that we were in town for a visit, so we were left outside the gates looking in...
or, actually, posing in front of them like we owned the place...
It was a full day for sure!
We're off on a pilgrimage to all things Roald Dahl tomorrow...
More {EUROPE} 2018 Fun
