Our hotel served breakfast, so we didn’t get away as quickly on Tuesday morning. (But the oatmeal was so worth it…)  We spent the rest of the morning and the early part of the afternoon driving to Vienna.  We even ate McDonald’s on the road to save time.  We’ve discovered that most of the McDonald’s restaurants abroad have kiosk ordering, which helps so much when we don’t speak the language. 

The workbooks I made for the kids turned out to be worth the effort.  I think they learned a lot and they asked for them whenever we were driving in the car.  

When we arrived in Vienna, we drove straight to Schonbrunn Palace.  Nothing can be compared to Versailles in France, but Schonbrunn might come close.  Our ticket time to tour the palace wasn’t for awhile so we went to the Children’s Museum they have at the palace, which was really fun and interactive.  

Photography wasn’t allowed inside the palace, but suffice it to say it was opulent and huge.  We only toured 23 rooms, or something like that, and the palace has 1,441 rooms.  It was the residence of the Habsburg family, who were the Austrian royal family for 300 years.  In one of the parlors,  Mozart played a concert for the royal family at the age of 6. 

Because of the oppressive heat and because it was nearing closing time, we didn’t tour the gardens, but from the views inside the palace, they looked remarkable.  

I had promised the kids that we would try and find a place to swim, and I had found something online the night before.  It was a free “waterpark” made by channeling the Danube into a little island in the river.  We drove right to it, but couldn’t actually see it, so we thought we were in the wrong place, and we drove around frustrated and irritable and bewildered for another 30 minutes before we found our way back.  There was no place to park so Richard dropped off the kids and me and left us to swim for awhile.  

The sun was starting to set and we had an appointment to get the keys to our apartment from the owner so Richard picked us up and we drove to the apartment.  Parking was not to be found, again, so Richard dropped me off to meet the owner.  (This became a theme of the trip- Richard dropping me off and driving away and leaving me feeling helpless and abandoned.)   Fortunately, the woman showed up in a few minutes and let me into the apartment.  We had everything squared away and she left, but there was still no sign of Richard and the kids. We still hadn’t had dinner, so I walked across the street and ordered Chinese take-out.    

Richard and the kids found a parking spot, made their way back to the apartment with the luggage, and we ate a fried rice and chow-mein feast at 9:00 p.m.  

Monday morning I woke up early and went for a run.  I saw a side of Dresden that was so different from what we’d seen the day before.  It was neighborhood streets with charming European homes and every third shop was a “backerei” – which meant the aromas were amazing.  

We were really efficient in the morning and out the door around 8:30 for our drive to Prague.  I don’t remember exactly what time we arrived in Prague, but our first few hours there were downright miserable.  We drove to our hotel, which wasn’t ready for us to check-in which was fine.  In her best English the lady at the desk directed me to a parking lot.  But upon arriving at the parking lot we realized we needed to pay in cash, which is the Koruna Crown and we didn’t have any.  So we drove around looking for an ATM and then returned to the parking lot.  We parked the car and then started walking back toward the hotel to catch the tram.  Unfortunately there was no ticket office or kiosk at the tram station so we walked back to the hotel to ask where we would get tickets.  Unfortunately the place suggested to us didn’t sell children’s tickets, so we had to walk even further to a metro station.  It was so. hot.  SO HOT.  When we got to the metro station is was nice and cool down in the tunnel so we grabbed lunch at a little snack shop, bought our tickets and finally made our way into the city.  

Even after we got to the city center we weren’t sure how to get where we wanted to go.  In Dresden we had gotten a city map at a tourist office and that had made a huge difference, so we walked to the first tourist office we could find. Unfortunately all the maps were in Czech which really doesn’t resemble any language I am familiar with.  (Which aren’t many I suppose.)  

So we did the obvious thing and made our way up to the castle.  It was up a hill and we were so hot we just walked as slowly as we could.  Fortunately I had frozen all the plastic water bottles we had bought in Dresden and so we had a lot of cold water on hand.  

And Prague is a really beautiful city.  All the building facades are ornate, colorful and varied.  It was really lovely. (And everything was really cheap!)

We bought tickets to tour the castle, cathedral and basilica and meandered our way through it.  It was old.  It was huge.  It was really cool.  I really hate to say lame things like “once you’ve seen a castle, you’ve seen them all” but they really do become slightly less amazing each time.  And maybe since it was so wretchedly hot it was harder to enjoy.  But we made the best of it.  

Fortunately the walk from the castle down to Charles Bridge was all downhill.  A guide book I read said that Charles Bridge was the author’s favorite royal quarter mile – and despite it being really crowded I was impressed. From Wikipedia: 

“The bridge is 621 m long and nearly 10 m wide, resting on 16 arches. It is protected by three bridge towers… The Old Town bridge tower is often considered to be one of the most astonishing civil gothic-style buildings in the world. The bridge is decorated by a continuous alley of 30 statues and statuaries, most of them baroque-style, originally erected around 1700 but now all replaced by replicas.”

Once we reached the other side of the bridge we were sweltering and the kids were pretty burned out. I couldn’t bear the thought of being done for the day so we rejuvenated with ice cream and picked a couple more places to see.  

We walked to the Market Square, where restaurant employees and firemen sprayed hot tourists with water and there were street performers and live music.  Along with our sugar high, it re-energized us.  

We watched the Procession of the 12 Apostles as the Astronomical Clock struck 5:00 p.m.  Oringinally installed in 1410, it is the oldest working clock of it’s kind in the world.   Then we decided it was time to find a nice restaurant for a proper sit-down dinner.  

Mmmmmm.  Our dinner.  It took a little while but eventually we found a place offering authentic Czech food and it was soooo good.  It was probably my favorite meal.  It wasn’t air conditioned in the building, but it was cooler than outside, and after so much walking it felt so nice to relax.  I had beef goulash with white bread dumplings, the kids had schnitzel, and Richard had pork with potato dumplings.  It was all really delicious.  After dinner we needed to pick up a few practical things like another outlet adapter, so we did some quick shopping and then I begged the kids to hold out for one more stop.  

The compromise to go see one more place included riding a tram instead of walking, and we made our way to the Lennon Wall.  During the communist regime in the 1980s the wall became a place where young Czechs voiced their desire for freedom, and John Lennon became the symbol of that hope.  No matter how often local authorities white-washed over the wall within days it was recovered with messages of love and peace.   We had a good talk with the kids about freedom of speech and what it is/was like for people living under communist rule. 

From there we took the tram back to the metro and then rode back to our hotel.  Richard walked with Cameron and Eli back to the car to retrieve our luggage and then we all crashed in our hostel-style single beds lining the walls of our giant shared room.  

At some point, either before we left or at the beginning of the trip, I made a choice not to be a drill sergeant travel mom. It was too long of a trip to push hard every day, and I had to be realistic about my expectations of my kids.  So every morning I let everyone sleep until they woke up naturally, (which for young kids isn’t really that late anyway).  We looked into our church options for Sunday but the meeting was at 9:00 and the day before had been so long that we just didn’t make it.  I put some spiritually-minded videos on for the kids while we got ready.  

We got to the train station about 10:00 and did our best to decipher the German and buy tickets for the day.  Many places we visited had a family ticket that was good on all forms of transport (train, bus, tram, metro), or else we could buy a day ticket for each of us and Mim & Si were often free.  The kids were really impressed in Dresden with the double-decker trains, and it was fun to ride on top and get a better view of the city. 

Dresden was such a sad place for me.  I’m not really sure why I chose it to be honest. I think I wrote a report about the bombing of Dresden when I was in 8th grade, and so it tugged at my heart strings.  Originally we planned to drive up to Berlin, but decided that was too far north, so I chose Dresden as our stopping place.  As we rode the train into the city I wasn’t even sure what we were going to see or do.   

Before WWII Dresden was known as the “Jewel Box” because it of it’s many beautiful baroque buildings, but the city center was virtually destroyed during the Allied bombing in February 1945.  Traveling through the city there were places that you could tell had never been rebuilt.  After the war Dresden was part of the GDR (East Germany) and so a lot of rebuilding didn’t even begin until 1990 after reunification with West Germany.   

Despite the tragic history of the city, it turned out to be full of beautiful things to see, amidst a lot of rough neighborhoods and parched August gardens and parks.  

It didn’t take us long to learn that many businesses, shops and restaurants don’t open on the weekends.  Richard and I found that both impressive and inconvenient.  Europeans just have such a different perspective about commerce.  Personal life really matters, weekends matter, bottom-lines are only second priority.  In any case, we found a bakery nearby the main train station and had some pastries for breakfast.  They were so good and we were so hungry that as soon as we saw a second bakery that was open, we had second breakfast.   

We walked toward the aldstadt (old town) and on our way stopped in the market square.  My favorite part of any European City.  

We crossed the bridge over the River Elbe into the “neustadt” (new city.)  As an interesting side note, the “old city”  was destroyed in the war, so it is almost entirely restored, making it actually newer than the “new city”.

Once again it was Sunday so it was hard to find a place to eat, but we settled for some street food; pizza and bratwursts.  From there we walked to a passage-way I read about on Pinterest or somewhere called “Kunsthofpassage.” 

The “Courtyard of Elements” includes this building, which is a system of pipes built in a way that makes music when rain falls and water drains through them.  It was inspired by Rube Goldberg Machine, “converting the mere patter of rainfall into a spectacular orchestral symphony.”  Sadly it wasn’t raining when we were there, but the kids were nonetheless entertained by cooling off under the dripping funnel.  

It was hot and the kids were spent so we took a tram to a park Richard found on the map.  We found some ice lollies to help us cool off, and then just let the kids play in the grass.  

After Simon messed his pants and the rest of the kids were sufficiently exhausted we caught the tram back to the main train station, bought some groceries for dinner and went back to our apartment.  We played games that night and had an early bedtime.  

Since we had to haul car seats (plus all our luggage) we decided not to take public transport, and we arranged for a driver to pick us up at home and drive us directly to the airport.  Our flight left London at 7:30 a.m. and it takes an hour to get to the airport, so our car came at 4:30 a.m.  The kids were so excited, they chattered the whole way to the airport.  

Our experience at the airport went as smoothly as can be expected, but carrying six suitcases and four car-seats/booster seats is just not an easy task.   (European laws are more strict so even Cameron uses one.)  We made it to our gate just in time to board, but we didn’t have enough time to grab any breakfast or snacks or even water for the flight.  And when you fly cheap airlines, there are no freebies on board.  

By the time we landed in Frankfurt we were all ravenous and tired, and it was only 10:00 a.m.  We gathered our stuff, anxious to get it all squared away in our rental car, when we were informed by the woman at the Avis desk, in broken English, that our car wasn’t ready.  The car was available, but she needed special permission to release it to us because we were returning it in another country.  We had made the reservation weeks ago, and Richard and I were baffled about why this had been overlooked but our communication with the woman at the desk was really limited due to the language barrier.  So we ate some brunch at an airport cafe, some really yummy pastries, and then we waited and waited.  It was particularly frustrating because we didn’t know how long we would have to wait.  An hour? Two?  Four?  It ended up being two hours, and at about 12:00 we got the keys to the VW Caddy , an ugly but spacious van, that would shuttle us around Europe.  

Our hotel reservation that night was in Dresden, but I wanted to stop in a German town that would give us a small taste of German villages and Heidelberg wasn’t too far out of the way.  It was a great choice- I LOVED it. 

By the time we found parking it was around 2:00 and our first order of business was to find something to eat.  In the books I’d made for the kids I’d made a big deal about bratwurst in Germany so we were on the lookout for a place that would fit the bill and we scored big.  The bratwursts were so good that Richard, Cam and Eli became immediately hooked and it was their meal of choice, until we got to Italy and it became pizza.  I wish I’d taken a picture of a bratwurst, but it’s just like the photo below, a really long wurst sticking out a good 2-3 inches on either side of the amazing bun.  The bread/bun was just as important to the experience as the wurst.  As frustrating as it is to order food in a restaurant where the employee doesn’t speak English, it’s always satisfying because it feels authentic to me.  (All the places where tourists eat have English speaking employees.)  The man at the bratwurst shop was really friendly and accommodating and mostly we just laughed at ourselves as we tried to order with gestures and nodding yes or no.  It still didn’t come out right, but we had no complaints.  

After lunch we walked down along the river, made our way through some streets, ate some ice cream and then found our way back to the car to make the long drive to Dresden.  

Heidelberg stole my heart, I think it’s up there in my Top 5 favorite European cities along with Bern, Switzerland and Bruges, Belgium.  (I’m not sure what the other two are…) 

The drive to Dresden took the rest of the day, and when we arrived it was dark.  The check-in time listed was only until 8:00pm and I knew we weren’t going to get there in time.  Many of the places we stayed in were private apartments rented out via Booking.com (I didn’t use AirBnB this time, but we have in the past) and so I had a phone number to contact the owner but it was not working.  When we arrived at the destination, according to our Sat-Nav, (which I must mention was a HUGE bonus in our massive Caddy) we could not figure out where exactly the apartment was.  As I mentioned, I couldn’t get through on the phone number, so Richard and I were both considering our options.  All we could see at the address was a nail salon, but finally I walked around to the back of the building and found a name plate on a wall buzzer (what is the real name for those things?) and I buzzed up.  Sure enough it was the woman I needed and she let us into the apartment.  Sadly, it had no air-conditioning (the first of many) and so it was pretty toasty, luckily we were all pretty beat.  

Long. Day.  

(Re-reading over that last paragraph, I feel like it is written in such a nonsensical way it represents the way I was feeling while I was living it.  Too tired and annoyed to be concerned with improper or over-use of parenthesis.) 

Before I get into daily posts about our trip, I want to write some thoughts about it, while they are still fresh.  
In one of my favorite blog posts by Glennon, (I’ve probably mentioned it before) she talks about how at the end of each day when her husband would ask how her day was she would think 

“How was my day? Today has been a lifetime. It was the best of times and the worst of times. There were moments when my heart was so full I thought I might explode, and there were other moments when my senses were under such intense assault that I was CERTAIN I’d explode. I was both lonely and absolutely desperate to be alone. Today was too much and not enough. It was loud and silent. It was brutal and beautiful. I was at my very best today and then, just a moment later, at my very worst…”

Our holiday was a lifetime.  

Firstly, I thought I had done a reasonably good job of planning and organizing, but it turned out my planning and organizing were still inadequate. (Story of my life?)  It felt like we wasted significant amounts of time trying to sort out parking, public transport and making decisions about what exactly we wanted to do in each city.  Some things just come with experience, and can’t be helped with even the most meticulous planning, but I wish I’d created a better awareness about where our hotels/apartments were in relation to the things we wanted to see and do.  Consider that a travel tip I guess.  

All in all the kids were fabulous. I felt really grateful and proud of them.  That’s not to say that they didn’t need to use the toilet right as we were stepping on the gondola, or have complete over-reactions to the most minor of injuries, or fret about the injustices and unfairness of who got what souvenirs.  There was whining and there was bickering and there were multiple exhibits of what is best described as “hangry” children. 

But they walked. Some days we walked as many as 10 miles around the cities we visited and the kids would let their imaginations take over and they would play Narnia (likely due to the audio-books we listened to while driving) and Pokemon (their current favorite cartoon) as we meandered through streets, parks and across bridges.  For the first few days the heat was nearly unbearable, but a little ice cream never failed to restore their enthusiasm.  They tried new foods, they asked questions, they entertained themselves and each other in the car and they slept like rocks at night.  

Even in the best of circumstances it takes great self-discipline, forgiveness and effort to not get frustrated with one’s spouse, and there were plenty of stressful incidents when Richard and I were irritated or angry.  I wish I could say we were always patient and kind, but we made it through intact and I don’t think there are any residual hard feelings.  

Traveling is hard. Traveling in countries where you can’t communicate in your native language is really hard.  I completely underestimated the difficulty of what we undertook.  It was sometimes terribly discouraging and overwhelming.  I remember one morning waking up, completely disoriented and confused about what city I was in.  All my life I had romanticized that idea.  “How exciting to wake up and not remember what city you are in!”  But when it happened to me, it felt disconcerting and exhausting.  I’ll never forget when we were in Venice, VENICE!, and as we walked out the door in the morning I thought to myself “I really don’t feel like doing this today.”  I’ve wanted to go to Italy since I was a teenager and there I was, feeling nearly incapable of enjoying it.  

But the thing that makes all those difficult things worth it, is that traveling is remarkable.  Watching and meeting people, tasting cuisine, experiencing cultures, exploring new ideas, seeing something like the Jungfrau in the Swiss Alps, or the Duomo Cathedral in Milan is just something that affects me in a way I can’t give words to. But I love it. I really, really love it.  So all the meltdowns, (mine and the kids’) all the over-priced water bottles, all the buses, trams, airports, tolls and humidity was worth it. 

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and…people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” 
-Mark Twain

I asked the kids to look through the London City Walks and choose one they wanted to do during summer holiday and Eli chose one that went from Hamley’s on Regent Street, through Soho and into Chinatown.   It seemed like a fun walk to do with Baca and Grandpa Bird while they were in town. 

We took a train into the city, hopped on the tube and then walked up Regent’s Street to the oldest toy shop in the world. Hamley’s is unbelievably huge and is full of demonstrations, interactive toys and staff who are trained to be engaging and friendly.  There are seven floors, and I had promised the kids I’d buy them sweets on the top floor.  Gradually we made our way up and the kids were entertained all throughout. 

When I couldn’t handle the over-stimulation for another minute we bought our sweets and left the store.  There was a soccer shop Eli and Cameron really wanted to go to, where they had a jersey for every team in the Premier League, but it turned out that the shop had closed down.  But we found ourselves in Soho at lunchtime, which is never a bad thing.  

  

We made our way to Chinatown, but bellies were full and attention spans were waning so we just walked through and then stopped at a little market that sells American food.  And by American food I am referring to every processed, sugary, food-like substance you can think of that can be found in American grocery stores.  See above. 

I bought root beer for the kids and then we walked back to Charing Cross and took a relaxing train ride home.  

Big cities have such amazing resources.  No beach in London? Okay. We’ll just make one.   

We hadn’t been up to Olympic Park in East London so I was kind of excited to see it.  We picked a hot day and made the hour long ride on the DLR from Lewisham (the end of the line) to Stratford (the other end of the line.)  Riding a train from one end to the other end feels kind of like a right of passage in a metropolis.  I remember doing it once with my dad in Washington D.C.  

They had hauled in literally tons of sand and set up an all-out summer fair at Olympic Park.  Once again I didn’t want to bring my camera to a sandy place so these photos are all from my cell phone, which died no less than 2,359 times while we were there. (My phone is messed up. I used to be able to just restart it each time it spontaneously died, but then the button broke too.) 

The sand was soooooo soft and there was a little pool for dipping buckets and cooling off.  It got crowded pretty quickly but we had staked out a pretty good space and we stayed for five hours.  It was really fun.  The kids could play in sand for days.  

At one point Miriam had dug a little pit and filled it with water and was just sitting in it.  A little girl, probably about two, came over and was splashing in the water with Mim.  No big deal.  The little girl’s mom, and a couple other adult friends were watching her and shouting at her.  I asked what her name was, but thought I was mistaken so I asked them to spell it.  

Nottie.  

Okay.  So from their blanket a few yards away they shouted at her “Nottie! Don’t do that! Nottie! Be nice! Nottie! That’s not yours.”  

Eventually Nottie walked over and plopped her little self right on top of the sand castle I’d built with the kids, and proceeded to just smash it, turret by turret.  I am not fond of disciplining someone else’s children, especially when they are watching, and sure enough they were watching. I looked over and Nottie’s mom and her friends were watching her destroy the castle. I didn’t know what to say, I tried making eye contact with her, to which she shouted at the little girl 

“Nottie! I hope you’re being good!” 

What?!?  Cameron looked on in horror and I felt completely frozen.  I wish I had been more assertive for my kid’s benefit, but I’m not a confrontational person and I was just speechless.  I apologized to Cam and the other kids later on.  But I really don’t know how to teach my kids that they can stand up for themselves without being angry, rude or unkind when I’m clearly not capable of doing it myself.  Can you say doormat?

Aside from that tragic and infuriating anecdote, we had a really great time at the artificial beach.  Sunny and hot summer days are hard to come by in London and it was fantastic to soak one up.  

In the states when we got to the ocean to play in the sand we say we are going to “the beach” but in Europe, it’s “the seaside.”  The kids’ school planned a field trip to the seaside at the beginning of July.  I practically begged Nimmi to come with Svana. I didn’t bother to take my camera so the event was overlooked in my blogging efforts until I was scrolling through photos on my phone.  

There were some bus issues, so instead of taking a charter bus (“coach” as they call it here) we waited around and ended up on your standard run-of-the-mill double decker.  Oh well.  The kids didn’t mind.  It was about a two hour trip, and then we were at the ocean! Or the English Channel to be technical.  The weather was just right, but the water was pretty cold.  Mim was the only one who really cared about “swimming.” 

Eli’s friend Kayden wasn’t coming on the trip and Eli just wasn’t feeling it, so he stayed back at school that day and it was just Cameron and the littles with me.  Simon played in the sand the entire time.  Mim dipped in and out of the water. Cameron had a water fight with some of his friends, but mostly hung out with us.  

We were only there for 3-4 hours because of our late arrival, and we had to make the two hour journey home so we left a little after 4:00.  Richard picked up Eli from school since we didn’t get back until about 6:30.  The kids had a good time, and it’s always nice to get out of the city.  I was grateful Nimmi was there to keep ME company, and we got to be better friends with a boy Miriam’s age, named Ralphie, and his mum. 

One day Cindy and I were talking about things to do during the kids summer holiday and she told me about the Sky Gardens at the top of the Walkie Talking building.  (Who knows the real names for these places…)  She said it was free but you have to book in advance and spots are hard to come by.  We lucked out though and she booked us tickets for a Sunday in the early evening, and it happened to be while Gordon and Julie were visiting, so the 12 of us met up and all went together.  

(Eli was so excited to see Kayden, a week apart was just torture I suppose.)

Mike or Cindy told us that when the building was finished, it’s concave design and glass were reflecting sunlight so directly that it was melting cars.  I found this really crazy article about it- check out the pictures.  

It was such a rainy day.  And I’m not talking about the usual drizzly rain, but it poured rain for the better part of the morning and afternoon.  Fortunately by the time we left our house it had slowed down to a drizzle, but it was still pretty cloudy and gloomy from the top of the building, and the outdoor viewing patio was closed.  

It was a nice place to take pictures, and it was nice to have Cindy around to take pictures so I could be in them!

My friend Nicole says “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.” Which is a philosophy you have to live by in London if you have any intention of going out and experiencing the city.  It was a fun excursion, and a great way to see my beloved city from a new perspective.  

Last weekend was a fun one.  The weather on Saturday was perfect so we ventured to Borough Market, a first time for Richard and the kids.  We bought my favorite things and shared them; raclette, salted beef, cinnamon & chocolate covered hazlenuts… Then we let the kids each choose something.  Richard had Turkish delight, Cameron had ice cream, Eli had baklava and Mim & Si chose cookies as big as their faces.  

From there we walked through Hays Galleria and along the Queen’s Walk until we arrived at “More London” where the kids played in the fountains and Richard and I roasted our bums on the really hot stone benches.  (Which turned out to be great for drying the kids wet clothes.) 

This little fun family outing in London had all the makings to be a picture perfect Birdsacrossthepond hashtag. And it was nice, nothing went terribly wrong.  (Meaning, no one had a BM in their underpants.)  But after a little while, some family members got tired and irritable and frustration washed over me.  This meme I saw on Glennon’s Insta pretty much sums up the day.  

Glennon says, our pain lies in the space between the two circles.  I’m working on that.  

In spite of our London adventures repeatedly falling short of the fairy-tale versions I have in my head, I am still really grateful for them.  And accepting my flawed and imperfect self and husband and children that exist in reality is a work in progress.  

Ahem.  

So it turned out Richard wasn’t feeling so great, and on Sunday he was feeling even worse, so he stayed home and rested on Sunday while I took the kids out. 

The South London Jazz Orchestra was playing an outdoor concert on the lawns at Eltham Palace, which is in our neck of the woods.  We packed a picnic and took the bus straight from church to the palace.  

I went in with pretty low expectations, but the kids were actually good sports about the whole thing.  Eli says at school they have something called “brass” which is basically a weekly music class where they get to try different brass instruments.  He chose trumpet.  (He has good familial inspiration.)  They told me their favorite instruments and I taught them what I knew about jazz and improv.  

After the performance we went into the Great Hall and the kids tried on the costumes.  Then we did a animal scavenger hunt that the palace has for kids.  Interesting trivia: the modern day owners of Eltham Palace in the early 20th century had a pet LEMUR.  

After they kids got their final stamp on their scavenger hunt papers we walked around the gardens a bit and then took the bus home.  It was a lovely Sunday afternoon.