Half Term Break

Here in England, it seems that the school year seems to resemble the American "year round" school schedule. There are three terms a year - August, Spring, and Summer.  Only the girls' school calls them the Michaelmas (winter) term that began on the first or second Wednesday in September and lasts for 15 weeks.  The Hilary (spring) term is usually 11 weeks long (depending on when the Easter holiday falls) and Trinity (summer) term is usually 12 weeks long. We are currently in the middle of the Hilary term, and as is typical here, there is a one week break during the middle or half term, called the half term break.  And the school publishes the term dates at least seven terms in advance (can you imagine that much notice??!!) Crazy, huh?
So, we just had a week off of school for the half term break.  We are still in our temporary apartment in Vauxhall, so we tried to find some fun things to do to fill our days.

We started off the weekend with a trip to Northcote Lane, the shopping area near where our new home will be, wandered a bit, and had lunch out.

We had lunch at Byron's Proper Hamburgers. I still can't say that I am clear on what makes a burger proper as opposed to improper, but who am I to judge?! It was tasty, so there.

We went to the playground after, and as we were walking, we spotted this car with a peculiar hood ornament. Hippo? Hmmmm.

On the Monday of the Half Term Break, we decided to go to the National Gallery here to see the Van Gogh exhibit.  The National Gallery has one of Van Gogh's Sunflower paintings. And they have another  of them on loan her for a few months. It is the first time the two paintings have been together in 65 years.  Since we love Van Gogh's Sunflowers and think it is pretty cool to be able to see two of them together, we put it on our plan for the week.  Click here for exhibit information. 

The National Gallery is located adjacent to Trafalgar Square (wikipedia article here). 

 

Nelson's Column - wikipedia article here

St. Martin in the Fields - one of my favorite churches. - wikipedia article here

What's the story with the huge blue rooster, you ask? Well, I didn't know until I looked it up - here - it seems the fourth plinth (that column thingey) is empty and they rotate different sculptures there. This one will be there for 18 months.

Sophia has mastered the art of the photo bomb, as evidenced in many of the pictures I share on this blog. Here we were on one of the many escalators found in tube stations around London.