We Take It For Granted

Maybe it's because every speaks English that things feel so at "home" here. Also, many products look familiar as well. But as we crosses the street today an oncoming car made a left turn into the street we just crossed, and I did a double take wondering why a ten year old boy was driving!!!

We had a wonderful day today, experiencing the best of English weather, cool, warm, rainy, windy and sunny all in a few hours time .  We navigated the subways (they are very deeeep underground), went to the Tower of London, a short jaunt up the River Thames, and a walk around the Parliament area.

We debated going to the Tower today or Wednesday, and  it's good we came today. Parliament starts on Wednesday, the Queen opens the session, and thus her Royal Imperial Crown will be in use, and thus not on display with the rest of the Crown Jewels.

The Tower was really interesting. The tour was great, but due to the rain a lot of  it was finished off in the chapel. We had a good time anyway, and got to see everything, including a bunch of rowdy teenagers escorted out by one of the Yeoman Warders(who we had been speaking to earlier, so we knew that aside from being former military,  like all the other Yeoman, he is a warranted police officer). It was so properly English. We were on our way out and he was standing near us and pointed to three boys (in a group with an adult and three other girls), and said "you, you and you-out." He then indicated who from their group could stay, and they all started walking towards the exit, down the steps , up Water lane with the Yeoman just walking behind them. He led them out the gate with nothing but his fierce attitude motivating them on.

From there we took the quick River tour on the Thames, and saw some nice things, and disembarked right at Big Ben and Parliament. The road right around Parliament was closed to traffic. We were on the sidewalk and a sign said "sovereign's entrance, and I told MBB I wanted to see that, since that's where the Queen will go in on Wednesday, but alas, we could only see it from across the street because at that point the sidewalk was closed as well. We took a lovely walk around that neighborhood, then a bus to the tube and dinner.

This trip has really shown me how fortunate we are in the US and how is easy it is to take Kashrus observance for granted. Unless you really know, you can hardly buy anything, and even then there's not that much. So next time you're out and about in the good old US of A, and you pick up some chips, or coffee, or anything, appreciate how easy it is.