A Georgia Girl in Germany

One of the Girl Scout patches MacKenzie decided to work on was the “Americans in London” patch. To earn this one, she had to track down several famous Americans or American landmarks in the city. Our first stop was to Grosvenor Square. The square was built in the 1720s as the centerpiece to the Grosvenor Estate, but in the 1930s began a strong association with Americans. In 1938, the U.S. Embassy moved in at 1 Grosvenor Square. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a clear shot. When we walked closer, it was sad to see the tall concrete wall that separated the embassy from the public. The line of lights in front of the embassy sit atop the barrier so pedestrians can find their way along the sidewalk in front. I understand (and appreciate) the need for security for Americans living and working around the world, but wonder how we come across to our hosts when we barricade ourselves to this extreme in so many places.

Also in Grosvenor Square is a memorial statue of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt that was unveiled in 1948. Even though it was getting dark, the kids enjoyed wandering around through the park and discovering the beauty nearly hidden by the veil of dusk.

From there, we walked toward New Bond Street. Benjamin helped me find our way on a map, and asked me what the arrow next to the “N” was. When I told him it was “north,” he replied, “Hey! Santa lives there!” Can you guess who he was expecting to visit in about a month?

After our short walk, we found the statue “Allies” inviting us to take a seat. MacKenzie sat on FDR’s lap while Zachary acted bemused and Benjamin climbed into Sir Winston Churchill’s lap. The statue was unveiled in 1995 to commemorate 50 years of peace following World War II.

We continued our evening trek via the Tube back toward Trafalgar Square, where MacKenzie was excited when she found a statue of President George Washington. The square is rather large, so it felt almost like a scavenger hunt to find this statue off in a grassy area facing Nelson’s Column.

We also passed by the Texas Embassy on our trek. We had hoped to eat supper there, but would have had to wait more than an hour since we didn’t have reservations -- that would have been too long to make our appetites wait, so we settled for Pizza Hut down the street. But, oh, the steaks smelled great, and reminded me of the steak houses you can easily find in the states. My mouth was really watering as we turned to leave.

The last Americans we had to find were King Kamehameha II and Queen Victoria Kamamalu of Hawaii. They died of measles when visiting London in 1824, and I read that they are buried at St. Martin-In-the-Fields Church. However, I also read that their bodies were returned to Hawaii for burial, and since the church and its grounds were being restored and everything was walled off, this was as close as we could get to seeing if they were actually buried there or not. We’ll have to add this to our list of places to visit on a return trip.

Labels: Benjamin, England, MacKenzie, Travel, Zachary