Then, the sun breaks over Stonehenge.  It’s historical, mysterious, and cool.  On the voyage there and back, I did a Mercury Prize two-play of Alt-J and James Blake–perfect Brit-y, trippy music for zipping back and forth in time.

In the end, though, it’s pretty much all there is in the middle of this field (well, outside of the sheep).  So here are more pictures of these ancient rocks.  This one was taken by a lovely Italian tourist:

One of the many things I love about my children is their complete confidence in and command of any space they inhabit.  Witness their takeover of the London Tube, which they’ve decided is like the Subway but “cuter.”

That trip was taking us to the Old Spitalfields Market.  It’s filled with clearly posted “No Photographs” signs, so I didn’t take any.  It’s a great market: huge, filled with every kind of hip, retro, mod bit of trash and treasure one could want.  Plus, stalls and stalls of the foods of the world.  Harper bought fingers-full of rings, Ned got some books, and we wandered ourselves silly.

From there, we set off for Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland.  It reminded me a lot of the crowded, loud and blinking insanity of Oktoberfest, which made sense as it turns out most of it comes straight from Germany.  It was hella-cold by this point, so from a distance, the lights of the carnival looked frozen.

Rather than a wonderland, it was more a bright, crazy large Christmas-themed midway full of over-the-top attractions like a pyramid dice game in a hut topped with a rotating Nativity scene next to a haunted mansion stalked by a guy in a Leatherface mask next to a cover band playing “Get Lucky” next to a booth selling “XL sausages.”  You get the idea.  In other words, the kids loved it.  One of the attractions was a frozen Teutonic gremlin land of horror–complete with an ice slide that literally led from an ice castle with a jail, a stocks and an executioner.  You know, holiday fun!

So, we saw some ice pigs:

A barechested ice troll leading two ice hell beasts through the Christmas trees:

And the ice castle with the ice jail in the back.