It’s so long that I wrote the last post about our London Family City Break at Easter that I need to write a little refresher for you.
We went to London, the five of us. On Day One of our adventures we went on the London Eye – read all about that HERE.
On Day 2 we had a fantastic visit to the Tower of London – read about that HERE
And Day 3 was our Day at the Museums which you can read about HERE.
Given the amount that we had done in the three previous days on Day 4 we were tired. Very tired. Oh so tired. It was Sunday, Easter Sunday in fact. First, we ate chocolate. Then we ate breakfast.
Only then did we head to the train station and get the train to London Bridge station. We walked along the Thames’ South Bank exploring as we did. We happened on the Golden Hinde in dry dock (this was a lovely surprise as lack of research or a plan meant we didn’t know that it was there, we didn’t go for the tour though) and walked along past Shakespeare’s Globe as far as Tate.
The Golden Hinde
The Tate Gallery
We had been to Tate before but the kids hadn’t. It’s huge industrial building with lots of space to explore. The kids loved the fountain outside, called the Fog (they got soaked running in and out when it came on). The various modern installations got some classic comments from them. like the one made entirely from ropes made of human hair. (GROSS).
The kids’ knowledge of art is pretty much limited to what they’ve seen on TV or looked at in art in school so they asked if there was a Picasso and when we realised that there was we sought it out. They ran freely through the big open spaces and then when they were done (50 minutes or thereabouts) we had coffee and cake in the cafe downstairs.
LOOK! A shape!
Boy -vs- Creature
Did I mention we were tired? Oh, so tired.
After we left Tate we walked over the Millennium Bridge to St Pauls, playing on the steps and buying candied nuts from a street vendor as my resistance to pester power hit a low ebb.
St Paul’s
We knew there wasn’t much “going” left in us so we got the Tube to Hyde Park. We had waffles for lunch from a park vendor and spent an age in the South Carriage Playground, it’s a great playground with a good mix of equipment for every age. After an hour we had to drag the kids away from it, they’d made new friends of every nationality.
When we eventually did we walked through the park to the Diana Memorial Foundations to Kensington Gardens to another playground (Buckhill) which was much more tended towards younger children.
If you go to the Diana Memorial and don’t let a child paddle in the freezing water in April expect expressions like this
From there we exited the park and the kids were very keen to go on a double decker bus and I wanted to go to Hamleys as I had been enchanted by it as a child. I asked Google maps if it was possible to get a bus there and it turned out there was a direct bus down Regent Street so we piled on and enjoyed the view.
However, as it was Easter Sunday Hamleys was closed as was half of Regent Street so we, along with many other tourists were disappointed. We walked to Piccadilly Circus, found a restaurant for dinner and headed home via Kings Cross for our Harry Potter photo opp that I go into more detail about here.
A nice chilled out Easter Sunday.
Stay tuned to get our fifth and final day rundown, and our top tips on visiting London with kids, including where to stay, how to get around and where to eat.
Disappointment
In case you missed my last post, I’m vote seeking again for the Boots Maternity and Infant Best Parenting Blog Awards. To vote for me (it takes three clicks) press HERE. Thanks so much for your support, every vote counts and voting closes on 30 August. Thanks.
Also I’m running a competition on my blog facebook page to win some lovely kids’ history books from Collins Press- here’s the link to the Facebook post where you enter. Good Luck. Closes Friday 18th August.
