Busy Days in London

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Geo: 51.5002, -0.126236

We were up fairly early, and enjoyed the convenience of having breakfast at home in our apartment. Then, we went and bought Tube passes (now Oyster cards) allowing us all unlimited travel for the 5 dyas in London (kids travel free!). We tubed down to Kensington, then separated – the boys were off to the Cabinet War Rooms at Whitehall, and we girls were off to Brompton Rd, Harrods and a quilting exhibition at the V&A Museum.

I'll get Steven to detail the exploits of the boys:

For us girls, we realized that the Londoners don't get up all that early, especially on weekends. Harrods (which was conveniently right at the tube exit!) didn't open for another half hour, so we were forced to visit Pauls, the French patisserie across the road, to fill in time (yum!) Then, back to Harrods to explore the food halls – I could LIVE here! – then a quick tour of the rest of the shop (when we asked if they sold any fabrics etc, we were told that "more a John Lewis thing" – I think we were put in our place, as if you shop at Harrods, you don't MAKE your own clothes/quilts etc.) The Egyptian escalators were amazing, but we were quite surprised when we went to the basement on the escalators and found the Dodi & Di memorial (very kitschy and odd – I wonder if the new owners of Harrods will keep it!)

We wandered up the Brompton Rd, to the V&A where it was the final days of the quilting exhibition. It probably was not something that I've have done, if I was on my own, but it was obviously something that Rita was keen to see, and I certainly enjoyed it. We had an hour or more to spend until our timed tickets to the exhibition, so asked at the children's desk what we could do with Georgia for one hour.

Boy, do the English do museums for kids well! We received a backpack with a guided tour of part of the Museum, which was just outstanding! There were dress up hats, so that she could match the tapestries on the wall, a mirror to help her interpret the original diary of Leonardo da Vinci, a quill to demonstrate writing in medieval times, some salt to help her understand the decorative salt cellar – and a heap of things that I can't remember. It was wonderful – she was transfixed and so were we! I know that I've been to the V&A before, but never remembered it like this! Ritas and I resolved that we'd try to bring the boys back!

Then the quilts – no photos, which was a shame, and it was extremely crowded, which was also a shame. Maybe we should have got an audio tour of the quilts, but we wandered happily for an hour – photos would have let me remember the quilts so much better, but I will always remember the one made by the Changii prisoners of war, and one made by female convicts on their way to Botany Bay! When we left the exhibition, we went to the courtyard of the museum – it was an amazingly beautiful blue sky day, and in true English form, there were plenty of people enjoying it. However, we thought it was a little unusual to bring your children to swim (either naked or in togs) in a fountain in the middle of a Museum – silly us!

We had a quick lunch at Pret A Manger – Georgia thinks this is traditional English food now! – then back on the tube and back to the boys, who were resting at the apartment. Then, we all headed out together to the Sir John Soanes Museum in Bloomsbury. This is an amazing place – Sir John, an architect, was trying to show that he could “do” Gothic, and so bought things at auction to “put him in the mood” and put them all in his house. It is bizarre, yet amazing – he had so many incredible things, but they are all jam-packed into his house! Honestly, this place defies descriptions, but was a wonderful way to spend an hour or two.

Then down, through Lincolns Inn Fields (the kids were impressed as they had seen a documentary of an archeological dig here, when thousands of people lived here in tents following the destructive Fire of London). Steven and I just looked at the gray faced lawyers, pulling large brief bags and working far too hard on a Saturday! And we won't forget the derelict man who had opened a large wound on his arm so that he could ask everyone for money to get a taxi to the hospital – the desperation one must feel, before you would self-harm in this way!

We walked past the Banqueting Hall of the Inns, past the Royal Courts of Justice, past the bells of St Clements (which were going off!) and the original Twinings teahouse, to the Strand and Australia House (better known to the children as Gringotts Bank from Harry Potter movies!)

By this stage, we were very tired little Aussies! Even writing this, I cannot believe we fitted so much into a single day! We walked down to the Embankment to see the river, and the OXO tower, then tubed over to Westminster and the Houses of Parliament, where we saw the setting sun glowing on the Houses and met the least friendly English cop – he didn't even smile for our photo! We tried to find a pub near Westminster for dinner, but there had been a Mardi Gras type of parade that day, and the streets and pubs were busy and the patrons a little too…adult-concepts! So, after a quick peek at the underwhelming 10 Downing Street (now, with added security, you cannot even see the famous front door!), we jumped back on the tube to find dinner.

We couldn't get a table at The Faithful Friend, and eventually, we ended up at an Indian restaurant on Southhampton Row (Rita and Elio opted out of the Indian meal for a cuppa soup at home). Good meal – loved it when the head waiter told Steven that (having paid by credit card), Steven should leave something for the “boys” on the table, like 10 pound cash! Home and in bed, exhausted.

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