Day Out London

You know how some people post these family vacation posts where the day was so perfectly arranged, you can tell every detail of the day was perfectly executed, from beginning to end? This isn't one of those posts. I can't tell you how in one day, to have a perfect day out with your kids and get a perfect overview of London. We only tried to see a couple of things. We went to a very popular tourist attraction in the middle of the day on a sunny Saturday in late June; there were crowds.  We ate at the train station (horrors!), an ice cream truck and Tesco Express. But that is one reason I feel so lucky to be living here in England for this year. There's really no pressure to get everything done on a time limit. Our day wasn't guidebook advice perfect, but it was a nice day.

 This being my kids' first visit to a big city, they were impressed with the small things: riding the subway, putting their Oyster Card (subway ticket) into the electric turnstile, riding the train.

 We rode the train in from Cambridge, and guess what train station we rode into? Kings Cross! Very exciting for a family of Harry Potter nerds. Does it look just like the movies?

 They have this fun little picture-taking place set up. I'm really mad that I didn't get the camera angle correct. If I was standing just a little bit more to the right, I could get that door cut out of the picture. Next time! And they also had a cute little Harry Potter paraphernalia shop (of course!). I love the wand display case.

Next stop was Tower of London. Anya had watched a documentary with Mike about it, so that was high up on the list of places to go.

 We took a Beefeater Tour, where they tell dramatic stories from the past - beheadings, escapes, torture. I thought it was really well done. The girls had a harder time with it, due to a combination of listening to someone with an accent they're not familiar with and sometimes having a hard time hearing because of the crowds. Anya preferred the visit to the torture chamber.

 Mike took the girls for a tour of the ramparts. Anya loved the menagerie room, even without the animals.

 While they were having fun, I braved the line so we could see the crown jewels. A little bit of a sacrifice, but much better than waiting in line for an hour with my kids.

You can see Tower Bridge from the Tower of London. So quintessential London. After we spent a few hours at the Tower, and after refreshing ourselves with some ice cream, I had the great idea of taking a taxi boat from where we were, past Big Ben, Houses of Parliament and the London Eye, to Greenwich, where we could then visit the observatory. A couple of problems. One, Greenwich is east of the Tower, while all those other sites are west. We didn't actually go by them. Two, we really didn't have enough energy to go exploring Greenwich at that point. So instead we took the boat to North Greenwich, had a nice snack on the grasses around the O2 area, and then called it a day. We still have a lot to see, so we have things to look forward to for our next visit.