Another London Day Out

I wasn't quite complaining to Mike the other day. I was explaining how it's a little more difficult having the kids home for the summer when all my usual options for passing the day with the kids - play dates, the swimming pool, the beach - aren't available. He came back with, "Why don't you take the kids to London for the day?" Oh. Yeah. I haven't quite got used to that being an option. So yesterday the kids and I went to London for a fun little day trip.

I decided to take them on a hop-on hop-off bus tour. Very touristy, of course, but it's a nice way to see a lot of sites in a short amount of time with minimal walking. One of my daughters very dramatically dislikes walking, so the bus tour is a nice option with kids in general, and for her specifically. In fact, we ended up walking a block or two looking for the correct bus stop location and you should have heard the complaints I got over that. So yeah, riding around all day was a great, conflict-free way to spend the day.

We'd already seen Tower Bridge, but it was fun driving across it.

You can't go to London without seeing Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.

View of the London Eye. My kids are super excited to ride it - we're just waiting for the summer crowds to die down.

A view of Westminster Abbey. We also saw St. Paul's, views of Kensington Park, Green Park and Hyde Park, Kensington Palace, Marble Arch, Piccadilly Circus, and so much more. All from the bus, of course. Heaven forbid we actually walk around and get any exercise.

We drove through all kinds of pretty neighborhoods, including Mayfair, Kensington, Notting Hill, Belgravia and others. The tour points out famous people that have lived on various streets we pass. All sorts of illustrious people were mentioned. The ones my daughter was most impressed with were various members of the Beatles and Queen.

We passed all sorts of great shopping. I was itching to get off the bus and wander around, but that will have to be another day. I'm planning on sending the kids off to school some day and taking off for a day when I can do whatever I please.

I did talk my girls into getting out and looking at Harrods. Anya had an interest in seeing London's largest department store, and I had the further enticement of ice cream inside. We loved our trip to the ice cream parlor in Harrods - even though I found the prices outrageously extravagant. Anya wanted to add this comment about her ice cream:  "Teddies are exciting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" She got the plain vanilla ice cream; however, as it came with a teddy bear cookie and was served in a fancy dish, she was thrilled.

The store is a really fun place to look around, even for non-shoppers like my girls. My girls liked looking at the Harry Potter section of the toy department, the pet store and all the desserts and candies the best. Unfortunately, my pictures aren't the best. I should have got out my real camera; we were so busy looking around, though, that I just snapped some with my phone instead.

By the time we rolled around to Trafalgar Square, I was done with the bus. We got out for a short walk across the square and through the Covent Garden area.

We didn't see any shows on this trip. Still, couldn't resist getting a shot with Daniel Radcliffe. Or as close as we're going to get to getting a shot with Daniel Radcliffe.

 Anya enjoyed watching some of the street performers around Covent Garden.

 Another shot of Covent Garden.

And with all these sites, what was Camille's highlight of the day? Eating an American meal at Five Guys! (#reasonstonottakeyourkidstoEurope)

We had a nice, easy day. If I ever do a bus tour again, the one thing I'd do differently is to decide ahead of time which stops we were going to get off at, and get off the bus a little more often. It's hard with three people to impulsively decide if we're getting off or not. One person wants to, another doesn't, the other can't decide, and in the few moments of discussing it, the bus is off to the next stop and you've lost your chance. That, and Anya maybe took my promise of a day of very little walking a little too much to heart. Still, another fun day in London!