Big day out

Friday 16th May 2014

Blog post dictated by Miss 7

Today was a warm and sunny day.  We caught the tube to Blackfriars (I thought it was people wearing black clothes cooking fried food but actually it was named after monks who wore black robes).  This is a picture of us near St Paul's Cathedral which is near Blackfriars.

 

We walked over the Millenium Bridge to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.  This is a picture of the theatre from the Millenium Bridge.

 

We went inside the theatre and we had a tour.  It was really cool inside the theatre because there was so much to see.  The theatre has been made to look just like the old one.  The walls are made of mud and goat hair.  The seats inside are all made of wood. In the olden days you paid one penny to stand up, two pennies to sit down and three pennies to sit down with a cushion.  There were also places for the gentlemen and the Lords to sit.  They couldn't see the show very well but everyone could see them.

 

We had to be very quiet inside the theatre and we couldn't take any photos because the people were rehearsing 'Antony and Cleopatra'.  It was good to actually see people acting on the old stage.

 

After the tour we went to the exhibition.  The exhibition had a trail to follow and we had to find answers to questions from the quotes and information on the walls.  This is a picture of me with the Queen Elizabeth I costume.

 

Next we went to get lunch at the Borough Markets.  On our way we saw the Golden Hinde which was Sir Francis Drake's ship.  The markets were really busy and there was lots of food from over the world.  I had a chicken pie from the Pieminister stall.  After lunch we caught the tube to Waterloo Station and the train down to Clapham Junction.  We went to look at where Mummy and Daddy used to live.  This is their old flat on the second floor.

Then we caught the train and tube back to Oxford Circus to go to Hamley's toy shop.  There were five floors with lots of children's toys and books and sweets.  This is a Lego queen with her corgi from the shop.

There were lots of things to see and do in the shop. A lady painted my nail with nail polish pens to look like a strawberry. London was such an amazing place!

 



Palaces and purchases

Thursday 15th May 2014

Blog post written by Mr 14

Today was a day spent walking amongst the palaces, monuments and shops of London. We started the day by walking to Kensington palace.

It was a beautiful day as we had our picture taken in front of  a statue of Queen Victoria, also in the background you can see Kensington palace.

Next we wandered through Kensington Gardens into Hyde park. We walked along and the girls were particularly anxious to take a picture of the squirrels that infested the area, peering down from above at the pair of young girls hopping around the bottom of their trees. After chasing a couple of squirrels that continued to a elude us, we made our way to the Albert memorial as can be seen below.

We then walked along further into Hyde park and came across the Diana Memorial Fountain where the girls and Mr 11 traipsed through the water with bare feet.

We then walked onwards until we decided to aim for the road so we could catch a bus to Buckingham Palace where we had our picture taken outside of the gates by Mum. The palace is massive. I can see now how they have so many unused rooms. (Pretty good place to hole up in a zombie apocalypse too).

Next we walked to Pret a manger to buy a lunch that we then took across to Green Park were we sat and had a little picnic amongst the deck chairs.

After lunch we caught the tube to Covent Garden we proceeded to shop the rest of the day. We found the Tintin shop down the road from where Mum used to work, and that is where me and dad made our purchases. For me a shirt and for dad the Tintin in Russia book. We then proceeded to make our way further into the market. Myself and Mr 11 found a Forbidden Planet store that we were particularly impressed with but failed to make any purchases.

Afterwards we caught the tube home to end the day. 

Harry Potter

Wednesday 14th May 2014

Blog post dictated by Miss 9

We had to get up early today because we were going to the Harry Potter Experience at Leavesden.  This mean that we had to go on the tube, the train and then a special bus to the Warner Brothers Studio where they filmed the Harry Potter movies.



 

 

The tour took about four hours and we just walked through at our own pace.  Some of my favourite parts were Dumbledore's office, the Weasley's house called 'The Burrow', Privet Drive and the Potter's cottage in Godric's Hollow.

 

 



 

I was amazed to find out that in the scene of Professor Umbridge's office they used 40 real kittens to make the kittens on the plates on the wall move.  The actors said they loved the day the kittens came to be filmed because they got to play with them all.



At lunchtime we tried Butterbeer.  I thought it was delicious but Mum and Dad thought it was disgusting.

After lunch we saw the Creature workshop and how all the animals and creatures moved using electronics. We also got to walk along Diagon Alley and look at all the shops.  This is me and Mr 11 outside Weasley's Wizard Wheezes with the ad for Puking Pastilles.

At the end of the tour there is an amazing model of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (the best school in the world!). 

When you get out of the tour there is a shop that is filled with Harry Potter stuff.  There were tons of sweets from HoneyDukes - even Chocolate Frogs. Miss 7 bought a purple pygmy puff and I bought a wand and a couple of other little things.

On our way home we went to the British Museum so that Mr 14 could see the Elgin marbles.  Some of them had been damaged by being cleaned with the wrong things but Mr 14 still thought they were really interesting.  I thought they were a bit boring.

 

A wet day in London

Tuesday 13th May 2014

Blog post by Mr 11

Today we left home early and caught the Tube to King's Cross St. Pancras. Then we walked past Big Ben see fig 4, Westminster Abbey see fig 2 and Dean's Square. After the weather got too wet for us see fig 3 we had a change of plans, we decided against going to Buckingham Palace as was our original plan and decided to catch a bus to the Science Museum.




fig1




fig2

On the way to the Bus stop we walked past the Horse Guard see fig 1 inside his booth, how I envied him sitting up there with his warm sheep wool trousers and warm little booth out of the rain.

fig3

fig4



fig5

fig6

On the Bus we decided to stop at Harrods instead of going straight to the Science Museum. We arrived at Harrods see fig 5 and hurried straight to the Toy Department. The toy department was amazing, it had all the fanciest toys (and the fanciest prices) and a whole room dedicated to Lego. They had every toy  imaginable and something for every type of kid. There was sports equipment for the sporty kids, there were computer games for the techy kids, dolls for the more classical kids and 33,000 pound child sized cars for the more extreme and loaded kids. after that we went around Harrods searching for Souvenirs for our friends. On the way we  had pictures with the store teddy figures see fig 7. Then it was back on the Bus and on our way to the Science Museum. When we arrived it was two O'clock in the afternoon and none of us had had lunch yet, so we went and had lunch at the Energy Café on the Ground Floor of the Museum. next we went up to the other Exhibits, we went to medical history and the art of medicine. Then we went down to floor three and went to the Rockets and Space exhibit Launchpad were we went to the Rocket Show and tried out some of the displays. see fig 6   



fig7

The Tower of London

Monday 12th May 2014

Blog post dictated by Miss 7

On Monday we went to the Tower of London.  On the way we stopped for a picture at Piccadilly Circus.



 Then we walked to Trafalgar Square and we saw Nelson's Column. Next we caught a double decker bus to the Tower of London.  We sat up the top and we got a great view of the city.

 

At the Tower of London there were six ravens.  It is traditional for there to be ravens at the tower.  There is a story that if the ravens leave the tower then the kingdom and the tower will fall.

 

When we were outside the jewel tower we saw a Beefeater guarding the tower.  My favourite thing in the Queen's jewels was a diamond crown. Another thing I was interested in was the orb that the queen held at her coronation.

 

I liked looking at baby prince George's future crown.  Other things that we saw in the Tower of London were armour, the torture chamber, the Bloody Tower and a mediaeval palace.

 

This is a photo of us in an old telephone box.

 

I liked pretending that I was a Beefeater with one of the ravens on my shoulder.

 

This is a photo of us outside the White Tower.  We were standing on the castle wall.  On the other side of the wall is a moat but there is no water in it.

 

From the castle wall you could also see Tower Bridge. It is a famous bridge and it can lift up in the middle so that boats can go under it. When we left the Tower of London we went on the Tube to Kings Cross Station so Miss 9 could get a photo taken at Platform 9 and 3/4's.  She pretended to run through the wall just like Harry Potter.



Camden Town

Sunday 11 May 2014

Blog post written by Mr 14

Today I woke up to the horror that is jet lag. My sleep last night was fractured, mainly because my biological clock couldn't seem to get with the program.

Welcome to London. A mix of the old and the new. A mess of modern skyscrapers clawing to stay above a city of ancient wonder and filth. Our first day was all about introductions. We were introduced to a couple of old friends of Mum and Dad, who then deemed us fit to take out to lunch but not before Mr 11 made his ultimate purchase. A pair of Cherry red Doc Martens.

 Here is Mr 11 in front of London's Original Boot Shop where he made the monumental purchase.
We then headed off to a little pub called the Colonel Fawcett where we had a classic Sunday Roast for lunch. I had roast chicken with roast potato and gravy.

L then took us onward while her partner E made his departure. We walked alongside a canal and happened upon a narrow boat passing through a lock. As is plain a couple of pictures of myself and Mr 11 were taken alongside the Lock.

Here is a picture Dad took of the Narrow boat as it entered the Lock.

 We then walked further along the canal until we reached the Camden market in all its glamour and filth. It was pretty disgusting in some places but the old carvings, buildings and brightly lit shops more than made up for it. The market was found in amongst the old railway tracks and stables so the background was that of old London but with fluorescent lights, take away and clothes shops sitting on top. One of the most entertaining was a shop called Cyberdog which had a pair of giant robots standing outside the door.

Above is a picture taken in a store in Camden where Mr 11 made his second purchase of the day a grey cheese cutter which along with his boots he has guarded jealously. We then thanked L and caught the tube back to our flat. Today has been amazing and I can't wait to see what the rest of our week brings.

Goodbye LA, hello London!

9th and 10th May 2014

After a very late night at Disneyland last night we packed up this morning to leave LA and head for London. Disneyland was lots of fun but certainly made a lot more manageable because we had done our research in advance by talking to other people and reading 'The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland'.  This book has lots of helpful tips and the touring guides which help you to plan your day and which rides to do at what times.  We didn't stick to the plans religiously but they certainly helped to give us a bit of focus and did ensure that (along with using fast passes) we didn't have too many horrendously long waits in line and we knew where the best deals were for eating in the parks.

At the bus stop - Desert Palms behind us.

Although we had heard a few scary stories about security at LAX our check in was uneventful (well apart from the 1L bottle of water which we forgot to take out of the bag and tried to take through the x-ray machine!).  The security staff were very nice about it though and we happily relinquished the water bottle into their care.

Another major bonus this trip has been having Koru club memberships.  This has made the airport check-ins really quick and has meant that we can hang out in the Koru lounge prior to boarding.  While we waited for our flight we were able to have lunch and the kids even managed to get some school work done.

Still not a lot of sleep had on the plane so we all arrived in London feeling rather exhausted.  Fortunately because we have lived here before nothing was too scary and new. Picked up the boys Oystercard photo ID's - totally worth organising these in advance on-line as it makes their public transport travel significantly cheaper - and pay as you go Oystercards for the adults.  The girls are both free on public transport as they are under 11 - yay for London travel!

The memories came flooding back when we got on the Tube to come to our flat in South Kensington.  Stand on the right, walk on the left and mind the gap! Our flat is only 5 minutes walk from the South Kensington Underground station so it didn't take too long to get here and get settled in. Cruel parents that we are, we made the children stay awake (they wanted to go to sleep but it was only 3pm) so we dragged them off to Sainsbury's to do some food shopping. Ah Hobnobs, how I've missed you!

We managed to keep the kids all going long enough to feed them dinner and watch a bit of BBC before they all crashed out.  Sadly(?) we were not able to keep our eyes open long enough to watch the Eurovision song contest but I'm sure Conchita will forgive us!

The South Kensington flat.  Lounge and master bedroom.