London 2011

Last weekend we went to London for four nights.  Jim had to go to London for work and so we decided to tag along and spend a long weekend exploring London.  We had a good time though there were many things we did not get to see.  You just can't drag a four year old and two year old to every major musuem in London.  We skipped all the art musuems and St. Paul's Cathedral, for example.  Here is what we did visit:

The Tower of London

The Tower Bridge (which we walked across)

Westminter Abbey  - the kids were thrilled with this one by the way, lots of dead people AND they had to be quiet.  The only fun thing was the audio guide they gave us looked like a phone so Mary Martin wanted to hold it.  She listened intently to Jeremy Irons describing the architecture and people buried there.  One of the docents finally scolded us that the audio guides cost over 400 pounds so to kindly take it back from her.  That was our cue to leave... 

The London Aquarium and the London Zoo.  We hit the Zoo after a quick stop at Harrod's and then the kids were worn out.  Here they are at the carosel at the zoo and then knocked out in the cab on the way back to the hotel.

The London Eye - which was fun for all of us. 

 
We also enjoyed some fish and chips.  And some pub food - hearty meals all around that you just can't find in Paris.  We compared London to Paris, over and over again - it was hard not to.  Paris certainly is more beautiful - the buildings are breathtaking and the Paris parks are so much better than the London parks.  London's skyline has modern next to centuries old buildings and I don't think they always marry well.  But, Jim reminded me, half of Paris was not bombed out during WWII like London was.  So I guess we can be glad for the Nazi occupation of Paris in some wierd way...  We also found the subway system easier to navigate in Paris than in London.  Besides it has more stops in Paris.  Though the people in London were certainly nicer than our Parisianne counterparts. 

Here we are having fish and chips:

What else did we do?  Mostly tried to keep the kids entertained.  James took to climbing on random things to keep himself busy...

We also hit the toy area at Harrods and spent an afternoon on a hop on hop off bus tour.  We visited Hamley's toy store - seven floors of toys!!  Mary Martin got her very first Barbie - an Ariel from Little Mermaid and James got, well, a train.  Mom and Dad also stocked up on trains for future birthdays!! 

Finally on our last morning there we hit jackpot at the Science Museum.  This was the kids favorite thing.  They had trains (old and new models) and a under 6 age area downstairs with a water play area and a huge lego area.  We played down with the water and legos for at least an hour.  Here is James explaining to me how he had made the water all go one way by putting up the plastic cards that slid in the table. 

And here is James with "Puffing Billy" the very first locomotive ever built...  And yes he knew what it was from his Train sticker book. 

All in all we had a great time...  I am not sure we will visit a large city for our next vacation where there are tons of musuems to see.  Perhaps a beach where the kids can entertain themselves for a while!?!  Does Disney cruise in Europe??