Day 06 - London

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Our last full day in London and I really feel a bit sad to be leaving tomorrow.  I have developed a new appreciation for this huge, old (yet modern at the same time) city that you could spend months trying to live and see, and still not cover everything.  Museums, theatre, parks, and history.  I don't think I have appreciated London's culture before.

Today started with another walk through the city to Trafalgar Square.  Not the Trevi fountain, but the kids still got excited about throwing a coin into a fountain in London.  Our next stop was Leicester Square for discount theatre tickets.  After looking long and hard at what was on offer, we were still going to be paying upward of $60 a ticket to a production that we were unsure the kids would like, so we decided against another night at the theatre.
After Leicester Square was the London Lego store and we spent a bit of time in there being amazed by the english lego creations.  They had a life sized London Tube carriage you could sit in, a model of Big Ben, a life sized red telephone box to stand in, and an awesome mosaic of London / Westminster.  The kids both bought London double-decker bus lego kits.  After the Lego store, we just had to visit the M&M super shop over the road.  Four floors of stuff dedicated to M&Ms.  Who would have imagined?  The kids loved the smell of chocolate being pumped through the store, but Kristie and I thought it was quite sickly.  We didn't dish out anymore GBP for personalised M&Ms and paraphernalia, but the kids had fun looking at walls and walls of M&Ms anyway.


After Leicester Square it was off in search of the famous Hamley's Toy store on Regent Street, when we saw two London double-deckers sideswipe each other.  It was funny to see, as I had been thinking how considerate and patient the bus drivers seem to be with the traffic and people walking out in front of them.  These two drivers were in a standoff as neither wanted to be the first to move out of the way of the other.  In the end police showed up and sorted it out.
Hamley's Toy store is seven floors of everything a kid could dream off - I think.  The basement was dedicated entirely to Harry Potter (and some witch, wizard and medieval themed toys) and the other floors were loosely theme based as well.  The thing that differentiates this toy store from others was all the people in the store demonstrating the really cool toys.  Magic Markers, objects that seemingly magically fly - like Harry Potter golden snitches that fly around a person and are controlled by a persons movement (no strings or cables attached), magic wands that can fly to your hand, tattoos / body art / nailpolish, wheels that attach to any shoes, and so on.  Each of the demonstrations - and there were multiple on each floor, were definitely eye catching and made you want to buy the product.  We managed to escape without making a purchase - promising the kids more holiday specific toys, like the London Bus from the Lego store.

 Out the front of the store were staff dressed in Harry Potter costumes and this caught Sierra's eye.  Before she knew it she was part of the act and they even decided to sing Happy Birthday to her despite us telling them that it was not her birthday.  She handled being the centre of attention really well.

After Regent Street, we walked back to Leicester Square for lunch and then headed off into Covent Garden.  The market itself was quite quaint and strolling the streets pretty, but the highlight was watching a very funny street performer, who (again) singled out Sierra and got her involved.  He was performing magic and illusion tricks - which he talked up to be extremely dangerous to Sierra, but she took it all in her step with a smile.  Kristie and I felt that his joking and frivolity with the passing crowd was the highlight of the show instead of his magic - but it was an entertaining 30 or so minutes.

It was then back to the hotel for a rest before heading out to the Shard for sunset and twilight. While it costed an arm and a leg to journey up to the 68th and 72nd floor, it was a pretty place to watch sunset.  We were blessed with good weather and you could see the horizon in every direction.  Kristie had a glass of wine, the kids ice cream and before we knew it the sun had set.  Feeling lucky that we got to see London by day and night, we also lucked out seeing the Tower Bridge open just after sunset.

 We then tubed it back to the hotel and had a late dinner at Locale - an Italian restaurant in the same street as the hotel.  Yet again exhausted, we were all asleep within minutes to stopping for the day.





Location: Belvedere Road, London SE1 7PB, United Kingdom

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