Day 40: London

What a great day in London. We started with the kids running through the park behind the apartment chasing squirrels. They seemed to be everywhere and not scared of children. The kids had a lovely time checking out the tennis courts,  playground and meeting the locals.  On to find a 3 shop to top up our data after our attempts in Bassano del Grappa clearly didn’t work. Sadly the shops didn’t open until 10am, so we had to hang around eating croissants and coffee just for old times sake. We headed to Lloyds Bank to check on our funds, which of course we couldn’t do for some strange reason, so back to the 3 shop only to be told they were out of sim cards and we would need to head to 3 on High Street, Kensington. We jumped on the tube and popped out in Marks and Spencer of all places, which made for my first ever experience of this famous institution. Sadly I was disappointed. It felt very Bridget Jones dowdy (maybe even her mother).  We mulled around for another hour or so checking out the local shops and had some sublime sushi (hooray) while Rick sorted our technology.  Max was in heaven.  Back on to the tube into Piccadilly Circus, where we boarded “The Original Sightseeing Bus Tour” that allows 24 hour access to the double decker open roofed buses that take you on scenic routes around the city. We went on the yellow tour, a 2 ½ hour tour around the city’s highlights like Big Ben (there's Big Ben kids), Parliament House, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, among others.  We went down famous streets, like Pall Mall, Regent Street, Park Lane, Bond Street.  We saw Trafalgar Square, Mayfair and Whitehall.  Holy Monopoly.  It was fabulous and such an easy way to take it all in.  We jumped off the bus at the House of Parliament (what a magnificent building) and took a river cruise to the Tower of London and back again.  Again we saw famous landmarks like London Bridge, Southbank, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Tower of London and some more modern buildings that I can’t remember the name of.  Everything was impressive and on a big scale.  The buildings were beautiful, a bit French, a bit Roman, all rolled into a unique blend of British gorgeousness.  I am in architectural heaven and just want to see more.  The weather was supposedly great for a summers day (laugh) complete with rain, sun and the cold. So much for being 24 degrees, by lunchtime I had near frostbite and had to buy a jumper to keep warm. Our tour finished and stopped at the M&M shop (chocolate variety) and it was 30 minutes of hell.  Four floors of chocolate and paraphernalia. The kids thought it was fabulous. I think all 10 million people who live in London were there at the same time.  I’ve never experienced anything like it.  We had to drag the kids out after much bribing and three ‘big’ bags of M&M’s.  Back on to the bus, this time to do the Blue Tour, which took us through Knightsbridge past Harrods, Kensington Palace (in the distance) and Russell Square.  We saw the London Museum, Natural History Museum, Royal Albert Hall and Hyde Park.  We jumped off at Harrods for a stop of the most famous shop in the whole world, and headed straight to the toy department.  The kids were beside themselves and even more so, when Scarlett stumbled across a life size collection of the Friends characters made from Lego. Max and Zach found Jai from Ninjago and life will never be the same. The holiday was deemed the best ever in that single moment which is very different to the comments we had heard about Italy only days before. Scarlett had her hair curled, got some glitter tattoos and the boys played Lego for about an hour.  They were so excited and are now even more eager to get to Hamleys. Joy.  Back on the tube to Earls Court for some Thai before heading home around 9.30 pm.  It has been a long day, but I feel like we’ve covered a lot of ground and can’t wait to get busy tomorrow.