Trip to London--Two adults, four kids, twelve tired feet!
May 16th, 2009, 07:12 PM
#61
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Hi Laura-
I *Just* remembered... 2009 is the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII's ascension to the throne, so every place in UK/London is doing something special on him (including Windsor Castle, British Library etc).
i just looked at HCP's website, and the "wedding event" is on between mid-April thru end of 2009.
http://www.hrp.org.uk/HamptonCourtPa...n/Default.aspx
I really should plan a trip to London in the next few months just to go check out various Henry VIII's celebration.
I *Just* remembered... 2009 is the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII's ascension to the throne, so every place in UK/London is doing something special on him (including Windsor Castle, British Library etc).
i just looked at HCP's website, and the "wedding event" is on between mid-April thru end of 2009.
http://www.hrp.org.uk/HamptonCourtPa...n/Default.aspx
I really should plan a trip to London in the next few months just to go check out various Henry VIII's celebration.
May 16th, 2009, 07:17 PM
#62
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Day Nine – Regents Canal, Zoo, Harrods and Shopping
Sadly, this was our last day in London. We woke fairly early since we hadn’t been out late the night before. Our apartment was located fairly close to Regent’s Canal so we decided to walk to the London zoo along the canal’s tow path, which has been turned into a walking/biking trail. It was another gorgeous morning. The canal is interesting and the walk provides a slightly different view of the city. There were many people out riding and walking on this nice Sunday morning and the canal had numerous birds (ducks and geese) swimming on it. Another thousand pictures. One disappointment: as we walked towards Camden we noticed an unreal amount of beer bottles and garbage floating in the water. I guess, since it was a Sunday morning, we were viewing the refuse from Saturday evening parties. Eventually we saw a city worker fishing out garbage with a long net. He was filling large black bags with the bottles and other floating garbage. I couldn’t help but wonder why Camden doesn’t put garbage cans along the canal (we saw none). It would have to be less expensive than having to pay somebody to clean the canal ever day!
We walked into Camden and found a place for breakfast. We ordered the “typical” English breakfasts and the kids were amused that beans are a breakfast food in England.
The zoo isn’t far from Camden and the roads are well marked. We got there at opening. As somebody mentioned in another report, “the zoo’s a zoo.” It was covered by the London Pass, but I think it would have been expensive otherwise. Tamara loved the red panda – it looked like a little red raccoon (we bought a stuffed animal). There is a neat butterfly house where the climate (I kid you not) is exactly like Orlando in the summer (about 95 degrees). I said that to somebody in there and they laughed as if I was joking! The two youngest also enjoyed the Llamas – singing Llama, Llama, Moose so many times that we were really getting some odd looks from other zoo goers. We only stayed at the zoo about two hours or so – Tamara would have stayed the whole day – she loves zoos-- but the other kids are less enamored.
Jason’s Canal Boat
After the zoo, I wanted to go to Little Venice and catch Jason’s Canal boat back to Camden. Getting to Little Venice from the zoo involved a walk (amusingly, people asked us for directions THREE times while walking along trying to find a bus stop. I guess we must have stopped looking like tourists by this time), a bus ride and a tube ride. When we found the dock for Jason’s canal boat, we realized that we had missed the boat and would need to wait an hour for the next one. Tip: there is no shopping in the area near Jason’s canal boat so it was a boring wait.)
By the time the boat returned there was quite a line and we were unsure whether we’d get on. Although there are several canal boats, only Jason’s takes the London Pass and it appeared to me that everybody boarding was using the pass. I think that this was one negative aspect of the LP – I wasn’t about to go pay for a different boat since I felt that I had already paid for Jasons, so I was sort of locked in. We did get on, but about twenty people were turned away – that would have been very disappointing after having waited an hour for the boat to return! There was one group of people, about six adults and six small children-- on the boat who had boarded in Camden with a cooler of beer for the roundtrip. They were incredibly loud (drunk) and quite obnoxious. Several small children in the group were squealing extremely loudly, but the parents were too drunk to notice or care. The kids were literally having screaming contests – really, I’m not joking –competitions to see who could squeal the loudest. Mind you, I love kids, I really do (have four) and can tune out almost anything, but had I not been seated on the opposite end of the boat, I would have thrown them overboard I think – parents and children alike. I was surprised that nobody said anything to the group, but the people on the boat were primarily us, the drunken families, and numerous Germans. The poor guide on Jason kept on giving her little talk which I think would have been interesting had the children not been screaming in one ear and had a group of German tourists, who were obviously not interested in listening to the guide, not been reading quite loudly (so as to be heard over the children) from a London guidebook in the other. Anyway, we made it to Camden and alit as quickly as possible. Tip: This ride could be fun and is highly recommended in this forum and from what I heard from the guide, the canal has an interesting history and some pretty scenery. However, if you don’t have the London Pass, take another (preferably classier) boat. If you do have the London Pass, try to ride Jason on a weekday because it was definitely too crowded and too raucous on a Sunday afternoon. At any rate, call ahead because the boat had to turn a number of people away. I think it would be less crowded to catch the boat in Camden and ride to Little Venice.
Camden on a Sunday afternoon is interesting and crowded. I think some people would love it (tattoos and cigarettes), but I am not one of those people. We grabbed sandwiches and drinks at Subway (mostly because we were so thirsty and Subway offers refills on large sodas) and walked to the nearest open tube station to get back to London. Becky had been pestering us to go to Harrods all week and this was our last chance, but it was only open until six on Sunday, so we had to hurry.
Harrods
I loved Harrods. We only had about an hour there, but I wish I had scheduled at least half a day. It is over the top, cruise-ship opulent and I had fun just wandering around for awhile. I had been told how expensive Harrods is, but I really didn’t think it was. It has expensive stuff, like designer handbags, but those things are expensive everywhere – the prices at Harrods didn’t seem any more than you’d pay for the equivalent item at Saks or Bloomingdales . I wandered around the food halls and we were sorry that we had stopped at Subway in Camden to eat – there was such interesting food there! My favorite place was the minerals gallery. I bought Glenn a pretty pyrite crystal and I got a trilobite fossil. I just got my Visa bill and the total was $135. My guess is that those types of things would run at least that much in Orlando (if you could even find them). Unfortunately, Harrods closed at six so we didn’t get to see that much of it. If I get to return to London, I’ll schedule more time. I personally don’t buy Louis Vuitton handbags (wouldn’t judge somebody who does) – but I do love quirky little items that you can’t find in the mall (like fossilized trilobites)and I think that Harrods has some of that type of thing. Tip: If you go to Harrods, try to find the minerals gallery (near the bookstore). It is beautiful – there are all sorts of crystals and geodes displayed in glass cases and beautifully backlit. Even my husband enjoyed looking at the stuff and he hates shopping – this gallery was more like a museum than a shop, and nobody was in there even though the rest of the store was packed.
Leicester Square
The girls wanted to pick up some cheap souvenirs, so after Harrods closed we headed to Leicester Square to see if we could find some little shops. After buying keychains and pens for the friends at home, I had the kids’ portraits done by the street artists. We chose four different artists and three of the portraits were terrible (Tamara’s and Tessa’s don’t look like them and Tommy’s looks more like a caricature than a portrait). However the portrait of Becky is absolutely breathtaking. Unfortunately, her artist did not sign so I can’t let anybody know his name, but if anybody’s looking, he was the only black artist there (Sunday evening) – slight build, maybe 5’9” and spoke with, what sounded to me like a Caribbean accent. Even though it was a charcoal portrait he brushed the charcoal on. Her portrait took forever to draw, but it is definitely art. I wish we had chosen him for all four kids—however, he took well over an hour to draw her, so it wasn’t possible.
After Leicester square, we stumbled back to King’s Cross, exhausted. We cleaned up the apartment and semi-packed because, even though our flights weren’t until noon the following day, we wanted to leave early so that we didn’t have to struggle with suitcases on the tube during rush hour (good call I might add).
Day 10 Home
Our flight home from London was uneventful. I liked that Continental airlines has movies on demand – better than the Virgin Atlantic system in my opinion in which each movie starts at the same time. We went through customs in Houston and when I heard the Texas drawl from the customs agent, I realized that I had really missed the U.S.- London was fun, and hopefully I’ll return someday, but I’m much more relaxed in Orlando!
Sadly, this was our last day in London. We woke fairly early since we hadn’t been out late the night before. Our apartment was located fairly close to Regent’s Canal so we decided to walk to the London zoo along the canal’s tow path, which has been turned into a walking/biking trail. It was another gorgeous morning. The canal is interesting and the walk provides a slightly different view of the city. There were many people out riding and walking on this nice Sunday morning and the canal had numerous birds (ducks and geese) swimming on it. Another thousand pictures. One disappointment: as we walked towards Camden we noticed an unreal amount of beer bottles and garbage floating in the water. I guess, since it was a Sunday morning, we were viewing the refuse from Saturday evening parties. Eventually we saw a city worker fishing out garbage with a long net. He was filling large black bags with the bottles and other floating garbage. I couldn’t help but wonder why Camden doesn’t put garbage cans along the canal (we saw none). It would have to be less expensive than having to pay somebody to clean the canal ever day!
We walked into Camden and found a place for breakfast. We ordered the “typical” English breakfasts and the kids were amused that beans are a breakfast food in England.
The zoo isn’t far from Camden and the roads are well marked. We got there at opening. As somebody mentioned in another report, “the zoo’s a zoo.” It was covered by the London Pass, but I think it would have been expensive otherwise. Tamara loved the red panda – it looked like a little red raccoon (we bought a stuffed animal). There is a neat butterfly house where the climate (I kid you not) is exactly like Orlando in the summer (about 95 degrees). I said that to somebody in there and they laughed as if I was joking! The two youngest also enjoyed the Llamas – singing Llama, Llama, Moose so many times that we were really getting some odd looks from other zoo goers. We only stayed at the zoo about two hours or so – Tamara would have stayed the whole day – she loves zoos-- but the other kids are less enamored.
Jason’s Canal Boat
After the zoo, I wanted to go to Little Venice and catch Jason’s Canal boat back to Camden. Getting to Little Venice from the zoo involved a walk (amusingly, people asked us for directions THREE times while walking along trying to find a bus stop. I guess we must have stopped looking like tourists by this time), a bus ride and a tube ride. When we found the dock for Jason’s canal boat, we realized that we had missed the boat and would need to wait an hour for the next one. Tip: there is no shopping in the area near Jason’s canal boat so it was a boring wait.)
By the time the boat returned there was quite a line and we were unsure whether we’d get on. Although there are several canal boats, only Jason’s takes the London Pass and it appeared to me that everybody boarding was using the pass. I think that this was one negative aspect of the LP – I wasn’t about to go pay for a different boat since I felt that I had already paid for Jasons, so I was sort of locked in. We did get on, but about twenty people were turned away – that would have been very disappointing after having waited an hour for the boat to return! There was one group of people, about six adults and six small children-- on the boat who had boarded in Camden with a cooler of beer for the roundtrip. They were incredibly loud (drunk) and quite obnoxious. Several small children in the group were squealing extremely loudly, but the parents were too drunk to notice or care. The kids were literally having screaming contests – really, I’m not joking –competitions to see who could squeal the loudest. Mind you, I love kids, I really do (have four) and can tune out almost anything, but had I not been seated on the opposite end of the boat, I would have thrown them overboard I think – parents and children alike. I was surprised that nobody said anything to the group, but the people on the boat were primarily us, the drunken families, and numerous Germans. The poor guide on Jason kept on giving her little talk which I think would have been interesting had the children not been screaming in one ear and had a group of German tourists, who were obviously not interested in listening to the guide, not been reading quite loudly (so as to be heard over the children) from a London guidebook in the other. Anyway, we made it to Camden and alit as quickly as possible. Tip: This ride could be fun and is highly recommended in this forum and from what I heard from the guide, the canal has an interesting history and some pretty scenery. However, if you don’t have the London Pass, take another (preferably classier) boat. If you do have the London Pass, try to ride Jason on a weekday because it was definitely too crowded and too raucous on a Sunday afternoon. At any rate, call ahead because the boat had to turn a number of people away. I think it would be less crowded to catch the boat in Camden and ride to Little Venice.
Camden on a Sunday afternoon is interesting and crowded. I think some people would love it (tattoos and cigarettes), but I am not one of those people. We grabbed sandwiches and drinks at Subway (mostly because we were so thirsty and Subway offers refills on large sodas) and walked to the nearest open tube station to get back to London. Becky had been pestering us to go to Harrods all week and this was our last chance, but it was only open until six on Sunday, so we had to hurry.
Harrods
I loved Harrods. We only had about an hour there, but I wish I had scheduled at least half a day. It is over the top, cruise-ship opulent and I had fun just wandering around for awhile. I had been told how expensive Harrods is, but I really didn’t think it was. It has expensive stuff, like designer handbags, but those things are expensive everywhere – the prices at Harrods didn’t seem any more than you’d pay for the equivalent item at Saks or Bloomingdales . I wandered around the food halls and we were sorry that we had stopped at Subway in Camden to eat – there was such interesting food there! My favorite place was the minerals gallery. I bought Glenn a pretty pyrite crystal and I got a trilobite fossil. I just got my Visa bill and the total was $135. My guess is that those types of things would run at least that much in Orlando (if you could even find them). Unfortunately, Harrods closed at six so we didn’t get to see that much of it. If I get to return to London, I’ll schedule more time. I personally don’t buy Louis Vuitton handbags (wouldn’t judge somebody who does) – but I do love quirky little items that you can’t find in the mall (like fossilized trilobites)and I think that Harrods has some of that type of thing. Tip: If you go to Harrods, try to find the minerals gallery (near the bookstore). It is beautiful – there are all sorts of crystals and geodes displayed in glass cases and beautifully backlit. Even my husband enjoyed looking at the stuff and he hates shopping – this gallery was more like a museum than a shop, and nobody was in there even though the rest of the store was packed.
Leicester Square
The girls wanted to pick up some cheap souvenirs, so after Harrods closed we headed to Leicester Square to see if we could find some little shops. After buying keychains and pens for the friends at home, I had the kids’ portraits done by the street artists. We chose four different artists and three of the portraits were terrible (Tamara’s and Tessa’s don’t look like them and Tommy’s looks more like a caricature than a portrait). However the portrait of Becky is absolutely breathtaking. Unfortunately, her artist did not sign so I can’t let anybody know his name, but if anybody’s looking, he was the only black artist there (Sunday evening) – slight build, maybe 5’9” and spoke with, what sounded to me like a Caribbean accent. Even though it was a charcoal portrait he brushed the charcoal on. Her portrait took forever to draw, but it is definitely art. I wish we had chosen him for all four kids—however, he took well over an hour to draw her, so it wasn’t possible.
After Leicester square, we stumbled back to King’s Cross, exhausted. We cleaned up the apartment and semi-packed because, even though our flights weren’t until noon the following day, we wanted to leave early so that we didn’t have to struggle with suitcases on the tube during rush hour (good call I might add).
Day 10 Home
Our flight home from London was uneventful. I liked that Continental airlines has movies on demand – better than the Virgin Atlantic system in my opinion in which each movie starts at the same time. We went through customs in Houston and when I heard the Texas drawl from the customs agent, I realized that I had really missed the U.S.- London was fun, and hopefully I’ll return someday, but I’m much more relaxed in Orlando!
May 16th, 2009, 07:24 PM
#63
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Wow YK -- thanks for posting the dates for the HC wedding event, and yes, if you're there this year, try to get out to see it.
We were there the first Saturday in April so I guess we were some of the first to see the wedding event. They did a wonderful job -- so good in fact that it didn't occur to me that they were new to it! Kudos to the HC actors.
(Thanks again for posting the dates -- when I plan trips, I read tons of trip reports, some of them months or years old. Its important to know when something isn't permanent!).
Laura
We were there the first Saturday in April so I guess we were some of the first to see the wedding event. They did a wonderful job -- so good in fact that it didn't occur to me that they were new to it! Kudos to the HC actors.
(Thanks again for posting the dates -- when I plan trips, I read tons of trip reports, some of them months or years old. Its important to know when something isn't permanent!).
Laura
May 17th, 2009, 05:43 AM
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Thanks again for posting this wonderful report, Laura! It's been very helpful for me. (Can't believe we leave two weeks from today!)
What wonderful memories you made on this trip! And, to me, that's what traveling with kids is all about.
What wonderful memories you made on this trip! And, to me, that's what traveling with kids is all about.
May 26th, 2009, 09:53 AM
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Thanks so much for your report. I appreciated all the detail. We are going in July with boys ages 16 and 13. I'm thinking of adding Hampton Court Palace. Besides Tessa, which of your other kids liked HCP best?
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