To start the Christmas holidays off with a bang we
decided to have a three-day trip to London. It’s a while since we were last there and since Beth loved
it so much last time, we thought we’d try and explore a bit more.
We caught a very early train on the morning of
Saturday 21st then headed to the hotel to drop our bags off. This trip we decided to try a smaller
hotel called The Academy, it was on a pretty quiet street but only a few minutes walk from Oxford
Street.
From there we took the tube and slowly made our way to
Portobello Road. I’ve always
wanted to have a nosey around there and the kids were curious as they like
watching Bedknobs and Broomsticks.
Sadly there was no dancing in the street but there were a lot of shops
and stalls to look at.
To stem their hunger, the kids managed with Nutella
pancakes bigger than their heads and we had a lovely wander along the entire
street. Unfortunately, when the
kids realised we weren’t going to buy something from every shop, they became a
bit less enthusiastic about browsing.
So, after a bit of brunch, we headed back towards the
hotel and called in to the British Museum. Beth wanted to see the Aztec masks and Toby the
mummies. I’m sure I’ve been there
before but I can’t remember. It’s
a pretty impressive building with some pretty impressive items.
We located the mummies first. Beth was particularly interested in
Cleopatra – the village panto this year is about Cleopatra and she is one of
the dancers in the intro sequence (she looks a bit miserable in this pic, can’t
remember why or if she was just being serious to mark the occasion!). Toby wasn’t bothered about individuals;
he just wanted to see bodies and was especially interested in the cat mummies.
We did manage to see the Aztec masks and artefacts –
they were beautiful, however we didn’t stop too long. By the time we found them, everyone was a little
disinterested and ready for a sit down and some refreshments. 
The next morning we headed towards Covent Garden for
breakfast then on to the Tate Modern. Beth is very creative and loves drawing and painting but has no confidence in her work, I hoped that visiting the Tate Modern might convince her that her work has merit. I was very happy to see that my theory was confirmed and it took little to convince her that pretty much any of her creations would shine among the ones on show! I think our favourite was this 'square tube' installation. ;)
From there we wandered across the wobbly bridge, past St Paul's and on to Hamleys (of course). Amazingly it wasn't as busy as feared - think most people had bought their Christmas gifts by then - so we had a good wander, poke and prod and managed to escape without spending any money. Christmas being only three days away was a fantastic excuse!
After a rest at the hotel, Auntie Jane arrived to join our adventure. We meandered through London and got some dinner. Toby found a worthy adversary in Yoda in Trafalgar Square. Not sure who won that duel, suspect he did as we parted a couple of quid worse off for the pleasure!
Steve kindly offered to take the kids back to the hotel so Jane and I did a little shoe browsing, wandered through Carnaby Street and managed to find the time for a sneaky pint too.
The next day, after a rather lovely breakfast (in a shared-booth cafe that strangely, no one wanted to share with us), we went to Fortum and Mason to have a look at their window displays and scare the shop assistants by hurtling around very expensive and rather fragile merchandise.
After a relaxing lunch we caught the train back up home, rather slowly as the rain and wind had caused a few problems, and got back a couple of hours late. Despite that it was a very enjoyable trip and the perfect start to the holiday season.
