our London family adventures

Ok, here's the complete "chronicle" of our recent family trip to London (31 January - 4 February 2008). My apologies to relatives, cousins and friends for not posting it sooner - it's just that things went sort of crazy when i got back to work ... simply put, I've been busy - as in SUPER BUSY!

Well, work is always like that ... you just can't put it aside. So, even if I've got my cold, lost my voice and squeaked my instructions, I survived the past three days. Tomorrow, I'm working from home - I begged not to come work to be able to rest my voice completely ... no one understands me anyway when I try to speak, nor can I answer any of my phone calls.

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LONDON DIARIES
31 January – 4 February 2008

Family and friends asked me to write about my recent trip to London in my blog, and even my colleagues would like to read about how we spent our 4-days holiday in the maze of London. I was told they love my gab for writing in detail all my travels that they feel like being there with me just the same. And I’m truly glad you feel that way. I’m sure you will be able to laugh, and symphatise, with me.

A word of caution though, you will have to bear in mind that as you read on, this particular trip is all about our son, Alexander. This is one of his birthday wishes and we thought that given his age, it’s would be quite an experience for him to see London and get his own perspective and impressions. For him, London is where Thomas the Tank Engines lives, and our role is to simply chaperone – and chaperoned him we did!

I managed to arrange a 5-day stay at one of our company’s London apartments in the City of Westminister for a small fee – it is one of the perks we get as employees for SCA. The airfares at Ryan Air was also a bonus, making this trip truly worth its while.

So, here’s our trip diary to London. Happy reading!

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Thursday, 31 January 2008

Arrived at London Stanstead Airport in a drizzle of rain. From the airport, we took the express train to the Liverpool Street Station and from there took the famous London taxi to our rented flat at the Octavia House at Medway Street. The ride took a bit longer than expected because of the lunch hour rush around the Westminster area in Victoria Street. Safe inside the cab, we watched people as they scurried around under the rain. And yes, in typical English fashion, we took notice of how umbrellas flipped open and closed at every corner of the street. Alexander took fancy of the London cab – it’s different, he said. Arriving at the Octavia House, we were greeted by the day portier as soon as we entered the lobby of the building.

The 2-bedroom flat assigned to us was quite chic from inside and out, and mind you, it was fully furnished. The living room has TV and small radio while the kitchen is fully equipped that we could cook and bake as we please. The coffee machine is heaven sent for my husband, and I was equally thankful for the dishwasher. Alexander loved the flat the instant we came in and has staked claim to the first bedroom with a small balcony by the hallway. The master’s bedroom is spacious with a full sized closet and, yes, a safe deposit box. It has two toilet and shower. Towels and bed linens are also provided and were neatly arranged by the bed for you. We feel so pampered already – it’s like living in a hotel and yet it feels like it’s home.

We dropped our bags, secured our valuables and off we went to explore our neighbourhood. We soon discovered that the glass building we see right across from our balcony was the TV4-station of London. We set off for a promenade down Horseferry Road and crisscrossed the Marsham Street passing the neat entrance of the Home Office Building. And to Alexander’s delight, we came across police officers’ heavily armed with machine guns walking around the building. I could see the friendly smile on their faces as Alex asked me if the guns were real. We walked alongside the River Thames along Millbank Street hoping to see something majestic – and we were disappointed. This particular part of the river was almost dry – no, not undergoing some clean up but simply experiencing a low tide. But we did see a barge afloat in the middle of the river, minus the promised charm of the River Thames (at least from the east side). The stretch of Millbank Street between the Lambeth Bridge and Vauxhall Bridge lead us to the Tate Britain Gallery teemed with people in busloads. We backtracked our steps and headed to Victoria Street passing through the Westminister Abbey. The smell of pizza suddenly made us all hungry so we scouted for a pizza restaurant as we walked along Victoria Street and found one called Pizza Express. It’s an affordable pizza joint for families during the day as the atmosphere, as we were told, transforms into more of a “club pizza joint” for adults for a wine and dine jazzy night.

After our late lunch, we decided to take the number 15 bus to take us to the London Tower Bridge. We enjoyed the whole ride as it took us along Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square and St Paul’s Cathedral. Just for the kick of it, we opted to get off early at Cannon Street and instead explore the city area. Along the way, we got distracted by small and big shops we simply can’t resist – so, we ended up dashing in and out of the shops before we realised that it had fallen dark which prompted us to skip our original plan and go home. And as classic as it could get, we managed to take the wrong bus and ended up at Bloomsbury instead of Westminster.

In any case, by the time we found our way back to the flat, we were all starving – again! The availability of ready sandwiches – in all shapes and sizes, dressings and spices, made it possible for us to steady our grumbling stomachs. The eat-and-go-culture in the UK is pretty obvious - anywhere you go, you're likely to see an Englishman munching a sandwich as they walk and talk on their mobile phones. We did some quick groceries to stuff our empty fridge and freezer.

All throughout our day’s adventure, Alexander was exceptionally positive and vibrant – enjoying the day’s twists and turns. In fact, he thinks everything’s a great adventure.

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Friday, 1 February 2008

Another day, another adventure. Our target destination for the day has been set: Hamley’s and Harrod’s. Alexander’s all geared to see toyland – places he’d only heard from family and friends. To him, it’s pure paradise just at the mere mention of it.

On our way out to Victoria Street, we passed a market area and saw some activity books Alexander would like to have. He was quite chirpy on this cold, windy day. We lived close to the Scotland Yard Office along Victoria Street and it’s actually walking distance to the Big Ben and Westminster Abbey - but with Alexander in tow, the red double-decker bus is something that tickled his fancy. So, we took buss number 11 to Picadilly Circus and from there we got off at Regent Street and found our way to Hamley’s. Well inside the toyshop, Alexander just went ballistics and ran off to find his “friends” – Thomas the Tank Engine, of course. Believe it or not, we spent more than an hour just waiting for him to get tired of playing with the train tracks and trying on some other toys – in the end, we’re the ones who got fed up and literally have to tell him we have to leave. Oh yes, we sure did not leave empty handed ... there were a few train toys and other stuff that went inside our backpack.

He was quite pleased with his visit at Hamley’s. He talked incessantly about everything he saw there – as if we were not present at the same toyshop. We continued our walk and got ourselves in and around the Mayfair and Soho districts. Oxford Street is teeming with a lot of people and it's where you could find just about anything – odd stuff included. As soon as Alexander started complaining how tired his small legs are from the long walk, we decided to take another bus from Bond Street to Knightbridge/Sloane to visit Harrod’s.

When we arrived at the Knightbridge/Sloane Street, we immediately noticed that there’s no such intensity and activity there unlike that of Oxford Street – the area is one exclusive shopping street. To my hubby’s delight, there are a lot of luxurious and expensive cars cruising, and parked along the stretch of Sloane Street – Jaguars, Lambourginis, Porsches, BMWs, Mercedeses, Aston Martins and the lot. Owners of these cars are obviously patrons of the high-end and trendy shops as Fendi, Chanel, Gucci, D&G, Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Prada – you name it, this street is likely to have it! One very visible sight on most of these special shops are the security men in black standing outside its main doors – talk about service and exclusivity.

Arriving at Harrod’s, Alexander’s adrenalin is all pumped up as we went inside to find the toy section on the 4th floor area. Again, he was only in search of his “friend” – Thomas the Tank Engine. The play area dedicated to boys crazy about Thomas the Tank Engine was full of energetic and enthusiastic kids. And so, he played and played and played. I tried to show him other stuff around the toy area, but his interest was short-lived – he’d immediately leave to return at the Thomas-play area. He’s truly nuts about trains – or just about anything with wheels! Again, we patiently waited in turns for him to get tired of playing (wishful thinking!). After another hour and a half, my husband decided it was time to go – and Alexander couldn’t say no to that. Once again, we set off to the streets after giving in to buying more toy trains and tracks for him to bring home.

It was already dark at 16.00 hours when we left Harrod’s and we were a bit disoriented – took the wrong bus (again!) and ended up in Paddington. Tired and weary and hungry, we managed to get the right bus back to Trafalgar Square and took bus number 24 towards Pimlico which passes through Victoria Street in Westminster.

Yup, twas another long and tiring day for all of us – but hey, it sure was another great adventure. Given today’s trials and errors, we’ll have a better plan and itinerary. Sleep is what we need by now.

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Saturday, 2 February 2008

Armed with our day experience from yesterday, we thought it best to have a better plan and itinerary for today’s activities. We’ve mapped out what we want to do and where we’d want to go. Still having Alexander in mind, we know we’ll have to see the Tower Bridge and London Bridge, visit at the St Paul’s Cathedral, explore the Picadilly Circus and Covent Garden areas and be on the look-out for more toy shops to visit.

Taking the number 15 bus to Tower Hill from Picadilly Circus, we crossed over to the Tower of London – a majestic fort with its white tower once surrounded by water from the river Thames to protect it from its enemies. We trekked alongside the fort up to the Tower Bridge – from there we could see the HMS Belfast – a naval museum docked close to the London Bridge City Pier. The dockside is parallel to Tooley Street and it would be interesting to note that the Crown Court Southwark and Hay’s Galleria is worth a quick stop to browse some art exhibits, and this also goes for the London Dungeon. At the Borough High Street, we took another bus to cross the London Bridge towards The Monument at Lower Thames Street – and this area reminds me so much of Stockholm’s Old City ... the building structures were quite similar. From The Monument station, we decided to walk towards Cannon Street where we stopped by a Starbucks Cafe for some coffee and sweets, afterwhich we proceeded down to St Paul’s Cathedral. Our stop there somehow calmed, and energized our little Alexander and soon he was ready to walk some more.

Again, we took bus number 15 to take us to Aldwych and from there walked and explored Covent Garden – an area famous for its diverse market, cafe and restaurants, street artists and musicians, opera and theater houses – and the London Transport Museum (you’d probably know by now why we have to go there). It was an interesting visit and our Alexander was of course, very pleased. We tried to look for some play that would interest Alexander, but he later politely declined and said we could do it another time. At Drury Lane, the matinee for Lord of the Rings was about to start when we arrived outside the gates. As we continued to walk towards Leicester Square, we chanced upon a gaming house and Alexander immediately shuttled in and played to his delight some racing games. We went around and scoured the house for some more interesting games and rides. There was a bowling area, bull ride, bumper car ride and all kinds of loud and nerve wrecking gaming stations, which we were not used to. After half an hour, we called it quits and dashed out into the open and fresh air and headed towards Trafalgar Square on foot – weaving our way through the narrow ways of Ruppert, Coventry, Whitcomb and Pall Mall streets. The Admiralty Arch leading to St James’ Park is always a delightful sight to see. We took the number 24 bus home, stopped at the Artillery Road and took a short walk to the Pizza Hut to grab some quick dinner. Alexander looked awfully tired that we decided to call it a day, boxed our pizza left overs as well as our pre-ordered dessert of cheesecake with raspberry toppings and head home. Oh, I forgot to mention that we had to stop by the nearby Sainsbury Central to buy some bottled water and a liter of fresh milk ... and then head for home half-dragging a drowsy and tired Alexander.

All of us sort of crashed to the couch when we arrived at our flat – we were all very tired. Alexander voluntarily went to bed ... for a short rest, he said. Before we know it, he was snoring heavily and we didn’t have the heart to wake him up. We started our adventure as early as 9.40 hrs and came home at 19.00 hrs – can you blame him? My hubby, at the time of this writing, is also half snoring at the couch – I’d better wake him up now and get him transferred to bed. What time is it now? Well, it’s almost midnight, and I do need to crash to bed, too.

More on London by tomorrow ... nighty-night!

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Sunday, 3 February 2008

Good morning! We just had breakfast .... we had a late start today. I guess we need some time to absorb all the experience and hefty impressions from the past two days. It truly had been a hectic and full schedule. Do we still have the energy and stamina to continue? You bet we do. Today’s activities will be museum visits and more walk around London town. On top of our list is a visit to the now infamous London Eye. More about this later.

23.00 hrs

My boys are now sound asleep - tired, of course. We had a full day as was expected. Alexander's fascination of the London double-decker buses were real - he talks about them even in his sleep.

We took the bus from Victoria Street to the Waterloo Station and from there walked over to the Waterloo Millenium Pier where the London Eye is located. It was a magnificent work of art - a truly fine structure. It was already packed and crowded when we came to the ticket office and the queue was hellish. Much as we would like to really experience the 30-minute-ride, we decided to skip it as we were not up to the long wait to get our tickets, and then another long wait and queue just to get into the "eye" - patience was not really in our book today.

In order to compensate for our failed London Eye-ride, we went to the London Aquarium instead - and I'm sorry to say this, the ticket cost is a rip-off! It didn't offer much and we were a bit disappointed. Alexander, however, was easy to please and was satisfied with what he saw in this museum. And he got bored easily that we chose to cut the visit short. We took the first available bus back to the Covent Garden for another look-see ... and as was expected, the place was full of people. We enjoyed watching the street artists and performers showing off their talents, and tricks. We gawked at the diversity of stuff being sold there. There were quite a lot of restaurants and pubs around the area, but most were packed of smoking customers ... not the kind of place for us non-smokers, and one complaining kid.

Again, we walked towards Picadilly Circus from Covent Garden, passing the rows of theaters along the way, weaved through Chinatown and through Leicester Square at Charing Cross Road. When we came past Picadilly Circus, we decided to treat Alexander one final visit to the Hamley's toy shop - he was soooo delighted!

When Alexander finally "let go" of Hamley's at Regent Street, we called it a day and grabbed ourselves some quick sandwiches and head for home. Twas a long day ... but believe it or not, my two boys seemed pretty satisfied as they retired to bed - Alexander was even wearing a smile on his face as he wander into dreamland.

And I need to hit bed, too. Bye for now ...

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Monday, 4 February 2008

We're homebound! It's 7.00 am and I've just finished packing our bags ... ready to go home. It had been fun-filled days in London with my family. We truly enjoyed our family adventures - it's fun, fun, fun!

Bye for now, London!