London as a Tourist

We recently had rellies over from Australia and therefore had the fun task of heading out sightseeing in London Town. That isn't sarcasm by the way. I love sightseeing in my home town. We don't get to do it often as we normally have to contend with all the real tourists at the weekend, but this time it was a weekday jaunt into town.

We didn't have any plan of action which made me a tad jittery. I don't fare well without a plan at the best of times let alone when we are about to tackle major landmarks with two kiddies in tow. It would have been a lot cheaper to formulate a plan to see everything on public transport, but we ended up jumping on a tour bus at London Bridge as it saved brain power. They are very expensive, but if you get one with a good guide (and on a day when the traffic isn't hellish), they can be fun. Unfortunately we managed to mainly catch ones that had no guide so you could only listen to the recorded tour...well, you could if you didn't have a toddler.

We only jumped off the bus a couple of times; once for the London Eye and once for Harrods. I have only ever been to Harrods when rellies are visiting. I never considered it a place to actually shop. However, it is certainly a fab place to drop into if you have a kiddy with you. Have you seen the toy section?? It is huge! We spent ages wandering round, saying hello to all the mahoosive stuffed animals and playing with the demo toys. Obviously the toy section isn't Hamleys size, but if you're in Knightsbridge, it's worth popping in.

     


A fun day out, but next time I will definitely be spending a little longer planning routes on the bus, train, river bus and tube to make it a cheaper and probably more fun experience for the kids. Oh, and in a taxi, as that seems to be the only way, other than walking, to go past the front of Buckingham Palace.

And relax...

Did you have a Merry Christmas? EDtot was overwhelmed by it all and I think is still coming down off her excitement high. She doesn't really understand why friends and rellies are coming and going so much and why EDdad is only away at work for a couple of days. I hear her muttering to herself as she plays "no nursery, no, not today, maybe tomorrow, maybe chocolate" before launching into another round of Jingle Bells.

She's in for even more confusion when we let her stay up on New Year's Eve. See you on the other side!

ED Christmas Cracker

What a lovely day! It started well with EDtot waking up at 8:30am!! 8:30! Usually that means she's ill, but thankfully at the moment there are only the usual seasonal snuffles to contend with (touch wood). So we were all happy this morning after a decent night's sleep.

After a trip to the playground and lunch at a local pub, we headed down to check out the East Dulwich Christmas Cracker - the Lordship Lane and North Cross Road street festival. It was a busy old afternoon on the Lane, but amongst the crowds we managed a rare sighting of the ED yeti.

EDtot was not impressed though and continued painting her Christmas tree at the craft stall for the afternoon parade.

Unfortunately we missed the parade as we were too busy enjoying an impromptu pub crawl down the Lane. We did, however, find our favourite winter street market stall... the chestnut stall! Our pleas from last year have been heard and our local Rye Books have expanded into the chestnut/mulled cider market. We hear they'll be there every Saturday at the usual North Cross Road market. Hurrah!

The final destination for us was The Plough for both one final glass of bubbly and to buy our Christmas Tree from the stall outside. It was our top choice both thanks to the free delivery and the donation to charity that they made for each tree sold. And cos it was outside a pub.

So after a fun day out on the Lane, we now have to figure out where to stash all the rubbish that is currently cluttering our living room so that we can decorate the tree tomorrow. Don't you love December?