We decided to stay close to home for this half-term break and spent the greater part of a week exploring London! I mean, it's only 2-3 hours away and it would be so sad to leave our English adventure without spending time in the capital city! We left home on the Monday, parked, and took the overground to our Airbnb flat in West Hampstead. We found a little restaurant nearby for dinner that evening and then settled in for the night so we'd be full of energy for the next few days!
Tuesday:
We started the day at Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station. We had come here before but the line had been so long that we didn't get our pictures taken. This time the line was a bit shorter (still longer than I thought it would be first thing in the morning!) so the kids and I picked our house scarves and ran through the barrier.
Next we headed down to the Tower of London. We bought a Historic Royal Palaces membership, which gave us entry. (This is now our third active membership for sites around England, and we love them all!) After just a short wait, we had a fantastic tour by a Yeoman Warder where we learned about the history of the tower and the prisoners and royalty who lived, visited, and died there. We waited in a long line to see the crown jewels, and explored the various buildings and towers that are all within the outer walls of the Tower of London. The kids especially loved finding all the animal sculptures- did you know that the tower used to house the royal menagerie?
Just outside the tower we stopped for some pictures of Tower Bridge. This is one of the most iconic London sights and you get a great view of it from right outside the Tower of London. We also walked across the bridge, which was pretty neat too.
We were pretty hungry by this time so we wandered over to Borough Market for some lunch. This place was a bit overwhelming. There were so many food stalls! We ended up getting some amazing burgers and fries, and found a (somewhat hidden) seating area outside the market. I highly recommend Borough Market for a casual meal, but I bet it's a bit hard for indecisive people!
We crossed over the Millennium Bridge, and stopped for a few pictures with St Paul's.
And then we visited George Washington on our way into the British Museum. The main thing we wanted to see here was the exhibit with all the artifacts from the Parthenon in Athens. We were just in Greece in April and had seen all the original and recreated buildings, statures, columns, etc. on location and in the museums there, so it was strange to see the other half of the artifacts here in London, when it seems like the vast majority should be housed in the Acropolis Museum in Athens. We also stopped to peek at the Rosetta Stone, which was larger than I expected.
We stopped by Blade Rubber Stamps for some crafty goodies- all four of my guys sat on the floor and ate some crackers while I shopped. Haha. They're good sports- this stop was definitely just for me. But I found some awesome stuff, so I call it a success!
By this point we were pushing it to get to anything else before it closed, but we rushed over to the National Gallery in search of some Van Gough works, only to find out that they had been moved to a temporary exhibit in another museum. Boo.
We worked our way back to Leicester Square for dinner, the Lego store, and some amazing Bubblewrap Waffle ice cream cones. Seriously, you can't go wrong here- everything is awesome. And beautiful too!
Wednesday:
We started Wednesday with a stop at Selfridge's on Oxford St! Unfortunately they weren't open yet, but we checked out all of the window displays, which have apparently always been an important feature of the store (if you watched Mr Selfridge, you'll know what I mean!) and they were elaborate! Robotic arms, holographic displays, etc.
Our time there was cut short because we needed to get over to Buckingham for the changing of the guard! During the off-season they only do this public ceremony a few times a week, so this was our only chance to see it during this trip. We arrived about 45 minutes early and it was already so crowded! And unfortunately, once it started, we were able to see the guards and the marching band on their way in and out of the gates, but we couldn't see the actual ceremony going on. Bummer! But after the old guard marched out, the band played a bunch more songs. We left soon after we heard them playing "Uptown Funk," which is not at all what I expected to hear at Buckingham Palace!
Cutter & Squidge was next on our agenda, and I'm so glad it was! We got some Biskies, which they are most known for, and they were amazing. (Side note- I'd love to check out their afternoon tea for wizards sometime, but it's a bit pricey and they don't allow young kids.) I'd recommend all four of the flavors we tried.
While we were there, we heard from our pilot friend who had just arrived in London for the day. So we met up with him at Covent Garden and he spent the rest of the day with us, which was awesome because we haven't seen him since we moved out here! We went to a couple places that were less interesting than we had been led to believe (Leadenhall Market, Spitalfield Market).
And then we went to the Charles Dickens museum, which is Charles Dickens' actual house (and his neighbor's house, which the museum has now combined into one space). It was pretty neat to see, there were some of his original furnishings there as well as some of his manuscripts and letters.
And our last stop of the day was the Sherlock Holmes museum at 221B Baker Street. This was pretty fun, and the guide showed us Watson's "actual" medical kit at his "actual" desk, and Sherlock's "actual" violin and his "actual" hat in a glass case on his "actual" bed. And then on the upper levels there are mannequins posed in scenes from the books. Oh and the gift shop actually has some pretty great stuff.
We said goodbye to our friend at the tube station where we saw the Sherlock Holmes statue and got a "phone call" from him (scan the QR code and you can hear from him too!), and then we headed back to the flat for the night.
Thursday:
This was our last day in the city so we packed up and Aaron and Andrew took the train to drop our suitcases back at the car while I tidied the flat and got myself, Brandon, and David ready to go. Then we headed out and met up with Aaron and Andrew at Paddington Station.
Then it was back on the tube to go to Kensington Palace (which is also included in the Historic Royal Palaces membership). This is a beautiful palace, half of which is still used as residences for many of the royal family. There was a large exhibit about Queen Victoria, which even featured some of her gowns and jewelry. One of Diana's dresses was also on display. The park and gardens surrounding the palace are really nice as well- if I lived in London I could see myself spending some leisure time there.
Our next stop was a quick one, we literally just left the Earl's Court tube station, went on a quick adventure with the Doctor, and then went right back into the station. Haha. But once I learned that the TARDIS is in London, I just had to see it!
Last big stop of the day, and of the trip, was Portabello Road. Now, we went on a weekday, so the big market wasn't running, but there were still lots of cute shops and a row of outdoor vendors set up. Our favorite for sure was Alice's Antiques- it was so quirky and interesting!
After that it was back to the mall, where we picked up some amazing donuts on our way back to our car.
All in all, a successful trip! We thoroughly wore out the kids (they slept the whole way home!) and saw about 85% of the things we had on our list, which is pretty good! We can go back and see the rest another time! Plus, we already saw some of the other iconic sites on a previous day trip. You can really see a lot in just three days!
*Also published on the Kimblers Abroad blog*
