We Love London

The sun arrived just in time for us all to head to London for a few days. We've never taken the kids on a city break before so we were all excited to be getting on the train and experience London together. The kids insisted on dragging the cases to the train.

After arriving at the wrong hotel - only a minor set back as we walked to the correct one around the corner - we dropped our bags and headed straight out. First stop was The Shard and a trip to the 72nd floor. The sun was shining and with no clouds around the views were amazing.

We then jumped onto the tube and headed to Covent Garden - we had a wander about watching the various street performers, the kids were enthralled by them all. Then we headed to Masala Zone restaurant nearby for curry, we all had the Thalia which was really good. We decided to walk back to the hotel via the London Eye down the Embankment.

We had a little drink at a lovely bar/restaurant close to the hotel before we called it a night - the kids were excited to know what we were going to do the next day.

We stayed in the Southwark Premier Inn, the location, staff, rooms and breakfast were perfect and having filled our plates more than once - croissants were the favourite thing for pink monkey - we headed out to our first stop of the day the Natural History Museum. After standing in one of the longest queues I've ever seen we soon made it inside and headed straight to the Dinosaur exhibition

There were more than 20 exhibits we could have looked at but the kids chose to look at the mammals and Earthquakes (as it had a shaking room in it). After a couple of hours we decided to head back into the sunshine towards Hyde Park where we would stop to have lunch.

We walked through Hyde Park, stopping for an ice cream and a play on the kids park, then continued on down through St James park to Buckingham Palace, as pink monkey knew the flag wasn't flying so The Queen wasn't at home. By this point all the walking had taken its toll so we headed back to the hotel for a relax so someone could recharge their batteries.

A mini recharge did the world of good and next stop was to jump onto a boat trip and head down the Thames

Spotted around were various Sean the Sheeps - raising money for GOSH - every time we found one the kids loved it, especially pink monkey who insisted on having lots of pictures taken. It was time for food so we went to Zizzi's near to the Tower of London - we can never go wrong with the choice of pizza and pasta so everyone was happy. After everyone was well fed it was time to head back to the hotel but once again we decided to walk back. It was getting later now but the lighter nights and the warmer weather meant it was perfect for us to all stroll home via Tower Bridge and The Embankment

Day 2 was definitely a success, we ended the evening with a drink in the hotel bar before heading up to bed - 4 exhausted but happy people.

Day 3 was our last day and we only had half a day to squeeze a few more things in. First stop was Big Ben, Houses of Parliament and a special request from blue monkey to go to Westminster Abbey.

Then we headed towards Hamley's toy shop - the walk took us past the statue of the Duke of York, cue a sing-along

 I remember being taken to Hamley's as a child and loving it and I wanted to see if my children thought the same. They both had some spending money and both picked out a treat each, but blue monkey said "it's good Mummy but there was too much choice" very profound indeed. My opinion was it needs an update.

Final stop was lunch at Wagamama's and a walk through Borough Market on the way to catch the Tube back to Euston.

It was a fantastic, fun packed few days we can't wait to take them again.