This was our last full day in London so we wanted to make the best of it. The day before, we hit up the Half Price Ticket booths in Piccadilly Circus and asked about shows we could take the kids to. Although they don’t allow any children under the age of 3 into shows, we figured Massimo was closer to the age of 3 than 2, so he could pass. We knew there were 2 shows we wanted to see: “The Lion King” and “Stomp!”
So, we got up early and (after our morning Starbucks, of course) headed to Piccadilly Circus to buy our Same-Day, Half-Price tickets. We went to 3 different tickets booths and heard three different answers: “There are sex scenes in ‘Stomp!’ so I won’t sell you tickets for your kids”; “It will be too loud in ‘Stomp!’ which is an environmental hazard for the children so I won’t sell you tickets for your kids”; and “We don’t allow children under the age of 5 into any of our shows so I can’t sell you tickets for your kids.” Ok, 3 strikes, we were out.
Since we were already at Piccadilly Circus, we walked through an area like “Little Italy” with tons of Italian restaurants and cafes. Being that we weren’t craving anything Italian, we ducked into a cute little French bistro and enjoyed crepes, croissants and tea for brunch.
Once we were full on French food (yum!), we finally caved in to the boys’ incessant requests and ventured over to the London Eye. Basically it is a big Ferris Wheel composed of pods, and it moves slow enough that it never has to stop to let the next guests on. Here is an explanation of what the London Eye is, directly from their website:
“At 135m, The Merlin Entertainments London Eye is the world’s largest cantilevered observation wheel. It was conceived and designed by Marks Barfield Architects and was launched in 2000. It has already won over 75 awards for national and international tourism, outstanding architectural quality and engineering achievement and has now welcomed over 36 million visitors.”
First we went through a 4-minute, 4-D video of the London Eye (complete with bubbles, blast of air and confetti flying at us). Then we jumped in line and got in a pod. Unfortunately, we were put in a pod with about 15 other Italians. There were 2 women who refused to move so we could take pictures of Big Ben, despite my polite request in Italian. Needless to say, I got my pictures!!! All in all, the boys had fun!!! At the end, we took the boys to a small playground at the base of the Eye so they could blow off some steam and have afternoon snack.
Once we had a snack break, I became fixated on finding the “Princess Diana Memorial Playground”, located in Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park–I couldn’t find it in the tour books, but I remembered many friends telling me about it. Mike and I couldn’t decide on the mode of transportation (he wanted cheap and I wanted fast and easy) so we “settled” on Mike’s method: the Tube. By the time we got to a Tube station that was actually open that day (20 minutes later) — side note: London is hosting the summer Olympics in 2012 so they are doing a TON on construction on the roads, Tube, sidewalks, etc. — we were all hungry again. I found a cute sushi place and got myself a Bento box of some fresh Japanese creations! Mike walked over to Krispy Kreme and got coffee for himself and for the boys, some warm, glazed donuts.
Ok, now we are ready to get on the Tube. After much commotion, we get all of us down the escalator in one piece (not an easy feat, mind you, since everyone, including MASSIMO, wants to do it “myself”). As we are trying to figure out our route, a nice Underground employee informs us that the Tube line we need is closed for maintenance this weekend (amazing!). So we decide to do my choice of transportation — a cab!
Ok, it is now 1 hour and 15 minutes later, and we are FINALLY at Kensington Gardens, but now Massimo is asleep in Mike’s arms. After a brisk 15 minute walk through the gardens, we finally find the Playground. It is AMAZING AND FREE!!! It has a Peter Pan theme with sandboxes to play in, tons of swing sets, and a HUGE wooden pirate ship / climb-on playground structure. Just what the boys needed on this gorgeous spring day!!!!!
We took a ton of pictures while the boys climbed to the top of the mast. Then we got some soft-serve ice cream. You’d think it was Massimo’s first soft-serve cone because he didn’t know what to do with it since it was melting so fast! After 3 licks, it fell on the ground, oops!
After being in the park for almost 2 hours, we started our long journey back to the hotel. Our vacation was coming to a close. There were still so many things we wanted to see in London, but alas, we couldn’t do it all. We ran into a Marks & Spencer store (sort of like Whole Foods) so I could grab some fruit, cheese and crackers for our hotel room.
When we got back to our room, we remembered the “birthday gift” that the hotel had left me — a coupon for 2 free cocktails from the hotel bar. We quickly freshened up and headed to the lobby. While Mike drank beer, I ordered myself 2 Espresso Martinis — yum! We ordered some kids’ meals for the boys as well as some hummus for us. The boys loved sitting in a circular corner booth, with the bar mood lighting. We played the travel games I had bought at Hamley’s. It was the perfect ending to a perfect vacation!!!
