Second visit to London

After our week in Belgium, we returned for a few more days in London. This was just before New Year. I had specially booked a hotel that was close to St Pancras station where the Eurostar terminates in London. The hotel was one tube stop away. Unfortunately, there was work occurring on the line and the tube stop was closed. So we had to walk the twenty minutes to the hotel. Some of the area looked like it was part of a housing estate. Having watched too many episodes of the Bill, Sarah was quite concerned and we had to make a few detours.
On the Saturday we were planning to go to Madam Tussauds. When we got there the queue was at least 20 or 30 minutes. Even though the children have embraced whinging, they have not embraced the other English pastime of queuing, so we decided to do the bus tour of London instead. The bus driver said this was the busiest that she had ever seen London. In the afternoon, we headed back to the hotel as the children were getting tired. After a period of rejuvenation Sarah treated each of the children to some shopping time with her. That night we went to Wagamamas for dinner. Ben was happy as he got rice, chicken and carrot; most of his favourite foods in one meal.

The next day we went to have a look at Buckingham Palace and were amazed by the number of people walking around.

After that we walked down to Westminster for a cruise on the Thames, which was included in the bus tour ticket.

In the afternoon we caught up with Angela, Lisa and John who are friends from Sydney living in London. We had a nice afternoon tea on the Kensington High street.

On the Monday morning we took the kids to the Tate Modern gallery, which is in the old Bankside power station. None of us were that impressed. The biggest attraction was the drawing tablets connected to computers for the kids.
Lunch was at Waterloo station. The boys were happy to get sushi again. Ella was treated to the Golden Arches. We all had a great time in London and there are still lots of things we want to see there. Top of the kids list is Hamleys -- the famous toy shop. However, it was very busy with people everywhere and Sarah and I were happy to get the train back to sleepy Weymouth.