Time for another adventure! Jerry has business in London this week so off we go...Leave Pijnacker at 4am and in England by 8am! Sweet! Driving the car onto the Eurotunnel train and being taken through the chunnel was exciting. The degree of traffic in London itself brought back not fond memories of NYC on a Monday morning at rush hour, but Jerry drove it like a pro, even the whole "wrong side of the road thing" was no problem for him. We checked in to our hotel which was 2 blocks from Hyde Park in Paddington and were out on the streets in full on tourist gawking,I heart London tshirt buyingmode by 10am. Oh yeah! We enjoyed strolling through Hyde Park and saw the site where the Olympic triathlon and open water swim will take place. Beautiful gardens all trimmed within an inch of their lives as the London 2012 prepares to kick off. We saw the Peter Pan statue(The Darlings lived on Hyde Park), Serpentine Lake, the famous green lawn chairs and lots more. Hyde Park turns into Kensington Gardens, and there we visited the Princess Diana Memorial Garden and Fountain which were both just lovely. We then walked up to Kensington Palace. Kensington Palace is open to the public in the front, and behind it are private apartments for various royals. Charlotte, a huge Princess Kate fan, was thrilled to find out that Kate, Will and Harry all have apartments there and stay when they are in London. The exhibits were fantastic and we spent a lot of time there. They were all very interactive, so the kids could touch,hear and feel the history. I love that! we enjoyed our picnic at a cafe on the grounds, I bought a coffee to earn the table, what a sacrifice! Then we headed to the tube and rode to Charing Cross Station, and announced to the kids that we were doing a Harry Potter Walking Tour. Oh my gosh, they were so psyched! I had the tour downloaded on the ipad and we followed it step by step to Diagon Alley, Honeydukes,The Leaky Caldron, Trafalgur Square (death eaters flying over in Deathly Hallows part one) and loads of others. Many of the scenes from the movies were filmed around London. At the end of the first part of the tour we split up. Jerry and the kids headed to the hotel area for dinner(fish and chips!) and I hiked down to the box office of Wicked, in the West End, and got tickets for the Tuesday show. I took a photo of the front of the theatre to show Charlotte and the kids when I broke the news, she has wanted to see this for years. After such and awesome day you wouldn't think the excitement level could get any higher, but it did!
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| Hyde Park, Serpentine Lake in the background |
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| site of triathlon and open water swim for London 2012 Olympics |
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| Princess Diana's roses |
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| Princess Diana Memorial Fountain |
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| Danny's nature photography |
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| Peter Pan statue |
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| Kensington Palace gardens |
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| Molly at the gardens |
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| a little lunchtime visitor |
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| Danny had fun with this friendly fellow! |
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| the happy couple |
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| the other happy couple! |
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| Charlotte LOVES the royals! |
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| important British men! |
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| Danny did a puppet show of Queen Victorias Jubilee! |
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| Queem Victoria's daughter Princess Louise sculpted this statue of her as a jubilee gift! Wow! |
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| To the Tube! |
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| Diagon Alley |
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| Honeydukes! |
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| Chocolate frogs! evey flavour beans! |
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| London calling! |
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| what a cool mini! |
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| oh my! |
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| another shot from the movie.... |
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| Trafalgar Square |
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| Jerry gets a well deserved Pub break! |
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