London With Kids: Winter Edition.

Our alarm went off at 7:00 am last Saturday morning. We planned on taking the 8:20 am train, that would take us straight into King’s Cross by 9:10 am. As I pressed the snooze button on our alarm clock, I turned to Robert and said that maybe it would be best to not wake the kids up this early (as they had a late night every night that week, it seems) but let them sleep in so they could feel better through out the day. That meant, WE could also sleep for half an hour longer, well, actually, until Alex came downstairs and started making his oatmeal, his new favorite breakfast dish. It’s a good thing that train tickets to London are not for a set time, especially on Saturday, but pretty much for any train during the day, since the price doesn’t fluctuate for off-peak hours.
Speaking of trains, I just confirmed to myself (by reading Rick Steve’s travel book) that Britain indeed has the most expensive trains in Europe. On a weekday, during off peak hours (so leave after 9 am but come back before 4 pm or after 7 pm), our family of five has to pay $75 for a round trip ticket  to London, a journey of only one hour (or an hour and a half by car).  And that’s with a “discount for families” card. On Saturday, I somehow managed to book our ticket for only 26GBP (that’s about $40) for all five of us. Despite the price, if you are on a budget (or want to see us), you should still reserve a room with us, instead of paying at least twice that for a hotel room in London (if you don’t mind the train ride).

Okie-dokie, so we were off to London once again.  It is nice to live so close to the train station. I think we left our house just 15 minutes before train was leaving Huntingdon.

Mark is excited to see our train coming (and it almost looks like I am pushing him, but I am not).

Kids were champions on the train ride—no electronics involved. We told them ahead of time, so they were prepared. Fifty minutes, and we were at King’s Cross.

It is so nice to be in a city where I can actually feel comfortable navigating. It usually takes a day or two when you travel to get to the point where things look familiar. I have that feeling now in London, and it helps incredibly to actually enjoy our daytrips.

Katya feels very comfortable in London too.

Our first stop was London Bridge station. We weren’t going to see London Bridge though, we were going to Borough Market.

Borough Market! If you like food, you will like Borough Market. This is not a place to buy antiques or souvenirs—this is the place to try all sorts of yummy baked goods, nuts, sweets, purchase fruits, veggies, fresh meat, fish, or old fashioned sausages. We went to mainly try samples, eat lunch and let our kids experience a cool place with a variety of food. Somehow, our kids are willing to try ANYTHING at markets if it’s in a sample form. That does not mean that they are willing to swallow what they put in their mouths (okay, mostly Mark, whom I had to rescue a couple of times because he decided to try something too mushroomy or too cheesey-haha).

We bought some yummy nuts, baklava (the one in Cheltenham is STILL better), Turkish delight, some Welsh cheese (thank you for making my purse smell like a dirty diaper for the rest of the day-haha), and some mushroom spread, that I have been devouring every day since Saturday (I think I will soon start growing mushrooms out of my ears). 

Because we took our kids there early in our day, and because we were actually willing to buy some things (and not just walk around making them look and not touch anything), we all really enjoyed this place. And Alex and I really enjoyed our veggie burger with carrots from some Polish guys.

The Borough Market is on the south side of river Thames. If you walk along the Thames from the London Eye towards Waterloo Bridge and London Bridge, you will run into the market. It is also close to the new Shard, the tallest building in the city at the moment, promising fantastic views. Maybe some day we’ll climb up there.

From London Bridge, we headed to the area we’d never been before. It got quieter and quieter on the metro as we were heading further away from the center. We went from London Bridge to Canary Wharf, and then transferred to DLR. I had no idea what DLR was, except that it was a different kind of marking on my Tube map. Well, DLR stands for Docklands Light Railway! It’s part of the transportation system in London connecting Bank in central London to some of the farthest eastern area, crossing the river in a couple of places. I didn’t know it on Saturday, but I just discovered you can get an audio guide for free for the area you are visiting by clicking here.

We travelled from Canary Wharf to Island Gardens, one station right before DLR crosses the river Thames. The only reason for doing that was so that we can cross the river UNDER the river through the Greenwich Foot Tunnel.

It was built in 1902 to accommodate workers who lived in Greenwich village but had to work at the docks on the Isle of Dogs. So you can imagine, thousands of people who have gone through this tunnel over the years. Nowadays, it is still used by many, especially during the peak hours.

Alex said this was the boring part of our trip. What??? The tunnel is 350 m or something, how could that be boring???

So miraculously, we got to Greenwich side of the river, came out of the tunnel and saw this majestic huge ship—the Cutty Sark, a British clipper ship, one of the last ones that was used for tea trade in China and wool in Australia. It does cost quite a bit to explore inside, so we decided against it. Instead, I tried to explain to the kids that Greenwich is a special place since THE Prime Meridian is located here. That’s my “lecture face”.  Even Mark is listening.

We wondered a bit to the side of the ship along the Thames Path. I bet this is simply a beautiful place when it’s warmer. But even now, kids wanted to just sit and stare at the river and boats.

It was not nearly as crowded on this side of Thames, although Greenwich has a ton to offer. We walked passed the Old Royal Navy College, the original site of the Palace of Placentia the birthplace of Tudor queens Mary I and Elizabeth I…

and came to these gates when Katya said, “It’s Buckingham Palace!”.

Well, the gate does look similar, but that’s not it.

Notice I am carrying a green plastic bag with all the goodies from the market (and  a purse smelly with Welsh cheese).

Our next stop was National Maritime Museum.

It is a great place for kids and grown up alike, for about two hours.

Robert was like “Finally! At the National Maritime Museum!”.

The museum was cool. There was a lot to see and a lot to learn, if I had time to read all the explanations.

Lots of ships…

And anything nautical…. “Come sail away with me…”…

Kids’ Gallery was super fun!

Alex and Katya spent fifteen minutes communicate using Morse Code and a radio.

Mark was practicing loading and unloading big ships with a ship crane.

And I was sailing my imaginary seas.

Alex was trying his skills in navigating a real ship, in a ship simulator….but we believe he just broke it as the computer simply shut down on him.

And then we noticed this, and headed downstairs.

Kids had a ton of fun on this map.

So next time you are in Greenwich with kids, stop by here to let them run off some steam.

It was around 3 pm by the time we were finished with the museum. We wanted to get to our next stop—The Emirate Air Line before it got too dark.  We took DLR to Canary Wharf and then hopped back on the Tube to North Greenwich station—that’s the station you get off at if you are going to the O2, a huge concert hall in London.

This is the Emirate Air Line cable car. Super high! It crosses from Greenwich Peninsula to the Royal Docks on the other side of the river.

And we were brave enough to do that (it was quite cool, actually).

This is “I am so excited, I cannot wait” kind of look.

Our round trip journey took us maybe 20 minutes.  It was getting windier and windier, so it was kind of freaky to watch cable cars in front of us swinging side to side.

The O2 arena.

“I  hope I get to see Justin Bieber sing at the O2”….sigh…Actually, she really dislikes his songs, or so she says.  Okay, well maybe “One Direction” since they are British.

This is a picture that Robert took by jumping out of the cable car when we arrived back at our stop. Alex? Baby bottle? We had no time for another picture, so that’s what we’ve got.

I asked the kids to show me how they feel.  It was almost 5 pm by then. They have done well!

We took the tube from North Greenwich all the way to Bond Street, straight into the center of all the action (shopping). There were so many people at the station, that they had to close the entrance gates due to overcrowding! I had never seen this done before. Crazy.

And then we emerged out on the street, and understood why the station was crowded. Thousands of people on Oxford Street! We had no other choice but just keep moving forward with the crowds.

The lights were indeed beautiful.

We made it to Regents Street turn off, another famous shopping street.

And I was checking with my map about the location of Mother Mash, a restaurant that my friend recommended.

We did find the place, a tiny cozy restaurant that specializes in mash, sausages and pies. We only had forty minutes to eat there since a large group with reservation was coming soon, but we still enjoyed our food (and managed to leave Alex’s Prague hat behind).

We also survived almost an hour at the World Famous Hamley’s Toy Store….all five stories of it…It…Was…Insane…But we had to do it, just to say we did-haha.

Here is our final picture from the day! Robert with happy fed three kids. They did great!

We got to King’s Cross not really remembering the schedule of the trains back to Huntingdon. As we walked into the station, we heard the announcement about our train to Peterborough leaving in three minutes. We ran! And made it….but since we got on last minute there were absolutely no seats left, barely any standing room too. We made ourselves cozy in the luggage corner (kids could sit on the floor) and rode the train standing for half an hour until people trickled out.

What a fun day! Alex already has a plan of what he wants to see in London next time—Scotland Yard and Transportation Museum.  We might have to hold off on those since first we still have a planned trip to Nutcracker in a couple of weeks. I promised him we’ll make it to Scotland Yard soon.

Christmas is almost here, we still have lots to do, but because we are not travelling much this holiday season, I feel very relaxed and ready for some peaceful time at home.