London

Dining in style

So on Friday we went on our last mini holiday of the summer - this time a trip to London to see Michael, Sarah and little Millie.

We were lucky enough to get cheap tickets for the way down so ended up in First Class - very posh!  Nice wide seats, free alcohol AND we got served our tea.  They didn't have a children's menu - so Tom had a full adult's portion!  Chick pea curry for me, chicken and chorizo stew for Matt and pasta with salmon for Tom.  Tom's of course was the biggest!

On arrival in Euston, we got the 68 bus straight to Michael's street in Herne Hill.  It took an hour, but it always takes an hour to get anywhere in London.  The journey may have been slow, but there was plenty to look at - other buses, shops, tube stations etc etc.  Tom kept up a running commentary.

We got to Michael's around 9.30pm, so Tom went straight to bed whilst we stayed up and had wine and chatted.

Able seamen

Saturday we had an easy relaxing day.  After a late breakfast (bread from the local German Artisan Bakery) and a play in the garden with the paddling pool out, we headed out for a look around the local area - Herne Hill is a gentrified, yummy mummy sort of place (just next door to Dulwich).  We ended up in Dulwich Park where we hired a pedalo and collected blackberries from the banks for a while, then a play in the park where we met up with Millie (she was having an afternoon nap) until it started to rain.

Tom straddling the meridian

We then headed back to Michael's house for a play before tea.  As it was our 12th wedding anniversary, Michael and Sarah offered to babysit for us, so we headed to a rather lovely local Japanese restaurant for very posh nosh.  What a bonus - we didn't expect that, but we leaped at the chance and found ourselves in a very busy restaurant where we had a couple of Japanese starters, some Chinese mains and chocolate fondant pudding with umeshu plum compote.  All very very very delicious - a great night out.

Sunday we had a day out.  We met up with Sarah's sister in Greenwich, bought some delicacies from the local market and ate them in the park (Tom chose sushi and inhaled it at an astonishing rate!).  We then went up to the observatory to enjoy the view, whilst Millie played in the park.  After a lot of investigation, Matt found the line between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres and Tom had his photo taken straddling the two.

We then headed into the Maritime Museum for a quick look around.  Wow!  It was great.  Our first stop was a huge big map of the world.  I think we spent a good hour just running around it - we did country location with Tom and then he spent quite a bit of time 'swimming' in the oceans.  We also found a children's play area with lots and lots of activities which Tom and Millie enjoyed.

Nice spot to park your super-yacht

We then got a Thames Clipper along the Thames to the South Bank.  They are very very nifty boats - speeding along much faster than I thought.  Just as we went under Tower Bridge, it opened up to let through a tall boat - how cool is that? We also breezed past a Russian Billionaire's super-yacht, which had been moored next to HMS Belfast.

At the South Bank we headed to The Tate for tea and a bun, and in Tom and Millie's case - dinner.  Then a train and a quick walk back to Michael's house - a good, fun filled day out - Tom certainly got his fill of transport.

Sand pit in a museum!

Monday morning Matt went to see a customer in Gerrards Cross whilst Tom and I went to the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green.  We had a fab time, he was the oldest child there (I guess London schools went back today).  He got to play with the toys on show whilst I reminisced about my old toys.  We found a Draughts set, I explained the rules to Tom and we were away.  He understood pretty much straight away and was hooked.  We were playing it for over an hour.


We then looked around the rest of the museum, there was a sandpit, a model railway, hobby horses etc etc.  Matt caught up with us at lunchtime and had happily discovered a Japanese restaurant directly opposite the museum, so we headed to there.  We had another scrumptious lunch and then headed to West India Quay to the Museum of London Docklands, which neither of us had heard of and was huge and very interesting (if you don't have a 7 year old with a limited attention span with you).  Certainly one to revisit at some time.

Diver Tom

We then headed back to Michael's.  As both Michael and Sarah had been working, I offered to make tea and made some sweet potato and lentil patties as per a favourite recipe of theirs - it was very tasty - another to add to our repertoire.

Tuesday - we decided to have breakfast in a bakery in Dulwich Village with all the yummy mummies and then we packed up and got the 68 back to Euston Station.  After a lovely fast food lunch at Leon (a new London based health fast food chain) we got the train back home.

A good break with good friends.