London

So on Tuesday we headed to Lancaster, dumped the car in its usual spot and got the train to London.  Very exciting this time as we were staying in an Air BnB with Granma and Pop Pop.  We had a non eventful trip down, and found the Air BnB with no bother - located between Kensal Green and Kensal Rise - a pretty convenient part of London for the centre.

We did have trouble getting into the house, when finally the lock opened we were very greeted with the cleanest house I have ever been in.  It was your usual mid terrace London brick house but very very techie - it had an Amazon Alexa in nearly every room, special light switches that we couldn't get to work and posh appliances in the kitchen.  In short it was very comfortable - even though if you moved at night time, night lights would suddenly turn on - took it all a bit too far!

Mum and Dad arrived not too long after us, Tom and I went to the bus stop to collect them and then we left them unpacking whilst we went to explore the high street.  This part of town didn't seem to be run by one ethnic group, meaning there was quite a selection of eateries: Lebanese, Moroccan, Indian, Italian, English etc.  There was also a Tesco Express, so we stocked up on bread, beer, wine and crisps - all the important stuff.

Cheers!

The evening saw us revisiting the high street and having tea out at the Moroccan - where we had meze, which was very very lovely.  We were on a holiday high and ordered pretty much everything on the menu as well as posh cocktails etc.  We expected to get a huge bill at the end and were very surprised to be presented with one for £80 - we still don't know how that worked?!  Anyway it was a good night out.

Beautiful sunshine on Hampstead Heath

Wednesday, Granma and Pop Pop had a morning with Tom and took him to the Transport Museum - which is heaven for both Tom and Pop Pop.  I think they would have happily spent the whole day there, but we had other plans.  We had arranged to meet up with Michael - he was supposed to come up to see us in Yorkshire in September but was unable to travel (he has cancer so isn't 100% at the best of times!), we needed to make sure he was ok, so we arranged to meet up for lunch and then do something in the afternoon.  As it was such a lovely day, we headed to Hampstead Heath and went for a little walk.  Michael had Marcus for half term - first time we had seen him in years.  Although he is 11 and started high school, there didn't seem to be a huge difference in stature or maturity between him and Tom, so they got on well.  Michael was also on good form, it was really sunny (we were in T-shirts) and the view from the heath was amazing so it was a good evening.

We then headed home, Mum and Dad weren't too far behind us, having been to the V&A for the afternoon.  We were all tired from being in the city for the day, so decided to stay in and got a Chinese take-away for tea - which saved any faffing.  Was really good, Tom was on it and put away loads!

Beer tasting

Thursday, day of the Lion King.  We hadn't planned anything for the morning, as a result we all had a much needed lie in and late breakfast.  We weren't sure what to do for the morning and ended up splitting up.  We took Tom for a trip on trains, buses etc whilst Mum and Dad did some walking.  We went to the Tokyo Diner (a memory lane thing) for lunch - a small plate of sushi and other bits to put us on.  We then headed to the Lyceum Theatre where we met Mum and Dad and went in to the theatre.  We were pleased with our seats, we got a good view of the proceedings.

Family, mussels and beer

The show was as good as I had hoped.  The costumes (especially the animals) we amazing, we were transported into the African savannah and immersed in song and dance.  Tom was entranced, I was entranced, Matt, Mum and Dad were too.  It was mega expensive but it was very much worth it.  Tom is still talking about it quite a bit now - 3 weeks later.  It was over all too quickly, I would have happily stayed and watched it again!

After the show, we headed to Belgos on Kingsway (another old haunt) where we had a table booked and we enjoyed an evening of beer and mussels (except Matt who had chicken).  Anyway a good night was had.  Shame the bus ride home took FOREVER, not sure why, but it was triple the time it took in the daytime.  Oh, almost forgot to say we 'bumped' into a Bibby's of Ingleton coach on Kingsway!!!!

View from The Shard

Friday, Mum and Dad headed off first as they had a morning train back home.  We packed up our bags, put them in storage at Euston, had brunch in a diner there and then headed to Borough Market for a look around before heading to The Shard where we had booked tickets to go to the top.  It was a beautiful beautiful day - clear blue skies and no smog so we could see for miles and miles - the only thing stopping us was the resolution of our own eyes.  We could quite clearly see Wembly, Harrow on the Hill etc.

The Thames bent around us, we looked down on absolutely everything, it all looks a little wierd from so high up.  Anyway we took our time, but we didn't have the traditional glass of Prosecco - think it cost £11 a glass!!!!!!!

On our return down we headed to Borough Market for cake and a drink before heading back to Euston.  Bad news, on our arrival to Euston, all the departure boards had destination Watford Junction on them.  What about other destinations?  Oh, there had been an incident earlier in the day and there were many delays and cancellations - oh joy!!!!!!!  Luckily Matt has a train app on his phone which was keeping him more up-to-date than the Virgin Staff at Euston meaning he was able to work out which platform the next train up North was going from.  We headed there, with another 10 or so people in the know and boarded our delayed train.  It was surprisingly empty considering the number of people waiting in the station which makes me think they didn't advertise it's existence very well.  Anyway, we had seats.  The journey wasn't particularly quick, we were stuck outside Preston for 20 minutes, and we crawled along some bits.  In the end we got home 1hr 20mins late, it could have been much worse and we were assured that we would get a full refund, so I guess we can't complain too much.

It had been a good mini break, but the first thing we had to do was shower off all the London grime.  Both me and Matt had picked something up and were beginning to feel crap...