Meezy needed to travel to London for work in early August, so the kids and I took the opportunity to tag along. We departed on a Thursday night and arrived into London on Friday after lunch. We headed to our hotel, the Hilton London Bankside. We booked the Family Connecting Room and it was perfect! There was a large bed in our room and two twin beds in the other, and each room had its own full bathroom. The kids' room had stuffed animals and goody bags and our room had a Peloton (nice touch, but with as much walking as we do in Europe, I don't need more exercise). Hotel rooms are notoriously small in Europe, so it was very refreshing to have space to spread out and not have to share a bathroom with our kids. The hotel offered a scavenger hunt to find hidden foxes, so that was a fun activity during down time.
We did a little bit of sightseeing, visited a souvenir shop, took our first ride on the Tube, and then had an easy dinner at
Market Halls Victoria.
Our first full day in London started with a tour of the Tower of London. We learned of its history, saw some ravens and the Crown Jewels, and got some great photo ops.
After the tour we went to a cinema so the kids could see Bad Guys 2. It had just come out and we thought it would be fun to check out a theater in another country. It was definitely smaller than what we're used to, but the concessions were good, and the kids enjoyed it. (I slept through most of it, oops). From there we headed to what I was most excited about for the day - the
Moco Museum. My sister and I had visited this museum in Amsterdam, so I definitely wanted to see it when I heard they had one in London too. Some of the artists on exhibit were Warhol, Haring, Banksy, Basquiat and Robbie Williams.
We stopped at the Golden Carousel on the way to our sunset speedboat ride with
Thames Rockets. This tour was super fun. The guides were great, the sights were beautiful, and it was slightly scary, like being on an amusement park ride!
Our next day in London started with a tour at The All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, aka where Wimbledon is held. Meezy and I attended the Ladies Final back in 2010, but we wanted to come back to learn about things behind the scenes and to bring the kids this time. I really enjoyed this tour and appreciated being able to ask questions. The kids liked all the interactive activities. I also jumped at the chance to buy more Wimbledon gear!
Later that day, the kids and I took the Eurostar to Paris while Meezy had to stay in London to work for a few days. I'll put those details in another post! When we got back to London so we could all fly home together, we did a couple more sightseeing activities. We stopped by Hyde Park to see Speakers Corner and eat some ice cream, took a hop on/hop off bus tour, enjoyed the good weather, shopped at
Max + Betty, and took a paddleboat ride. I love being able to show my kids other parts of the world and seeing them have a good time together!
