A trip to London

In this article Fran�oise describes her busy long weekend in London.

A month later, having just recovered from our trip to Roma we decided to spend a few days in London, my 13 year old son wanted to visit it for a long time.On the first day we travelled by Eurostar ( Paris - London just an hour thanks to Greenwich time) the hotel was near St Pancreas and we left the bags . The kids were already hungry because they had seen a "McDonald's" golden arches. So a hamburger later we took the direction of the centre of London and the river Thames.
At 2.00pm we caught a double decker sight-seeing tour ( the ticket could be used the following day) It was a good idea for the kids because they didn't want to walk a lot and the weather was very bad that weekend. ( rain, cold, even snow!) So we could see the sights from a comfortable bus : the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham and at the end of the tour Trafalgar Square. After having a hot chocolate we walked back to the hotel and walked along little streets and Regent's Street. We had a break in a pizza restaurant ( nicer than lunch!! ).
On the second day it was snowy so the changing of the guards was cancelled. What a shame!!

So we took the city sight-seeing tour for another trip this time ( there are three kinds of them).

We went to the river Thames on a boat trip to the Tower of London but before that we had lunch in a pizza restaurant.

( It was too cold to have sandwiches in a park and it's so difficult to please 4 kids and 3 adults that have different tastes!!)

The tower of London which includes the crown jewels was perfect for visiting on a cold day. It looked like an adventure for the kids who could be knights for a day.

6.00pm was the closing time so we went back to the hotel on foot. We saw St Paul's cathedral and had a great dinner in Chinatown. Everyone agreed on the same kind of food and when we were full we said goodnight.

On the third day we tried the city bus. Great. 3.50 Euros per adult and free for kids all day long and on a double decker. We stopped at the British museum to see the mummies ( better than the Louvre) After the museum we saw Big Ben , the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace. There wasn't a flag on top of the palace so the Queen was not there for a cup of tea with us! Never mind! We went to Harrod's, it was fabulous! The girls were fascinated and we were " flat broke" After a short walk in Regent's Park to look at the squirrels we were pressed for time so we ran to the hotel, picked up the bags and ran to St Pancreas. Whew!! we were on time but the train wasn't. The police were in the tunnel and we had to wait an hour and we were not sure to get back to Paris at that time because Nicolas Sarkozy was expected to arrive in London the following day.

Whew!! after a while all was OK.

Goodbye London.

Acknowledgements : Photos provided by Robert Stokes ( Houses of Parliament), edgley Cesar ( Trafalgar Square), Aditi Pany ( London sightseeing tour), Wallig ( Tower of London) , Susiedepinger ( Chinatown), OliverBruchez ( St Paul's cathedral), SantiMB ( British Museum), christine (bpc) ( Harrod's) and DG Jones ( Regent's Park) under Creative Commons Licence via Flickr.