A Day Trip To London - The Tate, The Dungeon and The Mexican

We had a big day out in London starting with meeting our old uni mate Brogs at The Tate Modern. They have added an extension to it, so we went to check that out. The Tate is great for kids because it's so big and open, it's OK for the kids to run around a bit and let off steam. And the exhibits are always a bit weird and interesting, good conversation starters with the kids. These were big concrete balls attached by ropes and some had speakers, I'm not entirely sure what it was all about!

You can now walk around on the 10th floor, there is a small cafe so it's a nice place to stop for a cuppa and you get a good view of the city. 

The Tate is all free except for the special exhibits, which is always a bonus. I rather liked this one... I don't remember the artists name though!

The boys looking dashing against the orange carpet wall...

Di teaching the boys how to make shadow animals and other such silliness. I think this is one of the best things about London, there are so many parks, museums and galleries that are free, you can have a great day out without spending much money, especially if you take a packed a lunch with you.

Just hanging and being cool... as you do!

We stopped to get some lunch and spotted a small shop doing bubble waffles, of course, we recorded an Ebi-kun eats so you will have to wait for that to be published to find out if it was any good! Might be in a couple of weeks time, we need to catch up on the episodes.

After lunch we split up. Di and Ry headed off to Ripley's and Ebi-kun, Broggy and myself went to the London Dungeon. We luckily had complimentary tickets and I think they advise that isn't suitable for kids under 12 but it doesn't look like they enforce the rule.

I think that really they should, it is quite scary and there were a couple of kids, maybe three and seven, who were clearly terrified. You can't actually take photos inside, this is just where we were waiting to get in.

The actual tour is great, there are a couple of rides inside to take you to different sections. Each area has an actor that tells you about that period of time in gruesome detail. There is often water and jets of air or things moving about to make you jump and it is all in dimly lit rooms.

We really enjoyed it and had a big discussion on which are the scariest parts - I won't share, just in case you want to go too. All in all it is fun, educational and gory! But really not suitable for little ones!

We managed to time it just right and came out just as Di got back from Ripley's, so we had a wander down the Southbank. I do love it down there, you never know what is going to be along there, with the street artists and performers.

We happened upon a random band, which was fun to watch as they went by...

We had a bit of time to kill so we stopped to watch the skaters, we seem to do this every year, but Ebi-kun still has no interest in taking up Skateboarding.

We finished off the day at Wahaca for Mexican. Rob and Roger joined us after work, I'm not sure what we ate but we ate a lot of it! Great meal and service, not too spicy! And they do kids menus.

All in all it was a fab day and great to catch up with everyone. The boys had a great time and were all shattered by the time we got home.

Euro Tour 2016 day #1

[Aug 1st]

We set off from Congleton in the morning and got to London just before lunch. Our hotel was 10 minutes walk from the station so we left the bags there before going off on an adventure.

We had to do it old school and use a proper, paper map (no google maps here kids!) Luckily my map skills are still on top form and we didn't get lost!

I got up with no voice so it was just as well we didn't need to to ask for directions!

We grabbed a buttie from Pret a Manger and found a nice little park to eat it in, Ebi-kun insisted on trying to feed the pigeons by hand - awful things, rats with wings!

We made our way down to Covent Gardens, I ave never been before and I had this image in my head of what it was going to be like, but it wasn't - a tad disappointed but we had fun! This is Heavy Metal pete who had some seriously bad jokes! His act was quite good though and he had a crowd which was were hard work, I felt a bit sorry for the guy!

His final part of the show was the Sandwich Of Doooooooom. Amusing and not quite as vomit inducing as when he was squeezing himself through a tennis racket.

After all that excitement we went for posh ice-cream!

The we decided to head back to the hotel but popped into the British museum on the way, it was really busy though and we both soon got fed up and decided to call it a day.

We finished off at Pizza Express which was far from express and Ebi-kun renamed it Pizza Slowpoke, it must be 20 years since I have been in one! The food was OK when it eventually arrived, it filled a hole. Then it was back to the hotel for an early night!

A Visit To The Tate Modern...

Friday Ebi-kun and I headed back into London to the Tate Modern. I discovered there are free apps to download and use as you go round. We would have liked to see the Matisse Exhibit but it was way too busy so we decided to take advantage of the free exhibits instead and there are plenty of amazing pieces of work to check out.

Ebi-kun is getting really quite good at recognising various artists and styles and it was really interesting listening to his views on various pieces of work. If you think art galleries and kids don't mix, then you need to get your hands on THIS BOOK, quick read with lots of great ideas!

The app we downloaded was Tate Top Trumps, each piece of work has a code, if you think it will be a strong top trump card you tap in the code then at the end you get to have a game of top trumps. Although the idea was really cool, it didn't actually work too well as we couldn't find many pieces of art work that were registered in the game. There is, however an option to play using the artwork stored in the app which works well.

Ebi-kun can also say he has had his work displayed at the Tate Modern, they had some tablets set up when you can create some work of your own then they project it on the wall.

This is about as close as we got to St Pauls, and we had a wander down the South bank...

We met up with some of my mastermind friends, first time I have met them in the flesh, it was great to meet them and have a good chat and erm a couple of bottle of bubbly...

After all that Ebi-kun and I had a 'date' dinner at Giraffe before heading back to Brighton...

Seals, Skates and Santa....

Our original plan was to go to The Winter Wonderland after we had been to the British museum but because of the awful weather we had to scrap that. Luckily Di managed to snag some skating tickets at the Westfield instead. It is years since I last skated and Ebi-kun has never been before, I thought that an hour wouldn't be long enough but after 10 minutes I was ready for a pint! Ebi-kun managed to make Bambi look like an Olympian and spent as much time on his arse as he did on his feet. Luckily They let us have a 'seal' for Ry which seamed to help a bit - at least we didn't have to try and keep a 2 year old on his feet too.

After nearly breaking our necks several time we hung up the skates and went to see Santa, it was all good fun, they take photos of the kids which then get superimposed onto a film, the kids then get to see the film and they all get excited when they see their own face come up.

After Santa we had to go and pick up one of Di's winnings (you know she is comping mad!) then we had a lovely Mexican meal at Las Iguanas, I was very impressed with their selection of kids meals, certainly not the usual fayre of sausage and chips. After lunch we finally headed off to Nottingham to Di's house. We had a nice relaxing evening which was just what we needed after the manic few days that we had had.

Mummies, modern art and kissing cousins

Although we had a great time in London, the weather was pretty miserable, it was a good job we had museums down on our London bucket list! In the morning we headed to the British Museum, the place is massive and we only really saw a fraction of it. Top Tip if you going, if you go to the information desk and ask about the kids trail books, they have a selection, we rather optimistically picked up three; Sailing On The Nile, Hunting For Dragons and Travelling In Time. Ebi-kun really wanted to see the mummies, so we did the Sailing on the Nile book first. 

The book tells you which room to start in and is like a treasure hunt, you have to find specific objects or answer questions about certain artifacts. There are talking points and snippets of information, I was really impressed with these as the museum is a tradition museum format and could be quite boring otherwise. There are 6? Egyptian room so by the time we had done all that we were ready for lunch. I had picked up some sandwiches on the way so we ate at the tables provided. After lunch we decided not to do another trail book but instead do a big treasure hunt for all the famous items such as the Easter island statue, the Sutton Hoo loot and the Lewis Chessmen. We managed to check everything of our list and nip into the shop for more souvenirs before making our way over to the Tate Modern.

My uncle, who is only a couple of years older than me met us at the Tate with his family, it feels quite odd having a baby and a 2 year old as cousins when you are in your forties! We mucked around in the Tate for a bit and had a coffee then headed out for dinner.

We ended up at Nando's which was quite nice except that even the plain chicken was too spicy for the kids (it wasn't plain at all). The kids were really good even though they were all tired.

We got to have cuddles with the newest member of the family... although baby didn't look convinced!

Ebi-kun and C-chan really well, she is such a cutie too, I might have to smuggle her back in my suitcase....

London Day 2 - Buses, boats and Beefeaters

Our second day in London was also a busy one and we managed to pack a lot in again. The boys were really good together, we weren't sure how they would get on since there is a 4 year age gap.

We took a bus tour, the driver was a complete loonie but we also managed to get a front seat and the boys were happy just to watch everything that was going on.

When we went to get off the driver insisted Di and the boys sit in the drivers seat, I'm not sure this is actually allowed! As I said, he was mad!

We hopped off at Buckingham palace just in time for the change of the guard. Ebi-kun decided it wasn't that exciting, he said they were all just faffing around! 

We didn't stay for the whole thing because it was also cold, so we walked down towards the river and found a pub to have lunch in. We made it to Big Ben just as it struck noon, so we got to hear the 12 bongs as it were. Ebi-kun was quite excited to see Big Ben and the houses of parliament.

Of course by the time we came out of the pub it has started to rain, our bus ticket included a free boat ride, so we used that to get from Westminster to Tower Hill. The commentary on the boat was really funny, I'm doubtful that any non native English speakers would have understood him.

Our final destination for the day was The Tower Of London, this is one of the places Ebi-kun had actually asked to go to and apart from the steep ticket price it was excellent. Unfortunately Ry had had enough by the time we got here and needed a nap, Di ended up taking him to the cafe whilst me, Ebi-kun and Broggy did the White Tower. Ebi-kun was very impressed with all the armour and bought himself a nice mug as a souvenir. We had left out luggage at the hotel so we hopped on the tour bus to pick it up then Di and I went our separate ways, we went back with Broggy to stay a couple of nights at here place.

Poor Ebi-kun was shattered but he did really well which was just as well since we had another big day planned for the next day....

Birthday fun in London....

The 18th was my birthday so Ebi-kun and I set off on our tour to London. We took the train from Stoke-On-Trent to Euston and then hopped on the tube to get to the hotel where we met up with +Di  and Broggy and Di's little boy Ry. I have heard so many times that people are unfriendly and unhelpful in London but I have to say, we had nothing but great experiences with people helping us out. 

Once we were checked into the hotel we headed off up the South Bank, we had hoped to pop in the Tate Modern but we were pushed for time and decided to let the boys have a run around instead, they were happy just to look at all the boats on the Thames!

We made our way through the German market stands, sneaked a mulled wine then met another friend at the London Eye. I have never been on the eye before, Di had booked the tickets for dusk and I think it was perfect timing, London looked so pretty.

It takes 30 minutes to go all the way round, which was just about the right amount of time for the boys, our capsule only had a few of us in it so we could get a good look at everything.

Then we headed back through the market section, this time stopping for a spin on the merry go round...

We finished the day off with dinner at Giraffe, I was really chuffed that so many friends came out to meet us, some of which I haven't seen since graduating uni. The boys were really good which gave us time to chat and catch up. It was so good to see everyone again, it was a shame that the boys were ready for bed and we had to leave early (late for them!) It was a perfect end to a great birthday.

Ziggy made himself useful and gave Ebi-kun a lift as we walked back down to the hotel. In the hotel we had two double beds, the boys decided they wanted to share a bed! Needless to say there was quite a lot of giggles before they finally crashed.