London – Tuesday 8th July

With our day 2 tickets in hand for the open top bus network, and complimentary Thames river cruise, we planned day 2 to span the city and see some of the highlights.  We all got our free headsets and listened in to the adult or child audio channels, except for Xavier, who mainly liked tying the cable onto things!

Initially we spent about 2 hours on multiple circuits (red, yellow and blue) passing by the Theatre precinct, Piccadilly Circus, St James Park, Harrods, Marble Arch, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and the Houses or Parliament.  Thereafter we went on the London Eye and the River Cruise down to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.

William was most impressed to finally see Big Ben, aka ‘Big Bentley’ from Cars 2, his favourite movie.

Elle and Andrew were most impressed by the photo above taken by Grace.

While not entering the Tower of London, we did walk all around it and over the bridge.  Near the Tower we noticed the first of many children’s book seats ….

…. William checked out the City Dragon ….

.... and Elle and Andrew were amused by the name of a pub, which sometimes reflected what they wanted to do with the three kids.

For dinner that night we ventured into China Town as requested by Grace the dumpling lover, and we found a great restaurant with an appropriate name for us to eat at.

With limited space in the apartment, Xavier had slept the previous two nights in between Andrew and Elle in the double bed, with Grace and William on the blow-up double mattress on the floor.  After such a big day, we all were keen for a good nights’ sleep, and Andrew decided that to avoid being kicked and prodded by Xavier, the kids had to triple share.