Summer Holiday 09 - Old and New

Day 3 - London (Sun.12 July)

Its 11 stops from South Kensington tube to Tower Bridge stop. Its not a long ride espescially on a Sunday morning so commuters are not as packed with office workers. I had booked tickets online and we were at least one hour early even after the collection of the tickets at the Welcome Centre so we took a plesant walk to Tower Bridge for picture taking session and Ice Cream.

London Bridge

We walked back to Tower bridge 5 minutes before opening time at 10.00am and the Queue was long.... this is not the tickes queue which was hardly there but people with tickets going into the Tower.

We went straight to the Crown Jewels exhibition to see the world largest diamond, my eldest son Seth was really dissapointed as he thought (or wanted) the 3,000 carat diamond to be much much larger then the one he saw. There was a King Henry IV "Dressed To Kill" exhibition which was alright and we had lunch at the cafe opposite the green Tower entrance. My husband and I was here before and I must say a tour with the beefeaters was far more interesting than walking aimlessly by yourself but we figured our 3 very restless sons would have never endured the tour.

London Tower

We headed to the Imperial War Museum down at Lambert North by tube. Its free for kids under 12 travel by Public Transport in London so we had bought a 3 day pass for my husband and I. Most of the entrances to London's Museums are free too but Tower bridges cost 55 pounds.

Imperial War Museum

This museum is made for boys, Tanks and submarines and planes are on display. Its a new museum and smallish. There were an exhibition on the halacaust but my kids were to young to enter so we give it a miss. We finished going throught this museum in an hour an a half and we were 2 hours early as we headed to London eye for the 4 o'clock bookings we had made to go on the London eye.

London Eye

I had bought a fast track ticket through Viator webside to the London eye. I knew of the large crowds but were at ease as I had bought this tickets. All I had to do was collect these tickets at the welcome centre and we'd be off. or so I thought.

Some kind tube commuters heard my husband and I discussing on how we could get from The museum to London eye earlier had suggested we take a bus. So with very little effort we found the bus stop and we were at the city hall in a matter of minutes.

Well we were delighted when we picked up the tickets that we could immediatly join the fast track line but it turns out everyone had a fast track ticket because the lines were long and by the time we actually got into the London Eye it was a little after 4 pm. We had quede for more than an hour and a half.

The ride itself took only about 15 mins not the half hour that was mentioned numerous website so as we made our way home again before 5pm my kids and I was knackered to the bone.