So we have just been to London as a family for a short break, then Anne has gone on to Alicante to join her friends from work. I had a few concerns about having a holiday in "the Smoke"; after all I seem to spend time there every week and it was not going to be much of a mystery destination. Yet I seemed to find enough to take pictures of, and discovered enough to be going on with.This picture was taken on Monday afternoon from the Stone Gallery (that's the ledge outside just above the Whispering Gallery) of St. Paul's Cathedral.
So haw do you take the family to London, see a few sites and try not to (a) bankrupt yourself (b) get totally lost (c) live in a fleapit hotel (d) wear your feet out completely?
Well this is what we did...
We started by booking cheap flights with Easyjet; a couple of months in advance and the four of us got return flights for about £200 all in from Glasgow to Luton Airport. And then to a hotel or apartment? We really didn't want to share with the children but we were looking for four nights accommodation -- with hotel rooms usually in excess of £100 a night that would be crippling. Travelodge did have the Ilford Travelodge for a mere £26 per room per night; but Ilford isn't exactly central. We did look at self-catering accommodation and while there was a reasonable amount in pleasant inner suburbs they typically were wanting a minimum of a week's rental.
Then I decided to learn about Priceline and with the help of a regulars' website managed to get rooms in the 3-star Bloomsbury Park Hotel for £43 per twin room per night (ex-tax room only).
So far so good. Then we needed to get into some sights. Fortuitously Tesco sent us some regular Clubcard vouchers worth about a tenner but which could be converted into days out vouchers worth £40. Another step forward. Then I discovered the London Pass. This seems like an excellent way to get into loads of places for a lot less than paying the full price. So that covered off the Tower, St. Pauls and a load of other attractions most of which you have never heard of.
So we arrived at Luton; the ticket machine offered me a £25 ticket to London for the four of us including a Travelcard which took us into London. Once ensconsed in the hotel -- a little run down undergoing renovation, but clean, friendly and central -- we set off on our first quest; to find the London Pass tickets from Regent Street (I never knew there was a bit of Regent Street below Piccadilly Circus which perplexed me somewhat...) and then we went to take the Original London Bus Tour...
This was really good. Here's a photo of Anne and I and of Michael, the guide, both taken by Caitlin. We used our Tesco vouchers and with a discount because Caitlin smiled nicely at the man, we had 24 hours access to their bus tours and Catamaran Cruisers' tours up to Tower Hill and Greenwich. This was a great way to orient ourselves with Tourist London and late Saturday afternoon we completed around half the two hour circuit; from Piccadilly Circus to Trafalgar Square (not directly!) via most of the West End sights, Buck House and Westminster.
So first night in London lets get off to the West End and a movie. So we went to see Talledega Nights at the Empire Leicester Square. The film was OK, a bit of a silly Will Farrell movie, but the cinema was expensive, tiny (it was Cinema 3), the seats were so low it was hard for the children to see over the people in front, there was no legroom or space for your drink (what year is this) and the carpet stuck to your feet as you walked through. Plus seats were allocated so that people were forever pushing past you to get in. Don't think I'll bother with the West End cinema "experience" again.
Then back to Bloomsbury squeezing David and Caitlin on the Tube for the first time and out to one of my long-time favourite London restaurants, My Old Dutch in High Holborn for dinner, where they do the most amazing Dutch pancakes...
