London Town

We are home after our epic trip down south. What fun. It's not until I'm actually there, in the city, that I realise how much I miss the hustle and bustle of city life. When I have to leave I get a physical pain in my chest. Don't get me wrong, life in the shire has its benefits and they are multiple, but when I'm on the tube or in a crowd, mooching round an amazing museum, admiring the lights on Regent Street or grabbing food from Camden Market that I realise, I was born to live in the city and my heart misses it. Badly!

Needless to say, I loved our 48 hours in London. 

Here are my little loves waiting for the train at Stafford station, our train was at 8.16am so we'd drunk hot chocolates and eaten brioche in the car!!

Saturday was spent at the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. We cancelled our plans to go to the Diana Memorial Playground as we'd done quite a lot of walking already and it was drizzling on and off... so we accepted our fate and headed to Hamleys instead! The boys were delighted, Husband cried!

We cheered him up by buying him the biggest slice of cake I've ever seen on Regent Street, Mama got to race into J Crew/Gap/Petit Bateau (all available online, bit of a London tradition to actually walk INTO a shop and bring things out IN BAGS!), Baby enjoyed having 'Dada' with us for the entire time...it was mental busy but lots of fun.

Our hotel was smack bang in Camden so we rocked up there at around 5pm, relaxed in the room for a while, explored the corridors and lifts (life with kids!) and then mooched around the block until we found somewhere fun and loud for dinner. Bit of a family rule, when we're away we don't eat places we could eat in at home (chains etc...) We had booked Spaghetti House (at Boy's request!) but in the end the timings didn't work so we chose somewhere else in Camden. Burgers, hot dogs, massive thick shakes? Winner!

Sunday was ZSL and we loved every minute of it. We left our bags at the hotel and walked down the canal before spending our entire day exploring. The rain held off (thank you, clouds!) and the boys were spellbound from the second we arrived...

Up close and personal!!
After the zoo, we collected our bags and headed back to Euston where the first class lounge came into its own (free snacks, power points to recharge Baby's iPad for vital episodes of Bing on way home, comfy seats for Mama, loads of toilets!) Train journey home was saga-free and bam, home by 6.30pm.
Like I say, mental busy but lots of fun.
Main thing we learned this trip? The tube is warm, we all know this, but when you're carrying a backpack, a Baby, a Maclaren pram, a bag of plastic tat from Hamleys and trying to hold onto a Boy...it is really fucking hot! Husband and I were melting every time we re-surfaced. Boys were, as ever, totes oblivious!
So yeah, a brilliant trip down south to celebrate Husband turning 36. Here's to next year!