Today was the first day that Kaitlyn and I spent sightseeing together in London. I was a little worried about how it would go… but we really had a great time.
We started on a slow train from Peterborough to London. (I should figure out how to get on a faster train!) It not only was slow, but it had no food. So the day did get off to a rough start. I’d bought Kaitlyn a pack of mini-muffins at a coffee place (how very fortunate that the fastest route is to walk through the mall from the hotel to the train station!) but she didn’t like them. I told her I’d buy her something on the train. But this train had no trolley. No food car. Just a hungry, therefore grumpy, four year old.
Once we got to London, I quickly discovered the importance of carrying change. The women’s room requires 20p to get in. And the change machine is broken. And when you’ve got to go because you drank a huge coffee on your way to the train 90 minutes ago, well, that is not a welcome discovery. I dashed to a store and bought Kaitlyn a snack, got change, and everyone felt better.
Then we were off to the metro. I bought an Oyster card to try to make travel easier. It’s like a debit card: you put 20 pounds on it and then each time you go through the tube or ride a bus, the fare is deducted from your card. And it is supposed to be a cheaper fare than if you just buy an individual ticket. Plus, Kaitlyn was free.
We figured out how to get to our first destination: Kensington Palace. I picked it for two reasons. I’ve never been. And I thought Kaitlyn would like seeing a place where a princess lived and a collection of dresses. (There is a special Diana exhibit going on.) They gave her a special guide book for little kids, but it was still for someone a bit older than she is. She still liked it and carefully put checks in the boxes where she thought she was supposed to… and each time she’d do so looking at a display and carefully saying check! She did like the dresses. I think she was disappointed at the princess quarters.
From there we went to the Orangerie for lunch and tea. She was so good; I was so happy for that. Her favorite part was helping me pour my tea. She would put the little strainer over my cup, I’d pour the hot tea, then she’d pour in the milk and add the sugar. I drank enough to sink a boat so that she could pour until her heart’s content. (Reminded me of a certain story of a certain someone obsessed with the new toaster.)
I promised Kaitlyn that after the palace, we’d go to a special toy store so she could pick out one thing for her birthday. Getting there was a great adventure. Outside the gates of Kensington Park, Kaitlyn saw the double decker buses and just had to ride one. I didn’t really have time to decipher the schedule when a bus pulled up and we just hopped on. We went right upstairs and just enjoyed the view. After a while, we got off and switched to another bus. After a while, I did get tired of not being exactly sure where we were or how to get where we were going and dragged Kaitlyn back into the tube…. with maps I can make sense of. I turned the wrong way when we left the metro station but finally asked for directions and got back on track to finally find it: Hamley’s. It’s like 5 or 6 stories tall and filled with toys. And employees who love kids and toys and will play and interact with them. Kaitlyn fell in love with the section of dress up dresses. I glanced at a price tag and nearly fainted. 150 Pounds! No way. We finally settled on the Build-A-Bear section. She loved the whole process of picking the bear, helping stuff it, choosing clothes. I even bought the thing it’s own passport. The clerk said if you ask real nicely, sometimes you can get the person at passport control to stamp the bear’s passport. Yea, I’ll be skipping that.
By the time we got out of the toy store and made it back to King’s Cross to catch the slow train back to Peterborough it was late. We didn’t get back to Peterborough until 8:00. It was a little uncomfortable because we were just about the only people on the train. But it was fine, nothing happened. I’ve got to find out how to ride a faster train. In London I asked for a timetable and was given the bus schedule .
I remember that both Patrick and Mandy had Carol and me make several loaves of toast to watch the new toaster raise the bread up and down and up and down.
I think it was Patrick and Mandy.
Seemed like I did have something to do with the story…..