Thursday 31 December

The alarm was back on to wake everyone this morning, so we could be on the tube to South Kensington station and at the Natural History Museum by the opening time of 10am. The museum (referenced in the Night At The Museum 3 movie) was amazing, and requires a lot longer to explore it than we had to spend there! All the museums in London are free to visit, which makes them even more fun! 

   
 We started in the Dinosaur exhibit and, after a coffee and hot chocolate stop at the first floor cafe, moved on to the Earth area, where we experienced an earthquake simulator (of Kobe Japan in 1995) and learnt more about volcanoes. The kids were excited to see information on Mount Vesuvius having just climbed it (although that seems a long time ago now!).

   
 Zac was disappointed we had to leave so early when he had much more to explore, and two and a half hours was nowhere near enough, but we had to be at Covent Garden for MY Christmas present, so reluctantly walked back to the tube station and travelled the six stops to Covent Garden.

At that station, the alternatives are to climb 193 steps (equivalent the signs say to 15 floors) to street level or catch one of four lifts. Sam and Belle voted against the stair climb, so we lined up for the lifts to find two of the four out of service! We were soon out of the station though, and had time to grab a quick and delicious lunch from a boulangerie near the theatre. Sausage rolls for the little three, quiches, frittata for the others, and I chose a roast turkey panini. We ate them on steps at a street corner, then made our way to the Theatre Royal on Drury Lane. 

We watched the Charlie and The Chocolate Factory musical (which was my Christmas present), which was great! Everyone really enjoyed the performance, which has been playing since May 2013 there. 

  
After the theatre, we wandered over to the Covent Garden markets and explored the shops in the area a little more. 

  
It started to rain then, which changed our plans to walk home from the theatre! We ducked into a Garfunkels restaurant for dinner, and were thankful they could take us without a booking on NYE in this weather! The rain had stopped by the time we emerged from the restaurant, so we wandered up to Leicester Square and caught the tube home, stopping at Sainsburys to replace our depleted breakfast supplies.

We did consider exploring again closer to midnight, but viewing along the River Thames is a ticketed event, and the weather is still not great. The tv tells us there is heightened security everywhere around London too 😬 Dad sent me a message to say it was good we did the north and Scotland when we did – the news is calling the floods up there the worst in a generation.

It’s been another big day in old London Town, and we are relaxing on the lounge with a glass of Italian prosecco in our apartment reflecting on 2015 as a whole and the emotions and experiences of this trip as we count down the last week of our holiday.

Wednesday 30 December

For the first time this holiday, Belle woke us up instead of vice versa! Just before 9am 😬…but I am ok with everyone sleeping in until they are ready to get up, because I have rest times on holidays….and don’t push everyone to the point of exhaustion anymore…😇

After our cereal, toast and juice (no one is missing the full English breakfast just yet!), we wandered up to the end of the street for coffee and chocolate milk for the kids from Caffe Nero, and walked back through Green Park to Buckingham Palace. The kids loved seeing the balcony where the royals wave, and the opulence of the gates and statues. We were hoping to see the Changing of the Guard, but it is only every second day at this time of year, and not today!

   
 
Crowds were large, so it was not easy to get right up to the gate. When I edged through to be as close as possible, I discovered the guy next to me playing a game on his phone instead of looking at the palace! Photographic evidence below. There would have been more space for us if he had stepped back and played on his phone elsewhere!! 😕

  
We wandered back toward Westminster then, and stopped for a play in a little park with a view of the palace. 

  
From there we walked down to Westminster Pier to take a cruise down to Greenwich along the River Thames. I had researched cruises last night, and found a voucher for 50% off the standard price if said voucher was presented. So I took a snapshot of it, showed the ticket office, and we were soon on a hop on – hop off two hour return cruise for £3.50 each! Bargain! It left at 1pm, so we had time for Ross to grab some lunch from a nearby Tesco Express (another bargain: sandwich, bag of fruit and large soft drink or water for £3).

The cruise included commentary and took us past the Globe Theatre, Tower Bridge and Tower of London, the Shard, and many other iconic buildings and locations. We even learnt about Britain’s free trade agreement with the Dutch, and the meaning of “Dutch courage” (from the Great Plague era when the Dutch were the only ones brave enough to continue trading with England). 

   
 We alighted at Greenwich and explored the visitor centre to learn more about the history of Greenwich and the Greenwich mean line. I remember my last visit here having a photo taken at a GMT milestone, but it is now inside the Royal Observatory and costs £9 to visit, so we gave it a miss as that would have spoilt our bargain of a day! Instead we went past the Cutty Sark and visited the National Maritime Museum, where there were free exhibits and activities for the kids. And in a bizarre twist, an old business associate from Sydney in 2013 recognised me and stopped to chat. 

   
   
In another bizarre turn of events, Belle found an area in the visitors centre of dress ups! So while we dealt with Jarrod’s absence from his piano yesterday, we were able to give Belle time to play dress ups today! 

  
We ended up staying at the Maritime Museum until 3.30pm, so grabbed a coffee and wandered back down to the Pier for the 4pm boat back to Westminster. As the sun sets so early here, this cruise gave us the opportunity to see the same view as earlier but as the night lights came on. We then caught the tube back to Green Park and I took the little kids and Abi home while Ross and the boys went in search of dinner to have at home. Abi, Zac and I then had a movie night (Avatar) while Ross took the older boys to the pub across the road (!)….to watch Liverpool v Sunderland.

Tuesday 29 December

A sleep in was achieved this morning, although we still had to set an alarm and wake everyone – at 9am. When I had booked Madame Tussauds at home, I had to nominate a timeslot to arrive, so randomly picked 10.30am which meant we had to get up and get going! We walked around the corner to Green Park station, bought an Oyster card, and travelled the two tube stops to Baker St. We couldn’t get over how many policemen with many weapons were standing around in the stations, but they were very nice. Two even posed for a photo with Zac (although I was concerned about us distracting them from their job of protecting us!).

  
We had coffee across the road as we were early, and then waltzed through past the long queue straight in. It was slightly bedlam with all the people, but we soon got into the swing of it and enjoyed the tour, which took us almost three hours. I was really impressed with the whole place, as there were not only the wax models to see, but a ride that went through a brief history of London, a 4D experience/mini movie full of Marvel Superheroes, and a Star Wars section. This was Zac and Sam’s Christmas present, and they were stoked! 

   
    
    
    
   
We then caught the tube to Westminster station, and looked at the Abbey (but only from the outside as the crowds to enter were organised into a long queue that stretched past the length of the Abbey!). Nearby was a Methodist Church (which is being set up for Bryan Adams to perform there NYE), and we went into their cafe for a late lunch. They had an upright piano in the corner, so Jarrod was able to spend some time serenading those in the cafe. He has been saying he is missing the piano at home while we have been travelling, so it was great for him to get a short practice session in. 

From our sandwiches and paninis there, we walked across Westminster Bridge to get onto the London Eye. I had picked up our tickets at Madame Tussauds, except they turned out to be vouchers I had to exCHANGE for tickets at the Ticket Office. The ticket collection line stretched so far – I was told the wait would be an HOUR. I then saw someone else tell the supervisor that they had been told they could use their voucher as a ticket instead of lining up, so I suggested to her the same deal should be made available to me, and she authorised it. One hour saved!! 

We then queued up to get on the Eye, and the man checking our tickets told us we had mistakenly joined the Fast Track line and needed to join the back of the “normal” queue, which snaked around and around and stretched across the road. Ross estimated we would wait about 2-3 hours in that line. The crowd propelled us forward towards another girl checking tickets. I looked forlornly at her and asked her to please not send a group our size to the back of the slow line. So…she didn’t. Three hours saved! Fifteen minutes later we were enjoying our ride on the London Eye, just as the sun was setting. 

   
   
We wandered back across the River Thames and down to Westminster Station via 10 Downing Street. I remember as a child having my photo taken outside the front door, but of course in this day and age, the whole street is fenced off and guarded by policemen. We stopped to chat with them about a protest going on across the street, and they were very friendly. The protest was asking the government to support Ethiopian people and not the Ethiopian government, but David Cameron is away on holidays so the protestors’ only audience was the policemen and people like us walking past! 

  
We walked down Piccadilly on our return home, and enjoyed the logs and bustle of West End. It was only 5pm but we were all so tired after a big day, and the kids had been asking for Five Guys since they saw it last week as we rode by. So we stopped in there for dinner and were home with our feet up (and a load of washing on) by 7pm.

Monday 28 December

Our last day on tour! It has been great, although it is getting progressively harder to get Belle up each morning 😬. We have found this tour group to be friendly but have not made any great friends. It was only a six day tour, and we do spend the first couple of days staying out of the way so the group can discover for themselves that they will survive with six kids on the coach!

Actually, the bus driver told us that he has three times driven coaches where people have left the tour in disgust before it is finishes because they couldn’t cope with children running up and down the aisle and annoying them all day. So we usually sit quietly at first so people can make up their own minds. And then as the tours progress we get compliments – and presents haha! One lady from Canada bought the kids chocolates because she was so impressed with them, and another older lady heard the girls saying they couldn’t find the colouring pencils on the coach so she went and bought them a packet at Ludlow. We just smile, thank them, and tell them they don’t have to live with them (or get Belle up at 6am each morning…). 

I told Abi she is my favourite child on tour – while all of them have been (mostly) well behaved and polite and complied with every time schedule etc., Abi coerces her sister awake and into the shower every morning, lays out her clothes for her, always gets herself ready on time and keeps her bag tidy, and then ensures the little three are quietly entertained on the coach and at restaurants. It has made my job much easier! 

So today was the last day we had to push Belle along, made easier by the fact today was the one all three of us girls were looking forward to. Abi studied Bath at school this year, so was especially keen to go there. We left the hotel (after yet aNOTher full English breakfast!) at 8am and headed straight for Bath. On the way there I reminded the little three about Stonehenge – there is a game they play on their iPods called Guess the Country, which is very educational and has this picture as its background, so they were very impressed they would be up close to the actual thing!

  
Our time in Bath was nowhere near enough! We started at the Royal Crescent in the botanical gardens, which was beautiful, and then straight over to Bath Abbey and the Roman Baths. We were given an audio guide and 90 minutes there, but could have spent so much longer! Everyone was mesmerised and informed, and it really solidified some of what we had learnt in Rome and Pompeii. 

   
    
 We then bought some sandwiches to take with us as we left at 11.15am, prepared for our picnic lunch at Stonehenge. The crowds at Stonehenge were ridiculous. Thankfully, we had privileged entry and went straight through, onto the bus that took us out through the field to the site of the stones. It was more impressive than I expected, but difficult to take any photos without many strangers in every shot. Tim, Abi and I became separated from the others when we returned to the cafe and souvenir shop, so we went through the exhibition ourselves and met them back on the coach at the scheduled time. 

   
 The last leg of our journey was then into London, where we alighted the coach for the last time at the Cumberland Hotel and caught two taxis from there (for only ten pounds) around to our hotel. As it was dark by the time we arrived, we don’t have our bearings yet, but I unpacked and bathed the little kids while Ross and Jarrod went grocery shopping at Sainsburys. Ross then cooked dinner in our apartment kitchen while I. Did. Some. Washing!!!! I got through all the piles (below) before bed, so all is right again in my world 😊

Sunday 27 December

It was great to experience Liverpool, especially for the boys who have studied The Beatles as part of the year 9 music curriculum, and for me after reading Helen Forrester books growing up. I’m going to make the kids read them when we get home 😉. We left at 8am and went under the Mersey River through the tunnel to Birkenhead, and then on to our first stop, Chester. We saw a lot of flood-affected areas on the way, and while we have seen no news from home or here while travelling, we did learn that parts of York (where we were a few nights ago) have been evacuated.

  
Any English name with ‘caster’ or ‘chester’ in it means it was once a Roman fortress. The town of Chester still has a wall around it that is 3 miles long. We walked part of it with the travel director, saw a Roman amphitheatre that has been uncovered recently, and then were let loose for an hour. Chester’s other claim to fame is its “rows” of shops – those above ground level are all connected by an undercover walkway (middle picture below).

   
   
I’ve decided after exploring Chester though, I am not a fan of rows. From the street level, it is hard to tell what businesses and shops are on the level above. And being a day of beautiful weather once again, the undercover walkway was not needed – whereas yesterday I would have said every shopping area should have rows! We enjoyed (well…I enjoyed…) an impromptu Business Studies/Commerce lesson as we walked, discussing the effects on the businesses around us and the pros and cons of being on the row upstairs or street front. Mind you, this early on a Sunday morning nothing is open, which didn’t help my analysis of what was working for them! With no actual shopping possible, we stopped for a coffee and were on our way again. 

Our next stop was Ludlow, where we were given time to explore and have lunch. We looked around for about 15 minutes and as 12pm arrived, we decided to find somewhere for an early lunch. We chose The Church Inn, thinking it was an appropriate name for a Sunday lunch! Would you believe it, they said they would not be ready for a party of eight for at least half an hour, and they turned us away…it’s the first time in our lives we’ve been turned away from church haha! 

DeGrey’s cafe was willing to take us (and several others from our tour group that wandered in after us), and we placed our lunch orders at 12.15pm. At 12.45pm we started to feel a little concerned about lunch not arriving (given we had to be back on the bus at 1.15pm), and as others that entered the cafe after us were served before us at 12.55, I started to panic! (It did give us plenty of time to continue our HSIE lesson part 2, as we watched junior staff wander around and listed inefficiencies that could easily be overcome.)

Ross spoke to the staff about our time constraint, and they offered to pack up our meals in a take away bag and not charge us. Ross offered to pay anyway, but they insisted (and also didn’t charge eight others from our tour who also needed takeaway lunches!), so we returned to the bus eight minutes late with our free lunch and ate it on the way to Cardiff. 

  
Our first stop there was a tour of Cardiff Castle, and then to our hotel for a ten minute (!) turnaround to then go out for our farewell dinner. 

   
 
The drive to the pub was about half an hour, but it was an interesting evening dining in a pub built in 1308!! I tried mulled wine (for the first and only time 😝), and we enjoyed a three course meal before the drive back to the Mercure. Unfortunately we are in three rooms on three different levels of this hotel, which is really messing with my control-freak nature <sigh>…
  
(Challenge from Louella accepted – we easily found a telephone box)

Saturday 26 December

Our first bad weather of the trip, ☔️ It rained all day today. We left Edinburgh at 9am (yay! A sleep in!) and headed straight for Gretna Green, which opened at 11am. There was fresh snow on nearby mountains, but sadly we didn’t experience the White Christmas we were hoping for.

We were given an hour and a half there to explore the location of many elopements, shop and have an early lunch. We were glad it was mainly indoors! It was my only chance to shop in Scotland, and best of all…I found some Moffat tartan. Dad, I have found your souvenir! 

   
 The floods in the Cumbria area over the last month have altered the route of our tour, and recent rains have caused further flooding. We aren’t able to go to Grasmere as planned, so the driver took us to Windermere, home of Beatrix Potter, and a beautiful little town when it’s not looking so drowned! We were all happy to cut short the time available to explore there as there was not much under cover. We stopped for coffee and the kids shared chocolate brownie milkshakes – we watched as real chocolate brownies were poured into the mixing machine! 

Our next stop was Liverpool, where we arrived at 4.30pm as it was getting dark. A local guide then took us on a city tour, with time at Liverpool Cathedral and the Cavern Club where the Beatles played over 250 times in their early days, as well as other locations relevant to the Fab Four. The tour was very informative but quite long after a long day of travelling, so we alighted early as the guide took us through a restaurant precinct near the hotel. The only suitable (ie. Inexpensive and not a bar or club!) restaurant was a Pizza Express, right next door to our accommodation, which we can see as well as a Ferris wheel, from the window in our room.

Friday 25 December

Merry Christmas! 🎄 Zac and Sam woke us all up at 7am. Belle was disappointed that Santa hadn’t been, but I had warned her! I am very glad today has finally arrived – I have been keeping the secret of their Christmas presents for soooooo long! And now all is revealed 😉 

We didn’t even ask the kids for their wish list this year – we decided to give everyone an “experience” rather than several presents we had to carry over here. And the gift keeps on giving as we all benefit from the presents! Ross, Jarrod and Tim are off to a Manchester United game at Old Trafford, Abi is taking us all to the Warner Bros Studio Tour (ie. Harry Potter World), Zac and Sam are taking us to Madame Tussaud’s and the London Eye, I am taking everyone to a musical on West End, and Belle is (surprise, surprise) taking us all to Disneyland Paris! 

We had a leisurely 8am breakfast and boarded the coach at 9am to go to St Andrews Golf Course. This was an optional extra which not many on the tour took up, but we thought it might be a long day if we didn’t go! We crossed the River Forth and drove through beautiful countryside and several towns to reach St Andrews. We were shown around the town, some cathedral ruins, the University, the cafe where Prince William met Kate Middleton (which only interested me!), and the coach drove around the golf course. We were given time to explore it on foot – it was surprising how many people were actually playing golf today! Everyone we passed wished us a merry Christmas, it was a lovely atmosphere.

   
   
We were told we could walk on the famous little bridge, but water covered some of the course and the bridge was actually fenced off.  So we went up to the fourth floor of the hotel, which had great views of the golf course and out to the North Sea, and the beach where Chariots of Fire was filmed. We then enjoyed a drink each in the hotel restaurant – the girls won with hot chocolates containing marshmallows, whipped cream and chocolate flakes!    

   
 We left at 12.15pm and returned to the hotel. We skipped lunch today as our Christmas dinner supplied in a private dining room by the hotel starts at 3.45! We convinced the kids to have a rest time, and were back downstairs for dinner at the scheduled time. We had a lovely three course meal, with party hats and Christmas crackers. It seems an appropriate time for Christmas dinner seeing as it was dark outside by 4.30! We had finished and were back in our room by 6.30pm. It has been our quietest Christmas ever – we are now looking for a movie to watch together just so the family time doesn’t end so soon. While it has been a lovely experience, and quite different to our usual busy celebrations, we are looking forward to filling Oyster Bay with people next year!

Thursday 24 December

We departed York at 8am this morning, and pushed on through beautiful countryside to Edinburgh. We stopped at a section of Hadrians Wall after some commentary on its history, but having seen pictures and read up on this before, it wasn’t as impressive as we were expecting! 

   
 I think we were shown a worn and small part of the wall because it was closest to the route we were taking, and the travel director was trying to get us to Edinburgh in as little time as possible. Normally a visit to Edinburgh Castle is on the itinerary for day three of this tour, but with Christmas Day being tomorrow, nothing is open so we are attempting to fit in the Castle visit today.

We stopped at a wool mill for a quick lunch of paninis and hot chips, and only five minutes to shop there! 😢 There were some bargain cashmere scarves in clan tartans, but alas I could not find Moffat or Jones anywhere in the shop!! We were in Edinburgh by 1.30pm, and met our local guide who took us on a walking tour and up to Edinburgh Castle. 

   
 We were then given an hour to explore the Castle ourselves, before boarding the bus again for a driving tour of the city, including through the Queen’s palace, Holyrood. We were also given a history of the kilt (with demo from our kilt-wearing guide!), but sadly none of it was new information to me after wearing one to school for years! 😬 We were also shown where JK Rowling wrote the Harry Potter books.

Our accommodation tonight is a Holiday Inn next door to Edinburgh Zoo. It seems to be a fair way out of town, so we ate dinner at the restaurant inside the hotel (Grandpop, you will be pleased to know kids eat free with paying adults!) instead of exploring further. The majority of the tour group went to a traditional Scottish dinner tonight, with bagpipes and traditional entertainment, but we have some children who suddenly need a break from the company of each other, and certainly do not need dinner with a group of strangers! 😕 Tim is sick of getting kids menus at restaurants, Zac cannot sit through a meal without annoying a sibling, and Sam and Belle just cannot sit through a meal…<sigh>. I can’t even threaten that Santa will not come, because he is not coming to us anyway! Despite Belle’s insistence that Santa found her friend Ella when she was overseas and so will therefore find us, I’ve told them repeatedly this will not be a usual Christmas! It’s even stranger to think it is already Christmas in Oz, so goodnight and Merry Christmas! 😀🎄

Wednesday 23 December

Today we were packed up and waiting for taxis at 6.15am to take us to the London Trafalgar Centre (down near the London Eye) for the start of our next coach tour at 7am. The hotel packed us up a little bag of croissants for breakfast as we left before their dining room opened. One taxi was fifteen minutes late which gave us a little cause for panic, but we still made it there in plenty of time. 

It is bizarre starting the coach process all over again so soon after the last one ended. Belle very soon recited to me who she was missing, including the Thams from Singapore, Micah and Sarah from Darwin, Peter the travel director and Chinsia (our local guide from Rome!).

We drove past a few of the sights of London, like the Marble Arch and Big Ben, and headed straight for Stratford-upon-Avon. After a stop off and group photo at Anne Hathaway’s cottage, we were given an hour to explore Shakespeare’s birthplace and family home. We grabbed an early lunch there as we had only had the croissants for breakfast at 6.30am, we chose pasties from a local bakery, and were back on the bus just after 12pm to head for York, our stopover for tonight.

   
(Anne Hathaway’s cottage above, Shakespeare’s home below)

 
After a rest stop and coffee break, we arrived in York at about 4pm, and were taken on a walking tour of the town. It was getting dark as we walked! We explored the Shambles, and the tour ended at the cathedral, the largest church in this area of England. We were then given time to explore the Shambles further and the Christmas markets. 
   
 
We were then taken to an award-winning pub in a neighbouring town for our Welcome Dinner. Meal choices were sausages and mash, steak and ale pie, fish and mash, or a vegetarian option. Very English fare! A young South African couple pregnant with their first child were stuck with us for dinner 😬 – we learnt a lot about South Africa! And every foreigner we “interview” on these tours makes us appreciate Australia even more 😉

Tuesday 22nd December

I turned over a new leaf today: I introduced a REST day into the middle of our holiday. Honestly! I learnt from the US trip (although I probably should have learnt from interstate trips before that…) that I can’t push everyone every single day to the point of exhaustion 😬

We have had so many early starts that I let everyone sleep in. We are in two rooms at a little boutique hotel called The Academy Hotel off Tottenhma Court Rd, opposite the University of London. The hotel is quaint and steeped in history, created by linking five terrace houses together. It is in Bloomsbury, the first suburb built after the Great Fire of Lomdon, and most famous for the group of writers, artists and philosophers (such as Virginia Woolf) who would meet there.

The hotel provides an included continental breakfast in its dining room between 7am and 10am, so my only stipulation was that everyone be awake in time to attend that. The kids were very surprised at the extensive sleep in that was allowed! After that the eight of us set off in search of a laundromat. We followed the hotel’s directions and found one, and walked on to St Pancreas and Kings Cross stations while it was on. I took the kids to Platform 9 and 3/4, but there was such a queue for the photo opportunity and then to purchase the photo, that below is the only photo of it we took 😉

  
We then explored a second hand bookshop next to the laundromat while the dryer was on (and spent 30 pounds on books!), and had lunch in a little Turkish cafe around the corner. Everyone enjoyed gozleme for lunch, and then we trekked back to our hotel with our clean washing. Yay for washing being achieved!

We enforced a rest time in the afternoon, intending to meet a family from our coach tour for dinner and movie at night. But I couldn’t book enough tickets! They are all mad Star Wars fans, and our kids have been asking to see it before they find out any spoilers online. The Thams had plans that prevented them from meeting any earlier, so were quite happy for us to see the movie without them. We took the kids to the 4.45pm session, and at 7.15pm walked out of the cinema and they were waiting to meet us for dinner! Side note: Star Wars was excellent – we had low expectations with it being taken over by Disney, but those expectations were far exceeded!

We went to a restaurant near our hotel called Garfunkels, which offered a kids’ three course meal for six pounds, and had a delicious meal and lovely time with them. It is sad to say goodbye! They are very keen for us to visit them in Singapore. By the time we returned to our hotel and packed our bags to go tomorrow on our next tour, it was after 10.30pm – probably not the ideal time to tell the kids they have to be up at 5.30am tomorrow!!