London, again

Rob's parents were in London this weekend, celebrating his mum's 75th birthday.  They wanted to meet up with us before they got the train home.  We decided to drive to Kensington Gardens, play for a while, and have a cup of tea with the grandparents sometime in the afternoon.  Good plan.

We didn't count on the fact there was a cycle race in Hyde Park.  This meant there was more traffic than usual, a couple of road closures, and general chaos.  It took absolutely ages to get there.

We finally made it, found a parking space, and made our way to the Princess Diana memorial playground.  I've been thinking about taking the kids for a while.  It was great - lots to do, interesting set up, nice cafe, lots of rocks and fences to perch on for the adults.

The kids really enjoyed it.  Rain kept threatening, but it stayed away for the most part.  Freddie did dare devil jumps off the pirate ship, and found a friend to play with.  Betsy jumped from the pirate ship and I was tasked with catching her.  Meg pottered around the slides and the swings with Rob.  We stayed for a couple of hours.

We walked to Kensington High Street for lunch at McDonalds, then back to the car.

We'd planned to drive to near Oxford Circus and find somewhere to park, and take the kids to look around Hamleys toy shop.  But oh my god the traffic!  It took an hour to drive two miles.  Agghhhhh.  So we ended up parking in the world's most expensive car park, just behind John Lewis on Oxford Street.  £5 an hour.  We stayed for a bit more than an hour.  Ouch.

But, we met Rob's parents in the toy section at John Lewis, had a cup of tea in the cafe there, and that was good.  She liked her presents, and was happy to see the kids.  They'd had a great time at the theatre yesterday, and a lovely lunch at Browns today.

By now the kids were hot, bothered and tired (the cafe was boiling), so we kept it quite short.  More traffic leaving London on the way home.  Now I'm exhausted!