Going home for the 1st time in 6 years - 'darn souf'

The last 10 days have been crazy. It's so crazy I will have to take some time to fill in all the details. But to generalise - my nephew (from Dubai) had a wedding (In Wales) So we flew to the UK (London) and then visited friends and family (In Manchester). I was happily surprised to see my oldest brother and wife there too (From Sydney) before we actually made the wedding and returned home (To Canada) via Windsor and London where my other army mate (From Buckingham) popped by for a pint. 

It's been an emotional, tiring and brilliant week and a bit.....

We packed all our clothes, wedding stuff, the kid's books and some toys into 2 carry-on bags and made our way to Winnipeg for the first flight to Montreal. Our flight from there was overnight and would land in London at 9am. We couldn't wait till 4pm to get the kids to bed, so we rented an Airbnb for 3 nights including the night we flew, knowing that without checked luggage we had a better chance to get the kids to bed for the afternoon. 

The flights were great with the lids happily playing, reading and watching a bit of the in-flight entertainment, The kids were also lucky enough to be invited onto the flight deck when we landed and although Hannah was a little nervous, Ollie was definitely not - he ended up sat in the pilots seat wearing her hat quite happily! The kids also 'helped' push each other in the stroller. 

As we came into London we flew over the city seeing all the usual sights before landing on time in Heathrow. Getting out of Heathrow took longer though as all the stairs, elevators and escalators were busy and with the two kids it was a long way for them to walk. We eventually made it to the underground station though and the kids were so excited and surprised when the train came shooting out of the underground tunnel!

We expected the kids to go straight to sleep, but of course, they didn't, so it ended up being a waiting game till they finally had a nap after lunch. It did allow us to get some shopping in from the local Asda as well as picking up a 15quid car seat for Hamah from Argos, that would have been 90 quid to rent for the week!

After their nap, we headed out to a local park., It was a beautiful warm afternoon and they loved the 'slightly more dangerous than Canadian parks' park, with its metal climbing frames and death slide! Then a quick Mcdonald's for dinner was followed by a couple of pints in the pub garden of the pub that was quite literally 10 seconds was across the road from our AirBnb. The kids faked us into thinking we would have an easy night as they fell asleep by 10, but woke up again by 12 midnight. I eventually read books to them till they both fell asleep around 4 a.m. Bloody Jetlag! We thought the next day might be a write-off because they would be tired, but it turned out to be fantastic...

A quick one day tour of Londonium....

The kids slept in till about 10am, but woke happy and ready to go out for the day. It was another lovely sunny warm day, so we headed out to the Underground station and rode the train all the way to Westminster emerging into the crowds of people admiring Elizabeth Tower - commonly known as Big Ben - and the lovely warm sunshine. We had booked a ride on the London Eye while we travelled on the tube and had about an hour to get across the river, so took a wander along the embankment enjoying the sites and trying to get Hannah to walk instead of hogging the stroller! I ended up carrying her for a bit, but when we saw the carousel on the South Bank and they had a ride they cheered up and started to enjoy themselves. 

The wait for the London Eye looked long, but we were surprised to actually get on it early and only had to queue for about 10 minutes, The ride was actually really good and we all enjoyed the sites and trying to play hide and seek in the glass bubble! An Ice cream followed after we got off the eye and then we jumped on an Uber Boat for s quick 30-minute ride up the Thames, past the sites until we got off in front of Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. Hannah recognised the bridge from the Legoi model we still need to finish!

It was nearly time for dinner (and a pint) so we strolled a little away from the crowds and eventually stopped at a pub near to 'Monument', where we had a lovely dinner and a drink - as well as the kids being crazy and playing games as normal. Ollie has a new game whereby he puts out his arm and stops people going past with his 'barrier' until they pay him (pretend money is fine) It's really funny when he tries to do it to strangers or to all the cars going past as he did here!

The kid's final wish for the day was to ride on the top deck of a double-decker bus, so we got on the busiest bus ever and took a ride to Covent Garden. It was still a lovely day so we spent a while watching the street performers while eating the 3rd or 4th treat of the day - a full box of popsicles from a local Tesco store!

Finally, it was time to head home and we grabbed a tube back to the Airbnb in Hounslow. On the way Ollie invented a new game - I would sing -  'What do you see, what do you see' and he would tell me what he sees out of the window. Until he got sill and every answer became 'poo poo' and a huge laugh from Ollie. Some passengers on the train didn't see the funny side - Bloody Southerners!

Of course, we couldn't finish the day without a quick stop at our favourite beer garden again - I don't know how but the kids got their energy back fast and spent a good hour running around the place - I don't know where they get it from! I was knackered. 

They did go down pretty quick when we eventually got to bed though. 

Next morning  - Monday - I was up early and back on the Tube to Heathrow to collect our rental car for the next week - Things were getting more exciting as today we headed for Manchester!!!

One thing I noticed about being back in the UK is how small everything feels. It all feels about 3/4 the size of things over here. Especially roads and pavements sidewalks) It actually feels a little like being on a movie set where it's all scaled differently. I never noticed when I lived there. It made me wonder of that's why UK is such a popular tourist attraction - because its just small and cute!