iPod in Spring

Okay so a slight play on words but it is a pod on the London Eye or as my daughter Becky wrote the "London i", hence the use of the naming convention. Today we spent another fantastic day in London but this time with the children who were on their first outing to the capital.

We did a river cruise followed by a flight on the London Eye, a visit to Trafalgar Square and then an unusual hop on the tube to Monument to show Becky the site of the baker's shop in Pudding Lane where the Great Fire of London started in September 1666 (she'd done it as part of a school project).

Back on the tube to St James Park where we walked along past New Scotland Yard and Cath's old workplace in Victoria Street, and on the Westminster Abbey. Becky was mesmerised by the fact that she was standing on the very spot that Miss Catherine Middleton would get out of the car to enter the abbey at the end of next week, only to exit as a princess (I think Becky hoped some of the magic could rub off on her: she's my little princess anyway).

Having soaked up the atmosphere there, we headed up Whitehall past Downing Street (not particularly interesting to under 7s apparently) and through Horseguards' Parade to The Mall to see Buckingham Palace. We had convinced the kids that we might get invited in for tea at the palace so much so that Alex kept on wiping dust from his shoes for fear of offending Her Majesty (also gutted that she wasn't in residence anyway, so McDonalds was an acceptable fallback).

Anyway, today's blip is unashamedly touristy but with a little bit of interest in that it was the view of the eye from the tree lined queue and was crying out to be photographed.