Getting around

The London Underground is a fabulous way of getting around the city. I know there’s a specialness to hailing a black taxi, or hopping on a red double-decker bus, but I love trains. I did a lot of investigating before we left as to how you get around on the Underground these days and started to get a bit confused as to Oyster cards and so on. Then I discovered the London Travelcard, which you can purchase through the Australian shop of VisitBritain. You simply check which zones you’ll be travelling in, on or off peak, and for how many days (or journeys). We got two adult 7 day, zones 1-2, cards. Kids under 11 years of age travel free. Freaking marvellous!! They’re valid on all forms of public transport.

I ordered them online, specified what day we’d be arriving in the UK to start using them, and they were posted to our house. How easy is that?!  We stepped off the Eurostar from Paris and got these out to hop on another train to get to our Airbnb. Of course, as they’re worth a bit of money, you want to really keep a good hold on them – so we gave ours to Adam to keep under careful watch!

I will add, that you’ll probably have to go through the extra wide barriers at the ticket point – there’s one on the end for prams and families. Going through regular ones is a risk of getting caught. Keira was still 10 when we were there, but could pass for older. You’re supposed to have ID for children travelling, to prove their age if going for free -though we were never asked.

Places worth visiting

1. Westminster Abbey

You have to pay for entrance to the big churches in England. Westminster Abbey is one of the churches where I think it’s worth it. There is so much history packed into the place – tombs and monuments of famous royalty and celebrities dating back a thousand years. As my two are such Horrible Histories fans, I could see them get a real jolt whenever they came across the resting places of people like Queen Elizabeth I – right on top of her half-sister Mary I – and Charles II, among others.

What I love about the Abbey are the number of super-friendly volunteers on hand to help with any questions – they are easy to find, just look for their distinctive green robes. I managed to work out the roman numerals on Isaac Newton’s tomb to figure out the year of his death and I went up to one of the women volunteers to ask if she could double check on her sheet (I think it was the answer to the question on the children’s trail and they have those to help), and she high-fived me when I was right. Primary school maths FTW!

Another thing about the children’s trail – the Abbey wins for the most generous prize for kids who manage to complete it. An enormous chocolate coin! Kids who are allergic might get something else, hopefully.

Photographs are strictly forbidden inside, but we took a few outside in the cloister area. For the audio tours, you can download the app ahead of time so you can listen on your own device, but there are plenty available there if you forget.

2. British Museum

The British Museum will be familiar to kids who have seen the latest ‘A Night at the Museum’ movie, especially this beautiful atrium area. A teensy word of caution as its size makes it quite an imposing prospect and it’s probably wisest to stick to the areas you think will be most interesting.

So why am I mentioning it? Well, it’s free (yay). Also, because, if you’re lucky you might come across one of these ‘Hands on’ ancient objects demonstrations from the museum’s collection where – you guessed it – you get to get to hold them. It was pretty rad.

Note: In my opinion, the Sutton Hoo exhibition in Room 41 is unmissable. Worth going for a look by itself.

3. The London Eye

The London Eye is now so ubiquitous to the London skyscape, it’s hard to imagine a time it wasn’t there – and it wasn’t last time I was in London (1995), so I really wanted to go visit.

In the 30 minutes it takes to make a rotation, you get glorious views across the city. We visited on a bitterly cold and windy day – but at least it was clear, so that helped visibility enormously. If you are anxious with heights – as I can be – then you can probably anticipate taking a few deep breaths on occasion. There is a bench seat in the middle of the capsule you can go sit on and put your head between your knees if you feel the need.

The Eye is almost in constant motion – it only stops if it needs to help someone on or off with access issues, or if something – touch wood – goes wrong. So that helped me as well, those tiny increments all adding up.

Once we hit the point you see below – almost the very top – weirdly, that was when I began to relax (“It’s all downhill from here!) and really began to soak up the sight.

This remains as one of Keira’s highlights from London.

A note about hopping off once you get to the bottom – remember I talked about constant motion? You make a kind of leap once the doors open, taking into account the movement of the wheel. Certainly tests the coordination skills a bit!

I don’t think there’s any denying that the London Eye is expensive for a half-hour rotation. True, there are price tiers but they basically depend on how long you’re prepared to wait in a line. I have to say I’m glad we were ‘fast-tracked’ – I didn’t fancy staying out in the cold (but the ‘on-off’ passage of tourists is constant and fluid, so that’s something to take into account). When you factor in security measures, maintenance, staff and more, I’m sure it costs lots to upkeep. I certainly don’t mind paying what it takes for all that!

It certainly ranks up there in the “You’ve got to do it” list of things to do in London.

4. Kings Cross Station and Platform 9¾

We got a little… misplaced… trying to find the famous platform at Kings Cross Station, but we got there in the end! And I’m glad we did. There is a trolley going into the wall that you can pose with to get your photo taken, but be warned the lines get very long. The staff are very loud and cheery and that helps keep you entertained, but even that might get old for very young kids. We didn’t line up, but Keira bought a mini Hedwig and Riley bought a packet of the Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Jelly Beans and they were happy.

Note: Yes, the jelly beans have disgusting names like ‘grass’ and ‘rotten eggs’. And, yes, they taste as disgusting as they sound.

A bit of free fun if you want to go along and have a look.

5. Natural History Museum

We went to the Natural History Museum on a rainy weekend. Big mistake. As in a ‘wait for 45 minutes outside in the rain to get inside’ mistake. Everyone else had the same idea! But we got in eventually and found ourselves in front of this impressive escalator!

It took a fair bit of walking to navigate ourselves and had to work our way through the crush over to this most famous side of the building you see below.

I’m going to share my two favourite places in the museum – high up in the green zone is the Treasures in the Cadogan Gallery where you can find precious pieces from our world… and beyond it. Go to The Vault, too – it’s got precious minerals like gold and gemstones. Very pretty.

6. Science Museum

Right next door, though, was our favourite: the Science Museum. High up on the fifth floor (you have to take a staircase to get there) is The Science and Art of Medicine and it is fascinating. We spent close to an hour in here alone. From Ancient Egypt to the 20th Century, you see how medicine has developed and improved. There are some confronting things on display from the early days of treating mental and sexual health, so be prepared for questions, but everything makes you appreciate where we are now as a society – and how far we still need to go in some cases.

The Science Museum has excellent activity points where you can learn more about such things as Napier’s bones or how a Japanese abacus works. Great for us visual learners!

The Science Museum and the Natural History Museum are both free.

7. Pigeons and parks

The birds are quite tame in the parks, used to being well-fed, and you might find one perches itself on your arm if you stand still long enough! If you’re germ-phobic, or bird-phobic, then take that into account. If the weather is nice, the parks are lovely to stroll around.

8. Audioguides rock

We spent four hours in the National Gallery – enough said.

9. Eating out

We discovered this Italian eatery chain called Prezzo. Look at the kids menu – fantastic value. The food was really good too. They’re outside of London as well – we ate dinner in Bath at one because we knew what we’d be getting. I was getting really vigilant about the amount of fizzy drink the kids were drinking by this stage, so I was glad for the glass of milk option (I’m sure you could ask that for the tiny tots, too). Table water was free.

Other notable places:

The Tower of London (absolutely #1 place to go in my opinion), strolling the food halls at Harrods, checking out the local canals and houseboats, climbing the lions at Nelson’s Column at Trafalgar Square, seeing the theatres of the West End and so much more.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments.