TLDR – Spring break, pile of Lego points, not laid off. We’re off to London for a few days with a day in Lego Land Windsor – Drama with our booking first night, fun in the middle, more drama with Storm Dave trapping us at Gatwick on the journey home
Day one off to adventure
Out the door at 0500 to the airport. Girls talking in the car about Alexa being their friend. Roxi says she talks to her while avoiding cleaning. Mila says goodnight to her and sets alarms. Khaleesi says her Alexa is in a Ditch. At the Red car park, Instead of being at the end in ZZ we’re parking in lot B today; Score.
Flight was nap time, with some rough landing – Storm Dave is due in a few days, maybe our landing is part of his early entourage. 55£ for the train into to Victoria station from GTW. Kids were only 2£ each, would have been more then flights otherwise. From Victoria we walked about 25 minutes to Brandy Melville in Chelsy. Brandy is a clothing shop that’s all rage with Mila via TikToc
While the girls are shopping Maddex Roxi and I browsed Waitrose, coming away with sushi and pretzel. After Brandy we found a Whole foods for pizza and more food. Gave the kids each 25€ to feed themselves for the day. Khaleesi lost her card so she ate for free. She says free food tastes better. Can’t argue with her logic. Short walk from whole foods is the National Army Museum; the kids are all up for a museum.
Booking issues
Check in to our place Peckham was around 1500. Around 1400 we directed towards train to Peckham to find flat for the night. Sadly, we’ve not heard at all from the Booking.com hosts since the booking. At 1500 Michelle gave them another hour before filing a trouble ticket with Booking. Walking around the area Mila is not impressed at all. By now our phones are starting to die, we’re getting a bit annoyed and need a place to hang out. The hunt is on for power ! Khaleesi found it – the Peckham public library.
Booking asked for another hour to contact the host and try to arrange something. In the library I charged everything at a desk sitting next to a lad watching tom and Jerry at max volume from the PC speaker while Michelle read to the kids in the kids area. – It was warm, indoors and relaxingish. An hour later our first Booking was cancelled and we started looking for another one. Booking said they would Refund the first and cover the second plus some. Seems reasonable to us we can deal with that.
Second Booking we made is about 40 minutes away near isle of dogs on the other side the Thames. Walking towards the train the second booking contacted Michelle letting her know they no longer owned the unit , have not owned it for over a year. They said they’ve had issues getting it removed by booking – they wished us luck and said booking needs to be contacted for a refund as they are not able to refund the booking. Now we are starting to loose hope and get stressed. We walked to nearest hotel to just book something and it was closer. Michelle, always the calm problem solver – booked a third place via Airbnb.
The third place is in the Coral Apartments over looking the body of water wrapping around London City airport. We lucked out the third place was gorgeous. 9th floor corner unit overlooking a lake the IFS Cloud Car and the Thames in the back ground. Epic flat. Mila is moving here. Right next to the stairs to our building is Bonnane Pizzeria, we ordered 3 pizzas, ate them and went back for 5 more. Epic amazing brilliant wood fire pizzas covered in extra fresh ingredients. Ate there every night the whole stay.
Day two – Maritime, Greenwich, Oxford Street shopping
The original plan for day 2 was Legoland, after the drama finding a place to stay we pushed Legoland a day and decided to visit the Maritime museum in Greenwich as Legoland is 2 hours one way to travel. We took the DLR to Greenwich and started the adventure with the Greenwich foot tunnel under the river. Personally I’ve been in the tunnel many times. Been once before with the kids in a pram. They don’t recall the first time. Hope today’s walk they recall. It’s a novelty to me. Blows my mind, amazed every time, to walk in a tunnel under a river over 120 years old.
Next stop is the Maritime Museum, the kids seemed to enjoy the museums. Maddex actually got annoyed we missed a section and made us go back. The section we missed was the pacific island / Hawaii section Mila was was all excited when Maddex made us go. Worked out well.
After hiking up the step hill to the observatory we discovered it’s not free any more. Oh well the view was nice. Back to the village for lunch. Burrito bowls which we accidentally orders all with extra meat making it a costly meal. Bad or maybe good UI at the order kiosk depending on your view. Everyone had left overs- I finished the last bowl the morning we flew home.
Back to the flat for a nap before venturing out to Oxford street for shopping; another Brandy Melville. It was mad house of people everywhere. Both Whelming and Over whelming to the kids. Back home for pizza.
LegoLand
Day three of the adventure starts with a 2 hour train and bus ride to Windsor and Legoland. Annoying not listed online is the cost of 4£ per ticket to move them to another day unless you come in the day and change in person. Tickets were free with points so not horrible cost wise. Legoland under whelmed – Mila myself and Roxi like the big rides which were lacking. Tayto park back home in Ireland has better rides. The haunted house was pretty cool have to admit that, we all went on it. Made you feel upside down by rotating the walls and seats at the same time. Long bus and train ride back for more pizza.
Headed Home – Storm Dave you’re a jerk face
Last day Michelle and I got up early for a long walk around the lake thing over to the Thames tidal dam before the kids woke up. Let them sleep in past 0800. We hit up the British royal museum as the core destination of the day. Maddex, Khaleesi, Roxi and I walked through for a few hours while mom and Mila did some more shopping before we all linked up for hot dogs Lindor, and another Brandy shop.
Roxi asked to see Big Ben a few times on the trip. She picks her thing and needs to do it. Like the Potato eaters in Hamsterdam. 30 minutes walk later we’re in an over flowing sea of people checking out Big Ben. Was over overwhelming, we ran for open ground across the Thames. Already at 20,000 steps for the team the fam is starting to wear out; our dogs are barking. Time for the train to Gatwick
Gatwick our fligbht is booked to leave at 1520, then 2120, then 0010, then 0120. Storm Dave is making a mess of landings in Dublin airport – At the first push back Mila and I took to the lounge to feed her and charge all of phones. Figured it would be cheap dinner for our picky eater Mila. A few hours later the flight has been pushed so much we tried to get everyone in as it’s been 120 minutes since we first went in and that’s the Revolt / Dragon pass reset timer. Sadly the lounge has a 180 minute reset and the lounge is only open for a other hour, until 2130 at this point – Mutter. Should have booked in the whole family from the start.
For entertainment Mila and Kahlessi are off to film tiktoks about their house house. Khaleesi says when she talks about this trip to her future kid she’s going to them – She lived on the streets when we got here. Then she lived in an airport mansion. She had the roughest life. Glad the kids are still in good spirits able to entertain themselves. We made it home around 0300. 0600 I woke up to walk dog and get ready for work. Came out the front door to the back of the Van wide open. Guess I forgot to close it. From the camera no one walked by, nothing is missing. Saved by not being able to sleep.
