London's Calling

With a week left of the school year, Mum, Dad and Aunty Colleen arrived in the UK. They spent a week touring Ireland, Scotland and Wales before returning to London where I would be staying with them for a week!

On Sunday, 24th July we went to the Camden Markets. The footpaths were all taped off by police so Mum did the obvious thing and asked the police what had happened. It seems that it had been "a typical weekend in Camden" and someone had been glassed in the early hours of that morning. (As it turned out, this was also the day after Amy Winehouse had died in Camden).

The markets were absolutely endless and we had fun checking out all the colourful stalls. Dad eventually got "marketed out" and so we headed back to Bloomsbury where I was going to show them the delights of Hamley's toy store. We had fun looking at all the toys and watching the various toy demonstrations, but after looking at 2 of the 6/7 levels we decided to stop for a lunch break. We had sandwiches and some delicious homemade ginger lemonade. We then went back to Hamley's to check out the remainder of the levels. I couldn't resist buying some sticker books, which I had completed by the next day - such fun!

The next day, Mum and Aunty Colleen got up early to catch the train into Paris. Dad and I were going to spend the day at all of London's famous sporting venues.

After another breakfast of cold toast, we headed down to Wimbledon where I had been a few weeks earlier to watch the tennis. We arrived just in time to join the guided tour. The golden rule was that no-one was allowed to touch the grass!! Of course, somebody still tried. The courts were mostly in the re-generation process - growing new grass from seed.


Dad and I at the top of Henman Hill



The court surface

 

Centre-court being re-grown



 

Lleyton = Champion



The match I saw





We spent quite a bit of time in the museum which was fascinating, tracing tennis all the way back to its origins. Here, I proceeded to beat Dad in a game that tested reflexes. We had lunch and spoke quite proudly of the successful morning that we had spent at Wimbledon - we spoke too soon.

The next stop was Lord's. When we arrived, we found out that we were 30 mins too late - it was sold out. Disappointed, we walked all the way back to the station and got the train to Wembley. Here, we were equally unsuccessful, finding out that they too were sold out.

The walk towards Wembley

As a last ditch effort, we went to Covent Garden to visit the Transport Museum - which had just closed!
We headed back to Bloomsbury and went to Pizza Hut for a quick dinner and milkshake - yum! This was where Sally joined us for some more London adventures...