Blog ≫ 2020 ≫ Our holiday to London and Warwick (part four)
Another breakfast at Warwick Castle and then a walk back to the very quiet station. No coffee shop or anything open here, but soon on the train and the journey went quickly back to London. We had always planned to get a taxi from Marylebone straight to our hotel, but taxi rules have changed, and we didn't know. Forgot to add this one to my first London write up, but when the Uber driver turned up for us in Camden he said he's only supposed to take three passengers. No-one is allowed to ride in the front. So we tossed a coin to see which child we would abandon... no actually he said a child could sit in the front. I might go back and add this to the important document that is day one. Back on track now, we got the tube from Marylebone to Leicester Square and checked in to our Premier Inn.
This Premier Inn was slightly grubbier and wonkier than they usually are, it's well used, it's a brilliant location. We have often looked at this one and found it to be too expensive, but it was only £74 this time.
We had a walk round Covent Garden, and most of it seems to be shut down or being refurbished right now. We went to Forbidden Planet but found it a bit claustrophobic and not fun. Complicated one way system round the shop that half the customers were ignoring, so did not stay long and did not buy anything.
We got the tube to South Kensington for the Natural History Museum. We had booked a timeslot for this, and so there was a little hanging around with the threat of rain while we waited for our time to come up. Almost no-one around though, and when we actually got inside it was amazingly quiet. It's a great way to visit the museum, no-one in your way, even in the dinosaur bit. We finally saw the giant redwood slice, there is some good context on the display, it shows historical events for the rings on the tree. It was something like 1300 years old when it was cut down. I think we spent most of our time at the museum in the cafe actually. There was wifi. We hit the shop and bought yet more Top Trumps.
From the museum back briefly to the hotel. Boys wanted to go to the Lego shop, but the queue was too big and it was raining, so we went to the M&Ms shop instead. I don't see how this is a shop in its own right, but they enjoyed it, and they spent some of their spending money on exhorbitant pick'n'mix. From there to a dinner we had booked, an Italian just off Leicester Square called Vespa. We had booked it online but didn't need to, only one other family in there. A really really lovely meal in there. The first full price one of the week, and Clare picked up the bill which made it all the nicer. I really enjoyed this, and hope this place can survive. Their rent here must be very high, and there were just not enough people. There's a lot of competition in the area, but Vespa is worth checking out.
After dinner I went exploring, to find a pub. Some just not open, even right here in the West End. I ended up at The Flying Horse (formerly The Tottenham) perhaps partly because I knew the new Cormoran Strike1 was coming on TV soon as this is his local. In the books, I know he is a fictional character. Anyway he was not in there, but I got talking to a group, they are a tech start-up, bought my drinks, and we have swapped details in case there is any way we can help each other. They had been at Flight Club which sounds like Puttshack but for darts, we must check this out in future.
Next morning we did have the Premier Inn breakfast, it was not the best one. It's not the same when it's not buffet, but also it wasn't as good as the Warwick Castle breakfast. It was not even as good as the Pret breakfast we had on the previous London leg, and that was terrible.
We finally got into the Lego store, the boys talked me into buying A LOT. We came to a deal where they could get it if they didn't build it until all the old Lego at home was sorted. So we've been putting it into boxes by colour, and I'm hoping the next step from that is putting some of the big models back together. I can see all the purple bricks of the Harry Potter "knight bus"2 in one place now so maybe we'll get that back together. Hmm, a connection here between Cormoran Strike1 and Harry Potter both being by JK Rowling and the knight bus / knight's village of Warwick. A better writer could do something with this. Hmm this set is the one we have2 and boxed it is very expensive but it's not a good looking model. Compare it to the new set which is much better and much cheaper1.
From the Lego store to St James Park to see the squirrels and pelicans and have a walk round. There is a nice little play area there so we had a coffee while they jumped around. Then quite a long walk back to the South Bank, and a go in the Namco Funscape arcade and a lovely lunch in Wagamamas, though possibly not in that order. I didn't enjoy my previous Wagamama, I ordered the new pad thai, but this time I had the hot vegatsu and it's brilliant. I liked the old katsu curry, though it is like early-learning-wagamama, everyone's first dish. Then they made vegatsu, with seitan and that made it interesting again, and now they do it with new hotter curry sauce and it's great again.
We thought we'd have a short walk back to the hotel from here but the bridge is closed, so we got the tube. Then basically wended our weary way home. Another tube to St Pancras and a run through the station as we thought a train was imminent, but we'd got the times wrong and it was another half hour.
Train home, pick up the car again, and Clare dropped me at the Inn Doors and all was back to normal again. We'd had a really lovely trip, with some new experiences for the boys, just what we needed before the summer ended. Actually nothing is really back to normal again, but still.
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