A couple of weekends ago we all headed down to London for a few days down London. Ostensibly it was to catch the Mundo Pixar exhibition, but we thought we’d extend it out a couple of days to make it more of a mini-break.

Thursday

So it was we came to find ourselves in a taxi, heading to Glasgow Airport (a first for me as I’ve only ever been dropped off by family/friends before, and a first for Jack who got to sit in the backseat with the ‘big seatbelt’ on!) on the Thursday morning.

It was Jack’s first time on a plane. He was excited, maybe a little too excited as we had a little moment getting him through security but, after that, this wee guy took every new experience the day(s) threw at him.

Thursday we kept free as a travel day, so after the plane, and the two trains to get to the hotel next to Tower Bridge, we only really headed out for food — to a Zizzi’s on the basis Jack will only really eat pasta or chips at the moment, but the service was so bad and so thoughtless that we won’t be back to any of them again! — before we went back to the hotel for a good sleep ahead of a busy Friday!

Friday

After a buffet breakfast (‘here’s where we win our money back!’), we headed to the Underground (always a winner, taking Jack on a train!) and to our first stop, the aforementioned exhibition.

Mundo Pixar

What a joy. I’ve loved Pixar movies since I first saw Tin Toy in 1989 (because it won Best Animated Short Film at the Oscars that year), before more recently watching Jack grow up loving the movies, I knew I’d be a little emotional myself (shocker, I know!).

We started showing the movies to Jack rather than get sucked into the Peppa Pig’s and CocoMelon’s of the world. It largely worked, although I’m not sure what’s worse, that JayJay kid or watching Lightning McQueen for the 481st time in a row (he’s past the repetition stage now mostly), so we figured he’d love this exhibition. We weren’t wrong.

The premise of the exhibition is simple, you wander through different areas, each themed to one of the Pixar movies. We started outside Mr. Frederickson’s House, with Dug in the front yard, the painted handprints on the mailbox, the multi-coloured balloons stretching up from the chimney, then we headed inside to sit in the chairs, and spy Kevin out the window!

From there you move through 11 other ‘rooms’ but, of course, Andy’s room was THE one, with everything made bigger so you too are Toy sized. Wonderful fun, and Jack had a great time spotting all his favourites. Pricey but probably a once in a lifetime kinda thing and well worth it for the look on his face the entire time (caveat; we didn’t buy the tickets for this, they were gifted by one of my best mates cos he’s a sweetheart).

We stopped for some food after that, a TGI Fridays which offered an excellent contrast with the Zizzi’s experience, with some wonderful, thoughtful service.

Sealife Centre

After lunch we popped back on the Central line and headed to Westminster. Having been in London many times before I kinda forgot that Becca had never been, so it was handy to tick off a couple of times in the ‘seen it, big deal’ list for her (at heart, my beautiful wife would rather stare at the trees all day than any buildings).

Across the bridge we wandered and into the Sealife Centre. There is a small local one near us which Jack loves (we had a season pass for it a couple of years ago) but being London, this one is much bigger. The entrance way, with the glass floor might have been enough as Jack was happy to sit on the floor there and watch the fish swimming underneath him. Highlight of his day was seeing a large turtle, highlight of mine was watching the joy and excitement on his face.

After that, we headed out and stopped at a great play park for a bit, right in the shadow of the London Eye, then headed to a nearby Pizza Express for food (remember, pasta and/or chips), before heading back to the Thames to get the river taxi back to the hotel. What a day!

Saturday

After a mammoth day on the Friday, we thought we’d keep it a little simpler for Jack on the Saturday.

Natural History Museum

The main goal was to get to the dinosaurs.

But first we had to negotiate the queue. We left it a bit late to book a (free) ticket for an entrance slot but my genius wife found that there was also an exhibition you could book tickets for, which meant when we arrived we skipped the hour+ queue and sailed right on in!

We had taken Jacks camera with us so we spent a while letting him wander and take photos, before we headed to the dinosaur exhibition!

Our boy loves a dinosaur so after wandering past the fossils and models, we turned the corner to the larger animatronic T-Rex and whoa, his wee face when he saw it moving! He wasn’t sure at first but we watched for a while before wandering off, and as soon as we left the dinosaur room, he wanted to go straight back for another look!

After that it was time for lunch and Jack declared he was all done – we could see it in him too — and to be fair there had been a lot of ‘people’ time so we grabbed some food then headed outside to one of the gardens, watched some ducks on the pond, spotted a tiny newt, and just chilled out in the sunshine for a bit.

Hyde Park

After the busyness of the museum, we headed for Hyde Park to find a play area for Jack. This proved harder than it should’ve, why does such a big space like Hyde Park have only one playpark for kids (and a tiny one at that!).

We ended up walking all the way to Bayswater Road end of the park, thankfully found an ice cream van, then let Jack roam around the play park for an hour or so. Then it was more time on the Underground, before a takeaway dinner delivered to the hotel room so we could all lounge about for the evening and get ready for the journey home.

Sunday

Home again, home again, jiggety jig.

Arriving at the airport on time, despite a quick run through Paddington station to get the Heathrow Express, we were dismayed to see our flight had been delayed. Initially for 40 mins but eventually it was almost 2 hours. Thankfully Terminal 5 has a soft play area! Saved!! Although it did mean we had a warm sweaty little boy boarding the plane with us.

His second flight and already he was nonchalant about the whole thing, watched take off a bit, but mostly was on his tablet, even when we landed he barely glanced out the window.

Jack

He coped so well, we were both so proud of him, given all the hanging about waiting on trains, a LOT of walking (we did over 10km both Friday and Saturday), and not getting his usual porridge breakfast, he took everything in his stride.

He’s pretty communicative when he’s hungry or tired too so that helps, and we always have plenty of snacks ready and are pretty adept at spotting the early signs of hanger!

He also spent a fair bit of time up on my shoulders which, given the distances we were walking and the tourist heavy places we were in, made sense from a safety point of view as well.

We have been pretty routine driven with him, to help give him some structure to his day, and we’ve always told him what was about to happen that day so he can mentally prepare, and we definitely think that helped him cope with all the new experiences.

London

It had been almost 8 years since I’d been in London, and obviously it was a very different experience. It was as busy, and rude, as ever, but seeing the way people charge around, rushing here and there, and having a four year with us, made me realise just how caught up people can get.

I do like London, I like the history and the mix of buildings and people and cultures. I like the noise and busyness, but it felt a little less civilised, almost a little on edge, the entire time we were there. Almost like there is an undercurrent of something not quite right.

It might be that I’m only feeling that now as my own life has changed since I was last there — being a single guy walking around London is an entirely different proposition — yet I couldn’t help but hear a hint more frustration and anger in some of the voices that passed us.

Overall though, it was a great few days, mostly stress free, and in glorious sunshine. Well played London, we will be back, sometime.