We had a busy day in London, including a cat cafe, charity shops, lunch in a pub, a show in the west end, a food hall, about a million buses and trains, and over 17000 steps.
We started the day with breakfast in our flat. The kids were really excited to eat the rainbow bagels we got at the farmers market yesterday, since the ones at home have dye and so they never get to have them.
We set out to Java Whiskers Cat Cafe, where we had reserved an hour in the kitten room. They had a lot of kittens, and some other friendly guests. Liam spent some time chatting with a young woman from the Netherlands about the Dutch language. Willow and River had a chocolate croissant and tea, and we all enjoyed the kittens.
We had some time before our theater tickets, so we stopped by a little cluster of charity shops near Buckingham Palace and the tea shop we wanted to try. It was so much fun exploring for a little bit.
The English Rose cafe had a long wait, so we went to a pub for lunch. We had some pea and mint soup that was delicious, and the ambience was definitely there.
By this point, we were really getting the hang of the public transit. Using the Citymapper app gave us up to the minute info on trains and buses, and was really helpful in finding the fastest way to get places. A lot of times, public transit took about half as long as a car would have taken. The kids are getting blasé about subways, but were excited to sit in the front of the top floor of the red double decker bus.
From the pub, we went to see Six in the West End. Willow and I had seen it twice, once for her birthday in Orange County, and again in London last year, but it was the first time for Bill, Liam and River. The theater is tiny, so even though we were in the balcony, we had a great view. It was really hard not to sing along to all of the songs! They let us all take pictures and sing during the bonus song at the end.
We walked for miles, and there was so much to look at all around. There are really old, gorgeous buildings just sitting around next to modern buildings like it’s cool.
The kids found a lot to keep them entertained during the walking. There were pigeons, and old phone booths…
…and this assortment of uniquely British signs and sights…
..and no fewer than seven Pret a Manger quick service restaurants in the 20 minute walk from the theater to our flat. They were everywhere, tempting us with their delicious toastie sandwiches.
After our walk back to the flat and some packing to be ready for an early train to Belgium in the morning, we took yet another bus to the Seven Dials Market in Covent Garden. It was close enough to walk to, but we were getting tired. They had a lot of dinner choices, so everyone got what they wanted. We got dessert at Humble Crumble, and had a hard time choosing between their fruit crumbles. What we got was called Crumbrulee, and it was cooked apples, shortbread crumble, warm custard, and a crispy sugar crust like crème brûlée. It was just the right proportions of everything, and it was amazing. I was glad we were sharing, as it would have been too much otherwise.
