Discovering London and 1st Day of School
I consider myself a Londoner.
The city of London has been an integral part of my life for the last 15 years. Yet, sometimes, I feel like I don’t quite know her.
Truth be told; every time I’ve been in the city, it’s been just so easy to walk fast, pass everything, every day. I’ve been (or acted) way too busy, to appreciate the history and stories trapped in the landmarks and monuments I brush past constantly. I’ve had absolutely zero regards!
All that ended yesterday.
As yesterday was the last day before the new school term begins. And this new term was special as it also happens to be the first day of reception for my younger son. It turned out to be the perfect opportunity for us to take a tour to discover the city of London together.
Our “grand tour” started with us taking the 8:46am Thameslink train heading to Brighton. We stopped at the 4th stop – Finsbury Park – and changed to the Victoria Line enroute to Green Park. From Green Park, it was only a short 6mins walk to our first tour destination – Buckingham Palace.
We spent some time at the Palace, just goofing around like any typical tourist. Then it was time for the Big Bus hop-on and hop-off bus tour.
We got on Big Bus from Queen Mother gates at Buckingham Palace, and took the route through Marble Arch (‘Speakers corner’ was my new discovery), Trafalgar Square (made a mental note to revisit National Gallery), Whitehall (saw the House Guards), and we got off at London Eye (Westminster Pier) to visit the revamped London Dungeon.
The London Dungeon was essentially a one hour horrible history theatre (think Jack the Ripper, the great fire of London, Plague, etc). All I can say is that some little people found it scary!
Time check at this point was 1.15pm. The right time to take a well deserved break, and head to Ping Pong. A special guest – Miks – dropped in from work (probably on some secret mother hen duties) to join us for lunch.
Ice-cream always taste better when you have time to kill. And we had time to slaughter before embarking on a 30 mins boat cruise along the River Thames from Westminster Pier to Tower Hill.
The guide on City Cruise was super knowledgeable. He was dropping interesting tidbits such as pointing out The Anchor pub (existed for over 800 years in same location), a lot of Bridges (Tower Hill bridge rightly got the most attention), OXO building (dates back to 19th century), Cleopatra’s needle (over 3000+ years old and gifted to the U.K in 1819), to name a few.
All of yesterday’s excitement led to today – your first day at school.
Admittedly, since we recently moved to be closer to your school (we’re on the same street), and you attended nursery (just like your brother) in the same premises, one gets the vibe that it’s not such a big deal. However, it’s a new beginning.
Good luck for the future son. My advice? Don’t be a typical Londoner, always take time to enjoy every minute of your journey in life.
