We arrived in London at 8 am via the ever efficient Zurich airport. To Deirdre and Andys surprise we were at Tooting by 9:10. There was no one at Heathrow and we passed through the legalities incredibly quickly to our waiting car. The traffic was minimal driving into London, but it was clear we were in the host city of the Olympics. Posters and signs abound, but apparently not people. The Londoners have left home as have the tourists unless they are going to the Olympics. The atmosphere though is upbeat as Great Britain have started to pick up some gold medals. After briefly catching up with Liam's sister, we head out to investigate London. Chris is keen to fgo on the London eye and apparantely there is street theatre taking place nearby. After successfully making it to Waterloo the boys are thrilled to find a sushi train in the station. We all appreciate having some different food. We spent the afternoon wandering along the river. It was reasonably busy, but some great street art and performances. People are stationed everywhere to give tourists information and directions and are very friendly and polite. We decided to skip the London eye, but gave into the pesterings of the boys to go to what they call the greatest toy shop in the world, Henleys. We go by double decker bus which is always a favorite way to travel. With all the enthusiasm of the staff and the amount of toys on display, we did very well to get away with only purchasing a magic set. I think Luke is going to be a magician when he grows up. He is growing more and more of a flare for the theatrical. We headed home afterwards, having pizza for dinner another meal being looked forward to by the boys. It has taken a couple of days to adjust to the light nights, but everyone slept well and we have had no trouble adjusting to London time. The next day we had a slow start before meeting up with a friend of Liam's, Patirck and his family. We ended up spending most of the day in the London Science museum which has some great interactive activities for kids, as well as some fantastic displays especially in the area of flight. The 2 families mixed well and it was 4:30 pm before we left and went our seperate ways. Mandy went and met her long time friend Marie for dinner at a pub on the Thames, whilst the boys headed back to tooting for good old fish and chips with cousin Ciara. Saturday morning Liam, headed off to Prescott to see his friend John racing one of his old 1930s cars. Mandy and the boys headed to Clapham Junction In search of a good cooked English Breakfast for Christopher, with Mandy's friend Marie, before heading by train to Guildford. Unfortunately the breakfast was terrible, but great screens of the Olympics where the boys watched Australia come second to Great Britain in the rowing. The talk in the UK has now turned to how well GB is doing, Saturday being the best they have done ever, and how badly Australia is doing. It would be interesting to see what the press is saying in oz, as it's definitely been noted here how much they are underperforming. After breakfast we took our train to Guildford, where Mandy's Sister Julie and niece Alex met us at the station. They live in the small village of Shalford, a very pretty spot, and have a great new house with a huge backyard for the kids by english standards. After lunch we headed off with James, Alex and Julie to a beautiful stately national trust house, with 4000 acres of farming land including wild deer. They had the old kitchens working which was very interesting,with the huge ovens and copper cauldrons for cooking for large numbers of people. The house itself had an incredible collection of artwork, and the boys had the task of finding 8 toy dogs hidden in the state rooms which they enjoyed.
After visiting the house the kids played soccer in the gardens for a while before heading home for the evening. The next morning, the kids enjoyed playing together before we headed back to London at Deirdre's with one of Liam's other sisters, Ita and her partner Matt. After a fabulous roast lunch cooked by Andy, a walk was required in the park, before settling down to watch the Olympics for the evening, including the amazing 100m race with Bolt winning easily. The boys are really getting into the games and in the morning we will be visiting Olympic Park to see the basketball.
Location:London
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