We had a wonderful time recently on our trip to London and Windsor (which is just about an hour outside of London). Along with my parents, we visited and explored London and got to spend some great time with my uncle and aunt, Malcolm and Martha, who live there. Since we have a Lego-nut (Isaac) on our hands these days, we thought it would be a special treat to also make a journey to Legoland in Windsor. 

There’s really nowhere quite like London. So many iconic sites that, even if it’s your first time there, the city feels familiar from so many books, movies, songs, and history lessons. It’s just a lot of fun walking around and taking it all in. Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, the famous red buses and telephone booths, the museums, the theaters and shopping streets. Typical British pubs, the river Thames, and all the various unique and interesting neighborhoods that make up London. Like New York, it’s the kind of city you could visit again and again and still find endless new things to explore. 

Having been there a few times before and done many of the museums and famous sites, I was more focused this time on the “kid-friendly” experience. Luckily, my parents arrived a few days before us, so they were able to take in some of the sites like Churchill war rooms, parliament, Westminster Abbey, the British Museum, and to see a show. Once we arrived, we all settled more into kid pace/rhythm (but still managed to do/see a fair bit in my opinion). 

We stayed in an airBnb in an area called Camden Town, which is a fun, funky neighborhood full of various bars, ethnic restaurants, quirky boutiques and thrift stores, tattoo parlors, and incense shops. It’s also home to Camden Market, which seemed to mainly have textiles and cool funky clothes, tshirts, etc. As we walked around the neighborhood Saturday morning, it was fun to take in all the bright and hippie-ish buildings, murals, and street performers. It was a fun area to stay in to experience a unique London neighborhood while still having great bus and tube access into the center of town. 

   
    
    
   
After a yummy brunch in Camdentown at a place called Diner (very kid-friendly with kids menu and crayons provided), we hopped on the bus to meet Malcolm and Martha and explore the Covent Garden area. We walked through lovely London streets, taking in the shops, theaters, pubs, and with glimpses of Chinatown and Trafalgar Square. As we approached the Covent Garden Market, we saw loads of street performers, including human statues, musicians, and men juggling knives while standing on stilts. It was one of the few rainy days during our trip, so we didn’t linger as long outside as we may otherwise have, but luckily we could escape the rain inside the London Transport Museum (another top kid-friendly spot!)

   
    
    
   

The transport museum is a fascinating look at the history of transport in London and, through this lens of transport, you gain insight into the history of the city itself. I’d never really thought about how transportation around a city can reflect so much about growing and changing populations, city planning, goals and values for a city, technology of the time, environmental considerations, and more. It was great to have a museum where the adults could read and learn at each display (in between chasing the kids!) and kids could climb in and out of vehicles, pretend to drive, and play. They even have a punch card for each child (modeled after a ticket that would get hole punched) and at each display there’s a station for the kids to get their ticket punched, which Isaac thought was a lot of fun. They have an excellent gift shop, too, where you can find toys, books, and decor for children and adults alike. After meandering through the market shops a bit and watching some more street performers, we all headed for dinner at one of Malcolm and Martha’s favorite neighborhood restaurants. It was a delicious fish and chip and Greek restaurant, and the owners are good friends of Malcolm and Martha, so they were very welcoming to us. 

   
    
    
    
    
 
  

Fortunately we got the rain out of the way and went on to have amazing weather the rest of our trip! When we woke up Sunday, we planned to go to the London Eye, a huge Ferris wheel that offers incredible panoramic views all across London. It was the perfect day weather-wise for this. (Note: for anyone scared of heights, it’s a very slow moving and stable ride, and you’re in an enclosed large capsule so it feels very secure.) The lines can get a bit long depending on the day and weather (ours was about a half hour wait)…you can pre order tickets to fast track yourself, but they do cost extra. 

Once we were up on the Eye, we enjoyed taking in all the views of London. The rotation takes about half an hour so there’s plenty of time to see all the sites from above. 

   
    
    
    
   
Coming down from the Eye, we’d worked up an appetite so we decided to make our way across the river to the area right by Big Ben and Westminster for a bite of lunch. We found a nice pub and settled in for a typical British lunch (fish and chips, pasty, shepherds pie were all on the menu) and a pint. 

   
    
    
    
   
The final part of our Sunday outing took us to two of London’s iconic parks: Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. We stopped at the famous Speakers Corner at Hyde Park where a variety of passionate “speakers” (most seem pretty fanatical and bordering on crazy) stand on soap boxes to lecture and shout about all manner of religious and political issues. It’s an interesting site to see — I definitely don’t recommend engaging any of the speakers though!

   
   
Because it was such a lovely sunny day out we decided to walk through Hyde Park to Kensington Gardens where we were planning our final kid-friendly stop of the day: the Princess Diana memorial playground. It was a long-ish walk from speakers corner to the playground, but was nice to get the fresh air and to see locals and families out enjoying the park on a Sunday afternoon. We finally reached the playground and the boys loved it! It’s modeled around a Peter Pan theme with a huge pirate ship in the center, complete with a very tall crows nest to climb up to. Isaac bravely and strategically figured out how to climb it, and he was very proud. There were also little wooded areas with other climbing areas and slides, as well as other Peter Pan related things like giant treasure chests and teepees. The playground was inspired by Diana’s love for children and the work she did for children around the world. It was interesting reading about one of the goals of the playground which is to instill a bit of risk taking within kids (hence all the ridiculously high climbing structures) yet in a controlled environment where they can try to stretch themselves and go slightly beyond their comfort. It was fascinating to see that, especially when so many playgrounds these days are designed with complete safety in mind with padded surfaces and other safety features. Definitely a fun outing in London and an excellent way for the kiddos to let off some steam! My boys didn’t want to leave! When it was approaching sunset and they were closing the park, we finally had to make our way to the exit.

   
    
    
    
    
    
 

Monday was our last partial day in London before taking the train to Windsor. We checked out of our airBnb and headed to Paddington Station where we had learned we could store our luggage for a few hours. We explored the station a bit (made famous by the children’s books about Paddington Bear) and visited the Paddington gift shop, which has a ton of cute Paddington paraphernalia. We then took the tube for a quick visit to Buckingham Palace (the boys slept through the visit) and St James Park before returning to Paddington to catch our train. 

   
    
    
    
    
    
   
And off we went to Windsor! I didn’t really know what to expect, but I really liked Windsor! It’s a really cute little town with a quaint picturesque English feel and lots of nice shops, restaurants, and cafes. It’s a small enough town to easily manage — you can walk around it all quite easily, visit the spectacular Windsor castle, and even walk across the river to the neighboring town of Eton, home to the famous Eton College (where alumni include Princes William and Harry, many British prime ministers, and other famed royals, writers, journalists, actors, etc). Our hotel, the Macdonald Windsor Hotel, was in a fantastic location right across from the castle and right near all the restaurants and shops. I’d definitely recommend staying there when visiting Windsor! 

   
    
    
   
(The sweet shop above reminded me of something out of Charlie and the Chocolate factory). 

Touring Windsor castle was actually really interesting too! In my opinion, it’s so much grander looking than Buckingham Palace, and it’s actually said to be the queen’s favorite residence. It’s the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world, and is just filled with all kinds of fascinating artifacts from the royal family (china, armor, paintings, a huge dollhouse) on display in the royal apartments which you can tour (the royals live in a different part of the castle these days). Audio guides inform you about all you’re seeing, and there’s even a kid version of the guide which Isaac listened to and enjoyed! As we were leaving, we even saw a mini changing of the guard with some of the royal guards marching through the castle. 

   
    
    
    
 
And last but not least, another highlight of our trip was taking the boys to Legoland. There’s so much to see and do there, with rides, playgrounds, water features for when the weather is warm, cities and towns and animals built from Lego, areas to build with Lego, and more. What’s nice is that there were rides suitable for both boys and so they both got to enjoy it (as opposed to some theme parks that don’t have as much for the littlest guys). A really good thing to know about is the Q bot, which is a little device you can rent that allows you to make a reservation on a ride for a certain time and then when it’s your time slot you go straight through to get on the ride. It was definitely worth it for us to be able to maximize our time and avoid long lines for the rides we really wanted. 

   
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
 
Wow what an awesome time we had in both London and Windsor! I’m so glad we were able to experience it all with my parents, and to have a wonderful visit with Malcolm and Martha, who were such welcoming hosts! Til next time, London! Cheerio!