A Magical Visit to London

Saturday Dec 13

Charlotte:

We got a cab for the short ride to the bed and breakfast where we were staying. It was way colder than Morocco standing outside!

Once we had settled into our room, we walked to a nearby restaurant that our host said was really good. It was an Italian food place that was quite fancy called Zeno Italian Restaurant. The chef nicely made plain spaghetti for me and Sam because we didn’t want any of the squid or fancy stuff like that. Mom said her lasagne was delicious. Dad had salmon penne and he loved it.

Because Sam lost his coat just before leaving Morocco, we went to a grocery store called Lidl (it is kind of like Giant Tiger) to look for a coat and get some snacks. We were just looking around, but then we actually found a nice warm, fuzzy hoodie sweater that would work as a coat. Mom was excited because it was only £6 (about $10). She bought it for Sam because she knows how cold it is in Britain in December.

Sunday Dec 14

Charlotte:

We first got a train to London Bridge. It wasn’t what I thought it would be. It was a big, boring, modern bridge that was not falling down. There was a different bridge in the distance called the Tower Bridge. It was so pretty, which is what I thought the London Bridge was like.

Then we went to Buckingham Palace. It was so big and had a big fountain that was made out of gold. There were guards there that stood very still.

Next, we went on a bus to Harrods (a big department store with one whole floor for toys). We went right to the toy floor where we saw cool magic trick sets. I wanted them so much! We also saw dolls, Lego, stuffies, and even mini cars for kids. There was a clothing section with very fancy dresses for kids – one was £2000 ($3500)!

Harrods had a special section called the “Wizarding World.” There were cool wallpapers and many wands. It had a big set of Harry Potter Lego with all of Hogwarts. I loved it there.

After that, we browsed more floors, but we did not get any thing. It was a very expensive store.

Sam:

We then went back on the hop-on hop-off bus and looked up a nice place to eat and ended up at a nice English pub.

After we ate, we walked to nearby Hyde Park was to check out “Winter Wonderland” festival for Christmas. It was absolutely crazy there. There were tons of different rides and things to buy. We bought some toques because we were so cold in London after our time in Marrakech. We bought some really good hot chocolate from one of the stands. We considered going on a few rides our seeing one of the many shows (ice skating, circus, etc.), but the prices were so high that we didn’t think it was worth it. The crowds were ginormous! We stayed for about an hour, looking around and then decided to go to Hamleys, a huge toy store we heard about from Honey’s family.

We walked for about 20 minutes to get to Hamleys, the biggest toy store in London. It had any toy you could imagine and was full of giant Lego statues. It was 6 storeys tall! We browsed around for at least an hour.

It was getting very late, so we took a train back to the inn.

Monday Dec 15

Sam:

We took the train to London Bridge rail station and walked to the Borough Market for lunch. We spent about an hour walking around the market looking at all the foods, desserts, cheeses, spices, and decided on some potato latkes (a type of Israeli food) and they were pretty good. Dad got some Spanish paella.

After we ate, we wanted to go on a river tour of the city so we walked along the river Thames until we got to the boarding area. The boat tour went underneath Tower Bridge and there were a few more cool buildings along the way to Greenwich pier.

When we got off in Greenwich we started to look for the market to do some Christmas shopping.

Charlotte:

In the market there was Santa’s grotto and I really wanted to go in, so my Mom said yes. My brother and I had so much fun telling Santa about our trip. We talked to Santa for a long time, way longer than most people (we were holding up the line). At the end he gave us a present, a mini Lego set. Sam got a Santa one and I got a snowman.

We walked around a bit more to see the Greenwich neighborhood. Then we took a Metro back to the hop-on, hop-off bus area.

We made our way to the stop that would take us to the King’s Cross rail station because my Mom was going to bring me to Platform 9 ¾ where I’ve always wanted to go. It was free unless you bought the professional picture. The lines were supposed to be very long but they weren’t that bad because they were just taking pictures. Then it was my brother’s turn after that would be my turn. My brother wore the Ravenclaw scarf (for the wise). I wanted to have the Hufflepuff scarf (for the kind and loyal). My Mom also wore the Ravenclaw scarf. My Dad didn’t want to do it, but he wanted to take pictures (thanks Dad). There was also a really big Harry Potter shop. We didn’t get anything, but I love to look around. I love looking at all of the different wands.

After this we went to go have dinner at a restaurant called Piebury. It was cute because they gave us mashed potatoes with a little smile on top. But also I didn’t really feel that good after, so we took the train back to the bed and breakfast for the night.

Tomorrow morning we are going home to Canada for Christmas with our family and friends. I’m so excited to see everyone!