Kensington Gardens Saturday & Sleepless Sunday on the Prime Meridian

We had an eventful weekend taking in all the sights so the blog is a little long today! 

Saturday we left early for Kensington.  As usual, it was an adventure getting there on the tube with a lot of crowds and not much space for us, a stroller and a kid.  Regardless, it was a beautiful fall day in London and we headed straight for Kensington Gardens into Princess Diana Memorial Playground.  Poor Tyler hasn't seen a playground since we left the states and its a huge playground with beautiful landscaping.  Since it was a Saturday morning it was packed and kids were running everywhere.  We found the infant swings and were surprised to see that there were only 4 in the whole place!  So we got in the unofficial "queue" and waited for our turn.  When it came, Tyler was so excited to be on the swings so we tried to maximize our time that we had waited for and got a good 10 minutes.  Then we headed on to find lunch and walk around.  JJ and I often laugh about how things are so different now that we have a kid.  Lunch destinations are now determined by if the restaurant has a high chair and if it is not busy, and naps on the go mean that we spend a couple hours aimlessly walking while T sleeps in the stroller.  If we slow down or stop, Tyler wakes up and the whole day is thrown off.  So we lunched at Subway and then from 2-4pm we walked nearly every corner of Kensington Garden while Tyler slept happily in the stroller.

Loving the swings at Princess Diana Memorial Playground!

Beautiful day in Kensington Gardens

JJ strolling Tyler in the Kensington Palace Garden

Kensington Palace - Princess Diana lived here

Royal Albert Memorial and Hall

By the time Tyler woke up we had reached the museum campus.  One totally awesome thing about London is that nearly all the museums are free.  I wanted to check out the Science Museum so we headed there and Tyler loved it!  There were so many cool things for him to see, hear and touch.  They even have a little indoor playground there in the basement.  After the Science Museum we headed to Harrods.  We spent about 5 minutes in Harrods and that was about all I could take.  There were a lot of people walking around and with a stroller it was impossible to get anywhere.  So we walked through the expensive purse section and then walked right back out.  I suppose that is a place to go on my own or when someone visits!

Loving the US Space Exhibit with Dad!

Horsing around at the Science Museum

More horsing around....

 He loves the spring door stoppers at home so this really blew his mind!

Harrods

On the way back to our apartment we stopped at the Tesco (grocery chain here) to pick up our favorite dinner - 2 pound (money, not weight) chicken and bbq pizza - and had a surprise on our way out.  The "Occupy London" protestors came through and banded arms blocking the doorway chanting "nobody in, nobody out."  It wasn't clear exactly what they were protesting, or why they chose Tesco but Tyler thought their chant was rather catchy and was smiling and clapping at them.  The police broke it up within a few minutes and we were no longer held hostage in the Tesco so we headed back with tired legs, looking forward to a quiet evening at home.  Unfortunately quiet doesn't describe our night at all.  First of all we are situated right between two apparent hot spots on Saturday nights - a wine bar and a club.  From about midnight to 3:30am we heard all the bar-goers talking, smoking, and riding their motorcycles.  Then after getting about an hour of sleep Tyler woke up screaming at 4:30am.  Nothing could soothe him, we tried everything!  His sleep has been really erratic since we got here.   It could be the jet lag, or that the water heater that is in his bedroom/laundry room lights up like a strobe light anytime the radiator goes on, or teething, or 8 month sleep regression (when they are so excited about their new skills they don't sleep) or just karma for having a baby who started sleeping through the night at 8 weeks.  Who knows, but he isn't sleeping well here.  So at around 5am JJ just decided to keep him up and play with him.  

We all took a good long morning nap and decided to carry on with our plans to go to Greenwich, despite the fact that everyone was exhausted.  We got back on the river cruise and headed east to Greenwich.  On the way there we saw Canary Wharf, the newer business district.  It was another beautiful fall day here with lots of sunshine but pretty chilly on the river.  By the time we got to Greenwich it was time to walk around again to get Tyler to sleep.  There is a great park there and we walked around and saw amazing views of the city, One Tree Hill (its an actual location, not just the name of a show on the WB), and beautiful gardens.  This time, Tyler was protesting the nap and refused to sleep, but we still cruised around and he got some quiet time.  Then we went to the location that most people know Greenwich for - the Royal Observatory and place where the prime meridian is.  They have made a terrace where the actual prime meridian is and a line that you can straddle and take a picture.  The wait was a bit long but we did take a few pictures.  As you can see below, Tyler was far more interested in the plants and the bricks than the actual line so we got a lot of pictures of the back of his head :)  It started to get late and pretty chilly so we headed back for the boat to take us back.  Part of the plan was to go to a local pub and sit down for a Sunday Roast.  We still don't really know what Sunday Roast is, but it is some kind of meat roast that every pub does on Sunday.  On the boat and on the walk, Tyler made it pretty clear to us that because of his lack of normal sleep, he was not going to be fit to take out in public anymore.  So we decided that takeout at home was a much safer option!  Oh and I got my highchair and it has made my life 10 times easier.  I have a pic of it below.  It's actually a brilliant idea - it's a little cloth fold up thing that you can travel with and it hooks on to any chair.  I didn't want to buy an actual highchair since we have 2 coming on the Atlantic so I bought this and I think it is going to work out well for our travels!

This is the lifesaving highchair!!  Tyler likes it too!

Cruising on the Thames

Royal Observatory

The Kerns on the Prime Meridian!

Tyler wanted to crawl off the line and Chicago marker ASAP

So that brings us to today.... After a bit of a challenging week last week, I decided that Tyler and I need to get out of the house for one activity a day.  I saw a pamphlet for London Walking Tours and saw that one starts right outside our door on Mondays so that was our activity for today.  It was called "Hidden London" and was a guided tour through the city of London, where we are currently staying.  The actual city is only a square mile so it's very walkable.  Tyler was mesmerized by our tour guide Andy's accent and he was very happy for the first hour in his stroller.  We learned about the great fire of 1666 that destroyed 80% of London and 13,000 homes.  After the fire, there was a plan to totally re-map out the streets and city to more of a grid system.  Apparently though the people here demanded that everything be built back exactly how it was and Andy joked that this is why the streets today make no sense!  He is so right - it is really hard to understand where you are going because the streets go off in all sorts of directions and some streets are so narrow that a car can barely fit through them.  Anyway we learned a lot of little nuggets of knowledge, and then Tyler started to get a bit antsy.  I took him out of the stroller and carried him while pushing the empty stroller so he could see the sights and be closer to me.  Since it was a bit much to carry, a few people offered to help push the stroller.  I'm not one to really accept help, so I thanked them and said I was fine.  Then this woman from Colombia came over and slapped my hand off the stroller and said, "Let me help you now, just accept the help."  So off we went, Tyler and I and our new nice Colombian friend pushing the stroller, continuing on the tour.   She seemed tickled with her new job too.  Tyler of course charmed all the other tour-goers as well.  One woman came over and told me what a beautiful, brilliant smile "she" had.  And yes JJ, if you are reading this, I know our son needs another little hair trim so he doesn't get mistaken for a girl.  OK that's all for today!