Just got back from first day on the go.

After breakfast, by which time Darryl and Liese were long gone, we hit the tourist road. Walked down to the station at the bottom of the street, which is great exercise for the kids who were about to spend the next half hour stuck in the tube. No grief, and found our way to Westminster without any backtracking or getting lost.

Came out at the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. It was pretty cold out near the river, and ended up scratching to find the kid's jackets straight away (what happened to summer?).

Anyway, headed to the London Eye to get our tickets, but still had a few hours to kill. The democratic vote (i.e. Brendan and Nicole whining to get their way) was to go into the Aquarium, which we did. Nicole enjoyed the sting rays, not the sharks, and loved Nemo. Brendan liked the sharks.

Resorted to MacDonald's for lunch (it was right there, no travelling or making decisions) but got chicken not burgers. Bolted out of there just in time to catch the River Cruise.

Quite good fun and very informative. Got us orientated on where all the main stuff is and some history with it too. The boat docked and we wandered up to the London Eye flight.

I think BA sponsored it because the service and procedures there are as bad as Heathrow. The 30 minute queue turned out to be a 45 minute wait in the "boarding area" and another 15 minute wait in the actual queue. Fortunately this gave Jen time to shop for pictures in the kiosk and bribe the bored kids with ice cream whilst I held the fort and kept our place in the queue.

What a view. Could see all the main parts of London, all the attractions, in one go. Certainly one of the most fun things to do here. Kids took a while to warm up to the idea that they were so high up, but by the end of the flight were right up at the window looking down.

Caught the tube back and slowly wandered back to the apartment. Everyone is a bit tired, so time to just relax now.