What do you do when a last minute catch up with friends is planned in London?
- Surprise the girls
- Let your friends book the hotel
- Drive because of the train strikes
- Be completely unplanned and go with the flow!
We hadn’t seen the ‘family’ (as we call them – they are complete unrelated but amazing friends) since much earlier in the year. The girls have been asking multiple times per week if we had organised when we were seeing them next. So when a plan was hatched I suggested we keep it a surprise for them. We kept mentioning a day trip to London and I hid an overnight bag in the car! The grumbled about how long the journey would be, hardly any charge on their tablets, getting car sick because they were watching the tablets, needing the toilet, etc!
We were staying in Docklands and hatched a plan…..as we drove…. to park at Canary Wharf and then take a boat over to the Docklands. Little did we know that the hotel had it’s own little (and even better – free) shuttle boat from Canary Wharf dock over to the hotel and back. We would leave the bag in the car, head into London and pick it up on the way to the boat.
I stayed at Canary Wharf earlier in the year and found that it’s actually a great base for getting into the centre of London – there’s the Jubilee line and the Elizabeth line that get you there easily, and quickly. There’s plenty of places to stay, eat and drink. After parking (£24 for 24 hours and there’s plenty of EV charging including Tesla superchargers) a 10 minute journey on the Jubilee line took us to Waterloo.
At Waterloo we met our friends and the girls were truly surprised (perhaps overwhelmingly so). I was informed that next time Mimi would rather not have a surprise and would have preferred to have been prepared! We picked up some food for a picnic from a local supermarket.
We sat next to the embankment for our picnic. It is great around the South Bank – there are plenty of spots to sit, there is a lovely play park for the children to run around. There was a carousel, food stalls and if you are looking for things to do the London Aquarium and the London Eye are right there to enjoy. We have never had a bad time at the aquarium!
From here we walked over the Thames and into Leicester Square. Here we happened upon free showings of parts of various operas and ballets on large screens. This had been put on by the Royal Opera House. They were showing shows such as La Traviata, Swan lake and the Nutcracker. There were deckchairs to sit in. It was another great place to stop and enjoy London and the company! We also visited the Lego store – which is most kids’ (and many adults) dream spot! After managing to spend no money here (a miracle) we moved on to Covent Garden.
Covent Garden was buzzing and awash with floral displays and street performers. There was much to see and do. You can wander around the shops, stop and admire the views, be entertained by the different performances and eat and drink with a view. We stopped at Creme de la crepe for crepes and milkshakes. I had a refreshing smoothie and a lemon drop crepe. The girls went all in chocolate! We were there late afternoon and it was not busy so managed to get a table for our large group.
By the time we had finished here there were weary legs and tired faces. Thus we decided to make our way back to the hotel. We went to Tottenham Court Road and took the Elizabeth line back to Canary Wharf. Our first journey on this line and it is a beauty! We walked to Westferry circus to the dock and the ferry took us a couple of minutes to reach the hotel.
We stayed at the DoubleTree by Hilton London – Docklands riverside where we had a room with two doubles (it also had a sofabed for larger parties). Our room overlooked the Thames and Canary Wharf. It had plentiful amounts of toiletries and space. We ordered room service as by this point it was beyond the usual bedtime of most of the children. The food came pretty quickly and was tasty and plentiful.
Breakfast the next morning was busy but the buffet breakfast had something for everyone and plenty of healthy options. The staff were friendly and there was a great family atmosphere across the hotel. We took our time over breakfast – there was colouring in sheets and pencil crayons for the children and a plentiful supply of tea/coffee to chat over for the adults!
We went from the hotel back to Canary Wharf and wandered slowly to the Canada Square shopping centre. Along the walk there were squares for the children to run and play hide n seek. Time flew by and so we decided to grab lunch before we left. There are more than enough options for eating around this area in terms of cuisine, price and atmosphere.
A whirlwind of a trip that was very ‘see where the day takes us’ but that is what I love most about London. You can turn up and find a multitude of things to see and do. You can get around the centre of the city by foot and if you take food and snacks with you it is easy to have a very inexpensive day with the amount of free entertainment on offer. Even if you do have a plan it often goes off course!