Day 4 London

(Excuse the garbage photo, but its hugely special and the colour & her expression perfectly capture the moment it was recording, see the final paragraph!)

3years 264days

WHAT A DAY!!!! Today is one of those "Where do I start, which photo do I choose" days. We left Lizzie's quite early to get the train into London. As we waited at the station, Katie managed to get herself a free babyccino from one of the coffee shops. She was really good on a quite hot and busy train. We checked our suitcase into the left luggage and waited for the arrival of our blip friends the Pinks. Mrs and Miss Pink had travelled in to spend the day with us.

We made a dash in the tube to Piccadilly Circus and walked to the Lyric theatre where we'd got tickets for the girls to see We're Going on a Bear Hunt. Katie had been so excited all week about this but arrived and panicked that there was going to be a big scary bear. Once the music started though she soon laughed away and forgot her worries. It was brilliantly done. Fantastically pitched at the children. Katie loved that when the actors on stage were squirting water at the people in the stalls, the ushers around the rest of the theatre squirted water round the whole audience too. Mummy loved when the auditorium was turned into an incredible snowstorm.

We had a picnic in Leicester Square gardens before we took the girls into M&M world (or manamumanha world as Katie calls it). They did their "choose a bag of M&Ms right at the start but then spent ages going round all the displays, posing with all the characters and playing on the big London bus. So much fun! M&Ms bought, and devoured, it was time for a drink. The Rainforest Café was the destination. Here, I must say how exceptionally impressed I was. I love the Rainforest Café, but felt it a bit too pricey for a quick lunch. But they were very happy for us to come in for a drink and then still treated the girls to the full experience that main restaurant users get. The girls were taken on a safari of all the animals round the restaurant, they were given toy & games packs that usually are charged for as an extra with kids' meals. They had a lot of fun playing on the touch-sensitive lake and marshland. They had their drinks inches away from a gorilla who "came to life" as we sat there. They both stroked him too. We were there for nearly 2 hours, for the cost of a round of drinks & were made to feel extremely welcome.

From the Rainforest Café we headed to Covent Garden. Miss Pink wanted to see a gold statue man. He was one of the first things we found. Plus a silver and a gold one. We had an explore in the Disney Store and headed to the Royal Opera House. Katie loved the big posters on the wall of the "beautiful ballet ladies" and that she would like to dance there too on their stage one day. We then watched a street performer do juggling, yoyo, diablo, escape from a chained straight jacket. The girls sat through the whole thing and ran to be first to put money in his hat at the end. A few free samples in Whittards and it was time to take Mrs & Miss Pink back to their train and collect our suitcase.

We had an amazing day with the Pink girls. But our day in London was not over there. The final trip of the day, and one of the highlights of the whole holiday for both Katie and I, was taking her to her first West End musical. We had tickets for the Lion King. This is what she is watching in the photo. I could go on and on about how incredible it was. It was by a mile the best stage show I've ever seen. It was just awesome. They had both of us completely from the first note played by the orchestra. Katie barely moved for the entire first half. During the interval, she just sat and grinned. The second half, she was beginning to flag but fought to stay awake. She managed it for all but 20 minutes and woke up for the finish. We had amazing seats in the Upper Circle with a fabulous view of the whole stage & the pits and the royal boxes where the percussion were based. It blew me away and I would go again with no hesitation.

A quick trek across London, a sleeping Katie on my front and we made our overnight coach to Plymouth. WHAT A DAY!!!