"Grandma, this is London!"

I was delighted with the progress little Thomas had made in speaking, since I saw him last. He still makes a few charming mistakes with his speech––"My do it!"––and he has some difficulties with constonants, saying 'poon, 'nake instead of spoon and snake, for instance. He doesn't let the difficulties get in his way of telling us about his plastic dinodaurs and the marbeyball (marble) game.

While we were on the Thames I asked if he knew where we were. Thomas replied without any hesitation, as if I were stupid, "We're here!"


With the family, we had taken the local train from Fulwell Station (near Alexander's school) to Waterloo, got off, walked to the South Bank and seen the London Eye, or big wheel, as Thomas called it. Amazingly, because it was only February 2nd, we ate our lunch out of doors, admittedly wearing coats, at Eat, which was popular with families and too crowded inside. I had a tasty and warming bowl of chilli. Then we made our way to the most important place in London on this occasion, the children's playground near the Eye.

After the inevitable bumps, bruises, disappointments and triumphs and mouthful of blood when Thomas bit his tongue while riding the metal chicken, we decided to queue up for tickets to ride on the river. The cheapest way is to catch a river bus, a Thames Clipper, which took us to Greenwich and back for £12 each and showed us all the famous sights from the warmth and comfort of our seats: St. Paul's Cathedral, the Millennium Bridge, the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Canary Wharf and its skyscrapers. While I was taking my photos Thomas solemnly informed me, "Grandma, this is London." As the river widened, the catamaran could speed up considerably; we anticipated the "whoosh" as it reached that stretch.

At Greenwich we disembarked to take a look at the Cutty Sark and to let the boys run around again. There was an interesting museum in the imposing entrance to the neoclassical Royal Naval College, now the National Maritime Museum (free admission), with activities for the children there too.

We returned upstream by another Clipper boat, passing the Shard (Europe's highest building) and the newly reconstructed Globe Theatre, reaching Hungerford Bridge, from which we could see Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, by sunset. Then we caught another train "home" that set us down at Hampton Court station. It's only a short bus ride back to the flat from there. His mother asked Thomas which part of the day he'd liked best and he told her it was that bus ride.