board77

Emily Davison. I surrendered to technology and googled it.

http://www.economicexpert.com/a/Emily:Davison.htm" target="_blank

Tosh wrote:

She was a suffragette protester who threw herself in front of a horse to help get women the vote.

Aaah yes, that sounds familiar. You'd think I would better remember a fellow Emily...especially one that got trampled by a horse for voting rights. The video was on a constant loop....almost hypnotic, in a horrible sort of way.

Thank you, Ber! Thus I have successfully confused them again. Go me. I remembered them being taken by Lord Elgin anyway and the country would quite like them back.

Nice one, Crucifer.

Quote:

"Caaaan you feeeeeeeeeel the looooooins toniiiiiiiight?"

that made me nearly roll on the floor (didn't we have a smiley that did just that? ah, found it...)




Rune, I thought of Peter Pan, too, but she has to read the book yet. Well, at least that can be done.... And I'm with you in saying that zoos are zoos and unless there's a very special animal in the London zoo, I doubt we'll go there.
Scones, now... that's a good idea. Just have to find the perfect place for them then.

Fara and Tosh, thanks, the NHS is a good idea, also

Crucifer, thanks for bringing back Kew Gardens to my mind, I think she'll like that. For musicals - well she's got english lessons for a year now - I doubt that her vocabulary will grow that much until next year.

Jewel, her interests well, as with every child, they change. We've been to a Kandinsky exhibition and she loved it. We've got a nice botanical garden here at the university and she likes it. She loves music - as she plays the transverse flute and the piano. We'll go and see the Tut-ench-Amun exhibition in Munich this summer. I'll report in then.
Help in finding accomodation would be very welcome. I know, it's still a year from now, but planning is the best part of it, isn't it?

on museums: When I was in the British Museum the last time, Alandriel was with me and she told me that she takes her daughter there just to look at one or two things closely, because the whole museum is just too overwhelming. I have already some pieces in mind I'd like to show Jana ( the Parthenon rooms and then I remember some very interesting clocks there).

I'll edit this in the first post for setting up a to-do-list:
- ride a double decker bus for sightseeing (upper level, preferably the open ones - hope for good weather)
- London Eye, Big Ben (Jana's wishes)
- Covent Garden (my wish)
- New Tate (do they have a Kandinsky there?) with the Millenium Footbridge
- Scones (but where?)
- Museums (British / History / Science?)

and the not-to-do-list:
- musical (I fear her english is too poor)
- London Dungeon ( too creepy, she won't even go into the ghost train on the fun fair)#

Another thing...

do I remember correctly that kids aren't allowed in pubs? I don't want to stick to the big yellow M for eating. I remember a Pizza Hut near Covent Garden, but there must be alternatives......

I don't know about down in London, as I can't remember, but some of the chain pubs up here in Scotland have "family areas" where you do see people with children...but perhaps that's just a Scotland thing. The 'family areas' here usually have signs proclaiming food served here until 7:30 or such.

There are looots of chain restaurants to be seen but of course prices wouldn't be the same as places such as pizza hut. And pub food is one of the greatest inventions of man in the UK for affordability. Wagamama for Japanese noodley dishes, La Tasca for Spanish Tapas, Giraffe for standard UK/USish menu, Cafe Uno for Italian, I remember some little place called Ponti's in one of the Covent Garden squares....Greek to some degree, I think. And of course there's a whole array of your standard cafe restaurant-y things sprinkled all over the place.

I remember a lovely little cafe in St. James Park. Delicious chocolate tart...mmmm....and a fairly reasonable walk from there to Buckingham Palace, if I remember correctly.

My mind keeps bouncing off on all different random tangents now. Another point of interest in Hyde Park that I quite liked were the Princess Diana Memorial rose gardens. Much better than the awful fountain they put up for her. Hyde Park Corner tube stop.

Annnnd....I've heard Regents Park is quite nice for its gardens (thinking of you mentioning that she enjoyed the botanical garden), though I never made it there myself.

Or, how about one of the open markets? Somewhere to find food, visual distraction, and plenty of London tourist paraphernalia. The two main ones popping into my mind are Camden Town Market (or what was left of it after the fire, anyway) or the Portobello Road market in Kensington on weekends. Short walk from Notting Hill Gate on central, circle, and district.

My brain revolves around the tube since my uni was paying for all of our oyster card travel.

Kew Gardens are indeed lovely and interesting too for the gardener but they are large and take a long time to get around, nor are they very close to the centre. If you did that you wouldn't have time for much else that day. Nor would you get a sense of London there.

Trafalgar Square (London's meeting place), Covent Garden, the Houses of Parliament, The National Gallery for pre-modern art and the smaller National Portrait Gallery next door to it which gives you portraits of hundreds of famous (to us) people, Chinatown, plenty of interesting small streets to window shop in, are all in a fairly smallish area. I went on an organised trip to Parliament last year and during the lunch break I pounded up the road on foot to Chinatown to buy some supplies. It was a fair way and I dont recommend you do that but it shows it isn't too far.

Pub meals can be a fair bet in the UK but Central London isn't that well supplied with nice pubs. You might have to do some research to find some choices there. There are good ones but they can be submerged by the quantity of naff ones.

I was quite fond of the Steam Passage Tavern up by Angel, but that's not exactly in the center of the centre.

Ah yes...Trafalgar Square and Chinatown. Those breezed through my mind too, but got stamped out by something else that deemed itself more urgent.

Good luck facing the pigeon hordes in Trafalgar Square, though.

There's Tate Britain for another of pre-modern goodness, but it's a bit out of the way as well.

Oh what I'd do to go wandering through the London galleries again looking at Turner and Waterhouse...Rosetti and Constable. Millais, Whistler....mmmmm.

Where exactly is Chinatown in London...what tube stop is it closest to?

I too haven't noticed too many nice looking pubs in my few trips there. More nice looking restaurants though. If I have seen a decent pub it seems to be nestled in some side alley and you only happen upon it accidentally if you're not a local.

It's close to Leicester Square tube staion in Gerrard Street and the surrounding roads. I go there on my infrequent trips to London to buy miso paste, teas, noodles and sauces and Chinese crockery and sometimes books and brushes. There are several good supermarkets scattered around in different roads. And definitely the place to try dim sun. Squid is particularly good.

Eru wrote:

Where exactly is Chinatown in London...what tube stop is it closest to?

Also, to add to what Tosh said, it's rather close to Soho if you're familiar with that area at all. I remember meandering through the Soho area and seeing the big lit up archway/gateway at night with chinese characters running around it or such.

Hmm, I remember coming from Piccadilly Circus, going up Shaftesbury Avenue, and seeing the Chinatown lampions on the left somewhere.

Tosh, I think, I remember doing Kew Gardens with my mum on the day we went to Hampton Court. And I just remembered the first time I've been to Kew Gardens - 1984, when I went there with school. :O I'm soooo old.

I found National Portrait Gallery absolutely boring - all these people I never heard of.
National Gallery is different - I remember seeing a guided tour for children there. And I still have the room-by-room guide here (well, so out of date, but nevermind).

About walking distances - I used to walk from Liverpool Street station to the Strand Palace Hotel, and that's not very far - at least for me, my daughter might think different.

A visit to Hamley's and the Disney store ( is that one still in Oxford street?) and of course Lush is a must.

Ooooh Hamley's on Regent street! Yes! And there's a LUSH just a bit farther down right before Piccadilly Circus. It was my most frequented one where the employees recognized me after a while. And there was a little cafe nextdoor with amazing smoothies and ice cream. The Carnaby Street shopping area is quite cute as well, just behind Regent Street. Used to be a LUSH there as well but I think they closed that one.

The Disney Store, I feel like I remember walking past one...but I walked Regent Street much more often than Oxford Street. Though chances are, for how many repeat stores there are in cities here, there could possibly even be a disney store on both.

Quote:

For musicals - well she's got english lessons for a year now - I doubt that her vocabulary will grow that much until next year.

Ah, but music is a universal language. :p

Hamley's is a must for any sort of fun loving human being... When I was first in Hamley's, they had a big Harry Potter thingy on. It was awesome. (And I was only there with my little sister...)

They had a Narnia display up when I was in London, which I heard was brilliant, but I didn't get in to see it.

Got me a guide book.... "Take the kids - London".

Looks quite interesting.

They recommend the Rainforest Cafe in Shaftesbury Ave. Somebody ever been there?

Besides, my mum said she'll pay the trip if Jana gets a good grade in maths. She'll be in fourth grade from September on and needs good grades in maths, german and elementary science to qualify for grammar school. Maths is definitly not her favourite subject.

I've been to the Rainforest Cafe in Las Vegas. I definitely think a kid would enjoy it a lot more than an adult. For me personally it's too....commercialised? I can't think of a proper word to describe it. I'd rather go to a nice pub than places like the Hard Rock Cafe or Rainforest Cafe. There's no gimmicks. Just good food and atmosphere. But then again, I'm not a child.

Quote:

Kew Gardens are indeed lovely and interesting too for the gardener but they are large and take a long time to get around, nor are they very close to the centre. If you did that you wouldn't have time for much else that day. Nor would you get a sense of London there.

Missed this first time around. It's true that Kew is very big. (I go every time I'm in london, which is at least once a year, and I still haven't sen everything there), and it does, realistically, take a whole day, but it's a nice closer to a holiday. Just wandering around, having a lemonade in the orangery. Kids can play in the... thingy the name of which I forget...

Next time I'm in London, I plan to check this out:

Kew Gardens opens treetop walkway

That looks amazing, Jude. I'm definitley planning to take my kids up during the summer vacation.

Kew Gardens is beautiful, especially on a nice day. The tree-top walkway is really cool, although I didn't go up in it last time I was there. It makes a fun outing...you can bring a picnic and stroll around the grounds and there are exhibits and sometimes concerts.
www.kew.org

I agree with Eru about the Rainforest Cafe. I mean, it's simply a restaurant. And an over-priced chain restaurant, at that

Other things that are kind of cool (for a 9-year-old) and very "London-y" are:

The Tower of London. The guides are hysterical and very camp...but also informative.
http://www.hrp.org.uk/toweroflondon/

Museum of Natural History...huge and lots of exhibits and fun things for kids.
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/

Harrods (if she likes shopping!) Gigantic department store with something for everyone. They even serve High Tea.
http://www.harrods.com/harrodsstore/

Covent Garden or Camden Market...if she likes shopping in a more funky style. Covent Garden usually has street performers and other things going on...plus the Royal Opera House is there and they have tours and sometimes kid-friendly activities. Camden Market has the locks and the old horse stables and some places where you can eat on the edge of the canal.
http://www.covent-garden.co.uk/
http://www.camdenlock.net/

St Martin's in the Fields...this is a beautiful church right in Trafalgar Square, recently restored inside and out. You can do a gravestone rubbing, go to a concert (jazz and classical, day or evening) or get a cream tea downstairs at their "Cafe in the Crypt."
www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org

I would definitely do a Hop-On, Hop-Off bus tour. You can listen in any language and it gives you a really good idea of the layout of the city.
www.theoriginaltour.com

Where are you planning to stay? There are lots of options, from very budget to very opulent!

Don't stay in Craven Hill Gardens Hotel, Hyde Park View, Hyde Park, ever. The shower was a cold dribble, there was no elevator and the stairs were about two feet wide.