London - Day 3

since we didnt do the hop-on-hop-off tour as planned yesterday (due to the weather condition), we decided to take the tour today. the day started off better, cold, yes but it was sunny. we were supposed to go for a windsor castle tour but the tour company emailed to say they trip scheduled for today could not proceed so they offered us another trip either on the 16th or the 18th. as we had plans for both days we decided not to proceed and requested for a refund instead.

we woke up quite early, around 630am. usually we dont take long to get ready but we only left the house at 930am. its really, really bad by our standards and i'm not too happy about that. usually if we get up by 730am we can leave our house by 9am so i said, we gotta do better next week. rugi lah the day if we go out so late. we walked to marylebone road and turned left towards edgware road station. a bit confusing because there were 2 entrances for the 3 different lines. first impression was good because they had elevator so yeay for people like us with 2 strollers. then just as we about to reach the platform, there they were - stairs! hubby had to carry both strollers down.

when we got to picadilly circus it was even worse. a flight of stairs then 2 escalators then another flight of stairs. very upsetting and so not stroller and wheelchair friendly. which is really weird because they had a separate entrance for people with strollers and wheelchair. so where do they go then after entering? pelik...

all the memories from 11 years ago came back when we walked out towards picadilly circus. ahhh beautiful...the buildings, the lights, the neon signs, that huge coke advert. it was just wow! we looked for the stop to board the hop-on tour bus and found it after 2 tries. we opted for the yellow tour as it goes across the thames. the boys quickly went upstairs but we werent sure if that was the right decision. it was cold (freezing at times) but the view was magnificent.

then all of the sudden we felt drops of rain and quickly took the boys downstairs. it wasnt rain after all...it was snow! it became heavier after a while and after about an hour quite a number of places were covered with white ice. the boys fell asleep when we brought them down so they didnt see the snow falling. but when they got up they were screaming ooohs and aaaahs seeing white on the trees, the cars, the parked bikes, the road side.

we stayed in the bus the whole entire 2 hour-journey. we got out right outside mcdonalds, had lunch there and made our way to regent street. my target was hamleys. unfortunately, it wasnt a good visit. there were too many people (reminds me of that place called klcc during school holidays but worse), too many strollers, to small a place and just too many toys! we got some for each four and left.

i wanted to get some thermals for the boys, amir especially since he would be out the whole day with hubby tomorrow but couldnt find any. well, we went up to BHS and then left, actually, so it wasnt a full-blown search. we took a cab back (hubby suggested walking back but...err to walk from oxford circus to marble arch is already a torture - to add another 10 minutes walking from marble arch to the apartment was too much).

so we got our london town tour, we got some toys for the boys and took them on the tube. all in all, a good day and hopefully the toys are enough to keep 3 boys occupied at home tomorrow.