half-term in london
We got back from London on Sunday night. I think the children both properly enjoyed this trip and it was worth it, really, taking them both to the Big Smoke even though I generally don't like taking children to crowded cities. J and I didn't have much of an agenda beyond eating well, and I didn't do much shopping at all. We just took it easy and wandered around the streets and museums and spent a lot of time in cafes. The kids are fairly well-acquainted with most of the big London sights, either from school or from books, so they got a real kick out of seeing places like Trafalgar Square and Big Ben. All in all, a good trip.
Everywhere was crowded though - I had forgotten that it was half-term in the UK as well, so places like the Science Museum were chockfull of people. The queue outside the Natural History Museum was crazy long and people were standing in the drizzle while waiting. Just as well the kids had already visited it in October so we didn't have to join that particular queue.
Food-wise, there were so many places we wanted to eat at, but didn't have the time. For my records:
~ Asadal for Korean food. J and I love Korean food and there's a great dearth of it here in Geneva. Asadal is not the best Korean I have eaten, but they are affordable, centrally-located, and good with children, so we tend to visit it at least once whenever we're in the city. The kids didn't eat any of the spicy dishes, but we ordered them Korean fried chicken and asked for the slightly spicy sweet sauce to be served on the side.
~ Royal China. Again, this is an old standby of ours when it comes to dimsum in London. We went to the Baker Street outlet since it was walking distance from our apartment. I think the kids enjoyed this meal the most, especially The Bun who loves dimsum. We ordered three rounds and rolled out of the restaurant.
The Bun with his favourite carrot cake at Royal China.
~ Tom's Kitchen in Chelsea. I had heard some buzz about this place from some foodie blogs I read, so we went to have an early dinner. It has a nice, relaxed feel, and they are very good with children. The kids were given activity packs and there was a dedicated menu for them. They had their meals served as the adult's appetisers came and then as they busied themselves with the activity books, J and I could actually eat properly and enjoy our food. J had some Yorkshire pigeon (!) which admittedly is an acquired taste, and I had a massive duck breast that I couldn't finish. All in all, a pleasant meal, but it didn't rock our world.
~ Kaffeine. Our apartment was a block away from this hipster cafe, and our AirBnB host is apparently good mates with the barista team because our key pick-up and drop-offs were all done behind the cafe counter because the host and I couldn't meet with our schedules. The coffee is excellent. If I'm ever in the neighbourhood I will definitely be back for a cuppa.
~ The Riding House Cafe. Also on the same street as our apartment, so we went there for breakfast on Saturday morning. Again, it's one of those trendy places, but in my defense let me just point out that these sort of establishments are few and far between in Geneva, and I do enjoy feeling like I'm a part of the modern world now and then. The pancakes here were lovely - The Bun ate two, but Bao refused to touch them because she generally doesn't eat cake. Instead she ate the poached eggs off my breakfast (I had chorizo hash with eggs). Child-friendly as well, with crayons and colouring paper provided.
Breakfast at the Riding House Cafe.
~ Chisou in Mayfair. We had a late lunch here on Thursday after arriving in the city. It was full and busy and service was brisk but friendly. The Bun ate an entire plate of California maki on his own, while Bao shared a bowl of unadon (eel on rice) and some tempura with me. The spicy tuna tartare, served with a raw quail's egg, was memorably good.
~ Atari-Ya Sushi Bar. This was a last-minute find when we realised The Golden Hind, where we wanted to go for fish and chips, was closed for lunch on weekends. We ended up at the James Street branch, which was more of a takeaway outlet with some seating near the back of the shop. The food was not bad considering the overall ambience of the entire place was a bit of a downer.
~ Cafe in the Crypt. I have known about this place for a long time but this was my first time in it. As its name suggests, it is located in the 18th century crypt of the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields. The cafeteria-style service was a bit incongruous with the floor paved with gravestones and the vaulted ceiling, but I did enjoy being inside. We spent a fair bit of time in here, enjoying coffee and cake and some peace while the kids looked through the books we bought from the Waterstones across the road. I had told the kids that they could have £10 each to spend in London on books, sweets and souvenirs (but no toys) and the money actually went quite far.
~ Oddono's. We went to the South Kensington branch for a snack in-between museums. The staff are very friendly, and the waffles were great. The kids shared a cup of mango and lychee sorbet, while I just sat back and marvelled that a gelato shop was not just open, but open and thriving in the middle of winter. (In Geneva the gelato shops are only open from March to October.)
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There was a bit of drama on Saturday from Bao when we all went to the riverside pier to catch one of the sightseeing cruises down the Thames. We bought tickets and were waiting to board when I noticed that she was looking a bit green. I asked her if she was going to throw up and she began crying. Cue a frantic search for a ziplock bag in my bag (thank goodness my lip balms, hand creams etc were still in the travel-sized ziplock bag). Bao promptly was sick into it the moment it was presented to her. One small, optimistic part of my mind thought that maybe if she got most of her nausea out of the way we could still go on the cruise, which both children had been eagerly looking forward to. But of course there was no way we could conceivably get Bao on a boat when she had just been sick. The nice folks at the ticketing booth refunded our money even though they didn't have to, and since Bao was still throwing up gastric juices now and again, all of us went to hide from the drizzle at a cafe nearby.
Eventually we returned to the apartment. Thank goodness that London cabs are the size that they are - we pushed Bao in her stroller directly into the vehicle and she was blessedly quiet and puke-free for the drive home. Once home she lay on the bed completely limp. About a year ago I would have panicked, but this being our third or fourth encounter with vomitus expellius I knew that she would be like this until she was feeling better. In the meantime I spooned teaspoons of oral rehydration solution into her and waited it out in the darkened room. Pity we couldn't all go out to dinner at Gold Mine; J and I had been looking forward to some proper Chinese food for weeks. In the end J took The Bun out to Chinatown for dinner while I stayed in with Bao. By the time they came home with a takeaway for me, Bao had more or less revived and was chatting like her usual self and eating some dry cereal before bed. I didn't sleep very well that night - too strung-out from Bao drama and too full of caffeine. Bao also woke up in the middle of the night, once for half a banana, and once for some milk.
I'm relieved that she got the stomach bug (?) or motion sickness (?) out of her system relatively quickly. The next morning she was totally fine and we all managed to go to the British Museum and to lunch at Ippudo with no incident. I watched her like a hawk for the entire taxi ride to Victoria station and then on the train to Gatwick. She's always been prone to motion sickness and I clearly remember how she was sick all the way to Gatwick and our entire flight back, last October.
At the British Museum.
Good thing our trip home this time went perfectly smoothly. I bought the kids a magazine each at the airport - the kind with the stickers and the cheap plastic toys - and that occupied them nicely while we were waiting for the flight, which was slightly delayed. Bao talked my ear off with endless questions about the activities in her magazine, and once we were up in the air I put on the videos on the iPad for them to watch and enjoyed relative peace for the next eighty minutes. The flying routine we have is down pat: the kids know there's no iPad until the seat-belt signed has been switched off, and they both share one iPad while listening on child-sized earphones connected to a headphone splitter.
It was nice to be mellow in London for once. For once, we didn't take the Tube with the kids at all. It's not impossible with children, but the madding crowds doesn't exactly make it a pleasant experience. Our AirBnb apartment was in Fitzrovia, a stone's throw from Oxford Street, so we walked a fair bit. Otherwise we took buses, which the kids enjoyed because they got a good view of everything and everyone got to sit down and rest for a bit. Bao even fell asleep while riding in one.
Entertaining himself on board the bus.
The Bun has said that he would dearly love to visit Kew Gardens and the London Eye, so I guess the kids will be back to storm the city once more, hopefully when the weather is warmer. As for me, I'll be back in a month, sans enfants, yay!
Everywhere was crowded though - I had forgotten that it was half-term in the UK as well, so places like the Science Museum were chockfull of people. The queue outside the Natural History Museum was crazy long and people were standing in the drizzle while waiting. Just as well the kids had already visited it in October so we didn't have to join that particular queue.
Food-wise, there were so many places we wanted to eat at, but didn't have the time. For my records:
~ Asadal for Korean food. J and I love Korean food and there's a great dearth of it here in Geneva. Asadal is not the best Korean I have eaten, but they are affordable, centrally-located, and good with children, so we tend to visit it at least once whenever we're in the city. The kids didn't eat any of the spicy dishes, but we ordered them Korean fried chicken and asked for the slightly spicy sweet sauce to be served on the side.
~ Royal China. Again, this is an old standby of ours when it comes to dimsum in London. We went to the Baker Street outlet since it was walking distance from our apartment. I think the kids enjoyed this meal the most, especially The Bun who loves dimsum. We ordered three rounds and rolled out of the restaurant.
The Bun with his favourite carrot cake at Royal China.
~ Tom's Kitchen in Chelsea. I had heard some buzz about this place from some foodie blogs I read, so we went to have an early dinner. It has a nice, relaxed feel, and they are very good with children. The kids were given activity packs and there was a dedicated menu for them. They had their meals served as the adult's appetisers came and then as they busied themselves with the activity books, J and I could actually eat properly and enjoy our food. J had some Yorkshire pigeon (!) which admittedly is an acquired taste, and I had a massive duck breast that I couldn't finish. All in all, a pleasant meal, but it didn't rock our world.
~ Kaffeine. Our apartment was a block away from this hipster cafe, and our AirBnB host is apparently good mates with the barista team because our key pick-up and drop-offs were all done behind the cafe counter because the host and I couldn't meet with our schedules. The coffee is excellent. If I'm ever in the neighbourhood I will definitely be back for a cuppa.
~ The Riding House Cafe. Also on the same street as our apartment, so we went there for breakfast on Saturday morning. Again, it's one of those trendy places, but in my defense let me just point out that these sort of establishments are few and far between in Geneva, and I do enjoy feeling like I'm a part of the modern world now and then. The pancakes here were lovely - The Bun ate two, but Bao refused to touch them because she generally doesn't eat cake. Instead she ate the poached eggs off my breakfast (I had chorizo hash with eggs). Child-friendly as well, with crayons and colouring paper provided.
Breakfast at the Riding House Cafe.
~ Chisou in Mayfair. We had a late lunch here on Thursday after arriving in the city. It was full and busy and service was brisk but friendly. The Bun ate an entire plate of California maki on his own, while Bao shared a bowl of unadon (eel on rice) and some tempura with me. The spicy tuna tartare, served with a raw quail's egg, was memorably good.
~ Atari-Ya Sushi Bar. This was a last-minute find when we realised The Golden Hind, where we wanted to go for fish and chips, was closed for lunch on weekends. We ended up at the James Street branch, which was more of a takeaway outlet with some seating near the back of the shop. The food was not bad considering the overall ambience of the entire place was a bit of a downer.
~ Cafe in the Crypt. I have known about this place for a long time but this was my first time in it. As its name suggests, it is located in the 18th century crypt of the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields. The cafeteria-style service was a bit incongruous with the floor paved with gravestones and the vaulted ceiling, but I did enjoy being inside. We spent a fair bit of time in here, enjoying coffee and cake and some peace while the kids looked through the books we bought from the Waterstones across the road. I had told the kids that they could have £10 each to spend in London on books, sweets and souvenirs (but no toys) and the money actually went quite far.
~ Oddono's. We went to the South Kensington branch for a snack in-between museums. The staff are very friendly, and the waffles were great. The kids shared a cup of mango and lychee sorbet, while I just sat back and marvelled that a gelato shop was not just open, but open and thriving in the middle of winter. (In Geneva the gelato shops are only open from March to October.)
__________________
There was a bit of drama on Saturday from Bao when we all went to the riverside pier to catch one of the sightseeing cruises down the Thames. We bought tickets and were waiting to board when I noticed that she was looking a bit green. I asked her if she was going to throw up and she began crying. Cue a frantic search for a ziplock bag in my bag (thank goodness my lip balms, hand creams etc were still in the travel-sized ziplock bag). Bao promptly was sick into it the moment it was presented to her. One small, optimistic part of my mind thought that maybe if she got most of her nausea out of the way we could still go on the cruise, which both children had been eagerly looking forward to. But of course there was no way we could conceivably get Bao on a boat when she had just been sick. The nice folks at the ticketing booth refunded our money even though they didn't have to, and since Bao was still throwing up gastric juices now and again, all of us went to hide from the drizzle at a cafe nearby.
Eventually we returned to the apartment. Thank goodness that London cabs are the size that they are - we pushed Bao in her stroller directly into the vehicle and she was blessedly quiet and puke-free for the drive home. Once home she lay on the bed completely limp. About a year ago I would have panicked, but this being our third or fourth encounter with vomitus expellius I knew that she would be like this until she was feeling better. In the meantime I spooned teaspoons of oral rehydration solution into her and waited it out in the darkened room. Pity we couldn't all go out to dinner at Gold Mine; J and I had been looking forward to some proper Chinese food for weeks. In the end J took The Bun out to Chinatown for dinner while I stayed in with Bao. By the time they came home with a takeaway for me, Bao had more or less revived and was chatting like her usual self and eating some dry cereal before bed. I didn't sleep very well that night - too strung-out from Bao drama and too full of caffeine. Bao also woke up in the middle of the night, once for half a banana, and once for some milk.
I'm relieved that she got the stomach bug (?) or motion sickness (?) out of her system relatively quickly. The next morning she was totally fine and we all managed to go to the British Museum and to lunch at Ippudo with no incident. I watched her like a hawk for the entire taxi ride to Victoria station and then on the train to Gatwick. She's always been prone to motion sickness and I clearly remember how she was sick all the way to Gatwick and our entire flight back, last October.
At the British Museum.
Good thing our trip home this time went perfectly smoothly. I bought the kids a magazine each at the airport - the kind with the stickers and the cheap plastic toys - and that occupied them nicely while we were waiting for the flight, which was slightly delayed. Bao talked my ear off with endless questions about the activities in her magazine, and once we were up in the air I put on the videos on the iPad for them to watch and enjoyed relative peace for the next eighty minutes. The flying routine we have is down pat: the kids know there's no iPad until the seat-belt signed has been switched off, and they both share one iPad while listening on child-sized earphones connected to a headphone splitter.
It was nice to be mellow in London for once. For once, we didn't take the Tube with the kids at all. It's not impossible with children, but the madding crowds doesn't exactly make it a pleasant experience. Our AirBnb apartment was in Fitzrovia, a stone's throw from Oxford Street, so we walked a fair bit. Otherwise we took buses, which the kids enjoyed because they got a good view of everything and everyone got to sit down and rest for a bit. Bao even fell asleep while riding in one.
Entertaining himself on board the bus.
The Bun has said that he would dearly love to visit Kew Gardens and the London Eye, so I guess the kids will be back to storm the city once more, hopefully when the weather is warmer. As for me, I'll be back in a month, sans enfants, yay!