Loving and Leaving London

Well, we are at Heathrow awaiting our departure for Hongkong. We have thoroughly enjoyed London. We saw a matinee performance of Jersey Boys on Sunday afternoon (yes Cherie, we took your advice and got the last minute cheap tickets - thks!) which was fantastic. In fact Chris thought it was right up there with the best things we have done since we have been away and the boys loved it too. Yesterday we ticked off Harrods, Harvey Nicholls and Selfridges as well as all the other exorbitant shops in Knightsbridge and Oxford street. The boys got the electronic boy things they had on their shopping lists and we wore our feet out. Today we had to check out of our apartment at 11.00, but Laura kindly let us leave our baggage at her place and we went right into the City for the day. We went to a 'Britain at War' experience which was kind of strange, walked the London Tower Bridge, strolled alongside the Thames and walked around the Tower of London. There was the 'London Dungeon' experience but the queues were a mile long and the boys are still suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from the House of Horrors at Universal Studios and apparently the Dungeon is the 'scariest experience in the U.K'  - so we gave it a miss!
London has a certain 'familiarity' about it which has made it an easy city to enjoy, we have felt quite at home. Everyone says it is expensive, but we haven't found it eye-wateringly so - our accomodation was fantastic and well priced and it was great to be able to cook in the apartment. Liam said today that at home a meal out is a treat - on holiday a home-cooked meal is a treat! Laura provided us with 'Oyster Cards' which are pre-paid travel cards which you can use on the tube and the bus and have a daily cap. The kids were free on the bus and a day pass on the tube was only 2 pounds each for them so it has been fairly inexpensive to get around. Although we are all a bit over public transport - Chris and I are looking forward to our cars. There are also lots of lovely parks and green spaces to enjoy which was surprising - I thought the city would be a lot more 'closed in' than it is. Paris and Barcelona don't really have the green open spaces that London has - those cities have what they call 'hard recreation areas' which are all concrete which isn't as attractive. All in all it has been a nice stay which we will have the memories of during our 12 hour 50 minute flight tonight! Love to all..