Day 4 in London

Today was a beautiful sunny day. Kate's family (husband included) and our family (9 people total) headed out to Covent Garden on the tube. The streets of London are really busy but somehow one can navigate a stroller and a bunch of kids. Kate's kids are very adept at using the strollers on the busy sidewalks. Jack.. not so much. I am trying to teach him he has to stay on one side of the sidewalk (the opposite one we are usually on) but he doesn't really get it. Today, when he ran into a crowd he yelled 'I need to get through!'

Anyway.. in the 13th century, the site of the current Covent Garden was a 40 acre garden for the monks at Westminster Abbey. Later Henry VIII took all the land from the church and gave it to a friend. The land remained with that family until 1918. What currently stands at the sight was built in 1975. It's an open air shopping center.. very beautiful. Today outside of covent garden was a display of faberge eggs that had been hidden all over the city. We checked out the eggs then listened to a busker sing show tunes. Kate told me that the singers you hear on the streets are licensed by the city government. They have to audition to get a license. So the guy we were listening to was pretty good.

Covent Garden - Sonia listening to singer

From there we headed to the transportation museum. A very cool museum of all the public transportation methods in London since 1800. In 1800, London had 1 million residents and was the largest city in the world. Public transportation has always been a concern of the government here. Their current subway system is amazing. The current design for the map was created in 1931 by a British underground employee named Henry Beck. It's been replicated for every subway system in the world.

Former design:

Post 1931:

Map of London:

The kids enjoyed driving a simulated subway and playing in all the old buses and trains.

Around lunch time we went to lunch at one of Jamie Oliver's restaurants. It was perfect.. an italian restaurant with great, quick kid-friendly service.

After lunch, it was such a nice day that we bought some cupcakes and went to a little park in Soho. The kids chased the pigeons and ran around.

Jack seems eternally happy here because he always has playmates. We jumped back on the tube and then visited Kensington Gardens, the land behind Kensington palace where Prince William and Cate live. We hung out near a huge pond that had lots of ducks and swans. After a while, it was obvious the kids were really tired. We put Sonia in the stroller and she fell asleep. We returned to Kate's and dyed our Easter eggs then relaxed. Great fun!

Randomly.. on our way to covent garden we passed the building from the great BBC TV series MI5.