The Original Tour: our day out in London!
Rather conveniently, in October Tots100 offered free vouchers for UK attractions in their Britain’s Best Days Out competition in conjunction with the MoneySupermarket vouchers site. I won a family ticket for The Original Tour – I’m a big fan of bus tours as they give you a fabulous overview of all the main attractions, AND of course Ry just loves double decker buses. To buy a family ticket (2 adults and up to 3 children) would cost £78 online, but that gives you 48 hours of travel and loads of route options.
We hopped on the first bus of the day at 9.30am on London Bridge and got the front seats – under cover and with big windows that were low enough for the boys to see through! We moved slowly through town but there were so many tall buildings, cranes and trains to keep the boys occupied that it didn’t matter at all. I tuned in to the commentary but with the traffic noise I struggled to hear it clearly, so I made up most of the historical facts (naturally the boys believed me).
The Original Tour has 3 routes and if you’re on the red or blue routes, you can collect a kids pack on board. This is a booklet of info and a ‘passport’, a nice touch. There’s also a competition featured in the booklet – post them a drawing of your favourite part of the London tour, and each month one child will win a souvenir!
We took the red route, passing The Tower of London before heading along the Thames back to Buckingham Palace. When we got off the bus, the charming driver insisted we pose for a photo in the driving seat – maybe he’s a reader of my blog and knows I’m a big fan of daft photos…?
Our first stop was Buckingham Palace, where we grabbed a spot at the railings for Changing of The Guard. I must admit I don’t see the attraction myself, but the jostling crowds disagreed – and of course it doesn’t cost a penny!
We lasted for half of the show but with a very cold toddler in the pushchair the pub was calling, so we ran past the St James’ Parks squirrels down to Big Ben. Rather wonderfully we timed it just as it struck twelve’o’clock!
After a tasty lunch at St Stephen’s Tavern, during which Ebi-kun entertained me with facts from his Horrible Histories book, the rain was starting to come down so we decided to jump on the CityCruises boat down the Thames from Westminster to Tower Pier. I hadn’t realised that this cruise is free with the Original Tour bus ticket!
The boat landed right in front of the Tower of London, which was perfect.
Inside the Tower we saw the super sparkly Crown Jewels and watched the ravens eating mice for lunch, but that was all we managed before Ryland decided he wanted a kip in the pushchair. The Tower is entirely impossible to tackle with a pushchair, so I had to sit for an hour at the restaurant while he slept… Ebi-kun informs me that the Tower was excellent though, so when Ry is older I’ll be returning to check out all the armour!
We jumped back on the bus to get to our hotel – we were exhausted (as were the kids) but in Winter the tickets are valid for 48 hours so it’s great value.
….whilst in London we also managed a wonderful ride on the London Eye which we won with Nesquik cereals on Facebook earlier this year. It was my first night-time ride on the Eye and we really loved it!
I was also sent a free family ticket for skating at the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland from Costa Bingo but unfortunately the rain was so heavy that we couldn’t make it – maybe next year!
(thanks to Jo for letting me use some of her snaps!)
