Planes vs Trains

Planes vs trains? We say trains win! Obviously there is a limit on your travel distance for this… but when it is a reasonable distance, oh boy, the train wins HANDS DOWN!

We found the train to be so awesome because it is so less stressful than getting a plane. There is no 2 hour minimum check in time, no baggage restrictions, (what are you carrying on, what are you checking-in, how heavy are your bags… nope they don’t care!), security is efficient but not intense (they let Austin sleep through security and passport checks in the pram, thankyou, thankyou, thankyou) and then you just walk up to the train literally 10 minutes before it departs, jump on and voila off you go.

And that’s just the beginning of the benefits… On the train seats have more room, there are only 2 seats on each side so you can freely get up and down and walk down to the food cart, and you can fit baby on your lap with the tray table down, I know whhhaaaaat! Baby can sit there and watch the world whizz by and you avoid the trauma of take-off and landing (ears popping, ears popping, EARS POPPING WAAAAHHHHH).

And then when you get to your destination (generally) you’re pretty much smack bang in the middle of the city and just have to get to your accommodation. No hour taxi rides from airports and passport lines that go forever and ever and everrrrrrrr. Nope. Just stroll on out. Excellent.

So as you can probably tell, by the time we got to Brussells we were pretty damn chuffed with ourselves. And with the addition of a purchase of mini trucks from St Pancras station before we left the train ride was as smooth as a baby’s bottom (pun intended – dad joke, I know!)

So planes and trains aside… when we were in Brussels we stayed in the old part of town, which was right near the Grand Place, perfection. Before we left if we told people we were going to Brussels they would ask ‘oh and are you going to Bruge? Bruge is so pretty!’. So we weren’t expecting well, anything much exciting in Brussels but it was soo pretty. (Who needs Bruge, right?)

Brussels seems to be a city built on their passion for food, and not just any foods, pretty much the best foods in the world. Chocolate. Fries. Waffles. Crepes. Yes, yes and yes. So we dived in to local culture ie. food, as any respectful tourist would, and had a ball of a holiday. 

A day fit for a prince

I LOVE doing all of the big touristy stuff, something about it just feels SO holiday-sy. And everyone loves holidays. Everything is exciting and new on holidays. On holidays you get to eat out ALL THE TIME, you have nice soft pillows and fresh sheets every day. SO GOOD! So even though pretty much none of those things apply to us (the eating out all the time, the soft pillows and fresh sheets, nawwww) when we go and do the tourist route it feels as exciting as if we ARE on holidays.

So on this fine sunny day (18 in London, A-MAH-ZING) Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park were on our must do list. First stop was Buckingham Palace and Austin was dying to get out of the pram. And once he was out he was smiling, and laughing and having SO much fun…. and this had NOTHING to do with the palace, the guards or the beautiful grand gates. There was a street cleaner going past. A STREET CLEANER! How FREAKING EXCITING! It really is hilarious the things kids find exciting. 

It was great to see the palace in all of its grand glory. I wouldn't say it's the best tourist spot in London but it is easy enough to go by, get a tourist snap and just keep on going. A changing of the guard would have added a bit more of a thrill to the situation, but in the winter months the changing of the guard is every second day… and we were there on the first day. Damn.  

So to Hyde park next and to let Austin have his run around. To get there from the palace it’s a short stroll through Green park.  And wow there were yellow leaves everywhere. London is SO pretty in Autumn - green and gold and red dripping from the trees and pools of colour floating over the grass. So we just had to stop and have a play around, it was too damn tempting not to.

And we couldn’t really just walk past the Lodge Café in Hydpe Park corner without a pit stop either. I cannot recommend this place more. The coffee was great, the chocolate croissant was to DIE FOR and they have so many other delicious treats and pastries (a high level of restraint was used to not go NUTS on the macaroons).

So FINALLY after all of our stopping and starting we made it to Hyde Park. Which was really just more park. VERY pretty, but more park. And we already ‘parked’ at Green Park. So after the long journey to get there and with a pooped toddler, we had a bit of look around and then headed off home. 

My little pumpkin

So it seems England gets quite in to the ol Halloween spirit and the spirit was in full force at the Eastern Curve Garden. We missed the pumpkin carving and lighting ceremony (WOWSERS), but we did make it down to check it all out a few days later.

And oh boy, there were HEAPS of spooky Halloween pumpkins pretty much sprinkled all over the garden - it seems the kids did a mighty fine job of their Halloween carving. Luckily for us Austin wasn’t spooked by the pumpkins during the day (though I did see some photos of them lit up at night – eerie) but he was super interested, pointing and trying to pull the lids off all of them (gentle, gentle, GENTLE).

It's been a while since we visited the Eastern Curve Garden and going in again reminded us of how much we really loved our stay in Dalston. There was always something happening, and I'm not going to lie a large part of the attraction is the coffee. My new favourite is Reilly Rocket, which I wasn't surprised when I found out the guys are Aussie (of course the good coffee is made by Aussies). We've moved off the skinny caps and lattes, and are now on the skinny flat whites (the only coffee I've found that doesn't taste like watered down milk).

So Halloween is just a few days away, and I’ve no idea if the hype we’ve seen in the shops is a true indication of how England does Halloween, but either way I’ve got a cute as little jumper for A-dawg to get in the spirit. 

A visit to Fenton House (how lovely)

What's living in London if you haven't visited a manor house? Yep, it's not living, well anyway, that's what I thought. We almost didn't make it as we were dog tired from being up all night with a teething toddler but it was either sitting at home being tired and miserable and annoying each other or getting up and making the most of the day (tired or not). So off we went to Fenton House, the one beautiful manor house I found that wasn't forever away (located in North London), that looked nice and grand with some beautiful gardens.

The website says that the garden is big 'by London standards', well that is quite the understatement. It's definitely not a grand estate with fields and fields, but for central London I would call this BIG GARDENS. They were super pretty, with little pockets and different areas, manicured lawns and an apple orchard. Lots of fun for Austin to run up and around. 

The inside of the house has been kept as it would've been about 100 years ago, with lots of breakables and antiques (hands off baby!) so we put Austin in the baby bjorn, just to be safe. The inside of the house is probably not super interesting for a kid, more so for mum and dad, but what the hell we were there so we were going to have a look anyways. We had really, really wanted to see the supposed fantastic view of the city from the roof...but alas... it wasn't open when we went. Well, guess we will just have to find some more places to go and check out the views, damn. 

A sick baby overseas

Sicily was absoloutely fabu-tabulous! But it was also hard work, especially when Austin started acting up - in a BIG way. For the first few days we weren't sure what was going on, and just put it down to lack of sleep, but when he stood in the lounge room screaming uncontrollably and nothing we did was able to stop him we knew something was up.

So here is a list for you of what not to do with a sick toddler overseas:

1. Just presume the your child is acting CRAZY because they are sleep deprived (insert late night flights, early morning starts, back to back activities, change of scenery, cot in new area, etc etc etc)

2. Start doubting yourself BIG TIME. There are a few small moments as parents that you sit back and think wow, we’ve nailed this parenting thing! (SMALL MOMENTS PEOPLE, this doesn’t happen often!) And then you have moments when all you can think is what in the world are we doing wrong? Everything? Surely? We must be the worst parents in the world! This was definitely one of those moments. 

3. When you figure out (finally) that something is up, don’t organize a doctor during the day because, you know, that would just be waaaaay to convenient. Wait until the evening for your child to have another screaming fit THEN decide that you should probably do something about it.

4. Don’t worry about turning on data roaming, having the address of where you’re staying written down, knowing how to order a taxi in Italian… let alone know where a local doctor or English speaking health professional is.

5. Forget all the kids toys in the dash to the local hospital (where the only bambino doctors are – a bit dramatic I know, but that’s where we were instructed to go for a general doctor)

6. Cry when your kid has a blood test….oh my THE TEARS, THE TEARS. Oh yeah, and then there were his tears too.

7. Just sit back and do nothing…and let your mind get the better of you of what might be wrong with your kid. So glad this is the one thing we did not do! Although it meant a two hour wait at 11pm at night surrounded by all the screaming bambino’s at del pronto soccorso, after all the drama it was just a viral infection (PHEW) and at least we could relax knowing it was nothing serious. 

Also, side note - bubbles are the best thing in the world to cheer up a sickly toddler!

Ciao bambino

Sicily – the land of nutella and pizza. So much for a beach diet. Beach diets are non existant in Italy! And so is fake tan – as I learnt rocking up pale and need of some bronzer. What else happens in Italy? Every nonna loves the bambino, the food is local and fresh, and the coffee is soooo good (yes please, yes please, yes please, give me all your coffees!)

We barely scratched the surface of what Sicily has to offer, we mostly had beach and relaxing time, and I’m pretty, pretty sure there is much more to do and see. Just down the road there were beautiful castle-esque villas that I was just dying to get in to, but with a sleep-deprived toddler from doing night flights we did our best.

If I’m being really honest, we went to Sicily mostly for the weather, but once we got there we just wanted to get in to all that Sicily has to offer. It’s funny how when you get to a destination with no local language skills it only takes a few days to get in to the swing of things. I’ve being si’ing and grazie’ing my local English coffee man since getting home - awkward.

I wanna go back, I wanna go back, I wanna go back. Ok, my tantrum is not setting a good example for the son. But Sicily was damn good. 

Living in London with a little one

Six weeks in and a whirlwind later we’re finally getting settled in to London life and it’s been pretty damn good so far. Our lives haven’t changed all that much really (minus all the fabulous Melbourne family and friends) but I guess you’re wondering, what have we been doing?

We’ve been visiting the ‘stay and plays’ (London’s answer to mothers group) – huge play centres with jumping castles, rooms full of toys and giant adventure playgrounds. These are ridiculously fun and an absolute nightmare to get Austin to leave but oh boy when he is there, he is just eeeeeeeeeeee-ing with excitement. (Also massive note to self – do not bring outside toys to these wonderlands of excitement unless you want to cause WW3 and tears en masse, ermm sorry and oops to the fellow mums).

We’ve been moaning about the average coffee in London. A friend told me the other day that she is now used to the crap coffee here. Sad face. I can see myself slowly changing, my subconscious becoming more comfortable with instant, my palette liking average Pret coffee. It has already started. I bought more instant coffee. It was Illy, so you know, I told myself it was ok, but deep down I know how wrong the Melbourne me would think the situation is.

We have definitely been frustrated at London’s horrible pedestrian walkers. I know Melbourne is pretty bad too, but for the most part, there is a system there: walk on the left people. Here there is no system, no rhyme or reason, and definitely no one stopping to let a pram past. You just have to GO FOR IT and make everyone part for you. Lady with a pram, coming through!

And oh my, have we been surprised by the weather. Its not half bad, it’s no Aussie autumn – lets be real – but the sun is out most of the time, and when it is, its like some glorious sunshining hotbed of fun.  

There is actually heaps to do with a toddler and baby here in London and all of the locals are super generous with their knowledge. And the BEST PART – HELLO EUROPE! First European holiday planned for this weekend. Can’t wait.

Baby towers over London

What we learnt on our visit to Tower Bridge:

1.     London Bridge is not Tower Bridge

2.     Coffee is served scorching hot in London

3.     Pedestrian crossings really have no rhyme or reason – they are all red or all green and no drummer man so it's best not to get distracted at the stop sign

4.     Don’t wing it on the bus system – this is probably just normal person common sense but let’s just include this on the list anyway

5.     The Lawn (under The Tower Hotel) serves the most delicious mojito’s with disputably the best view of The Tower Bridge and the sparsest crowds on the strip

It's a shore thing (or at least it will be next time)

I wouldn’t say we nailed our first visit to Shoreditch but we still had fun. The Shoreditch train station is right next to ‘BoxPark’ a little shopping mecca made from container ships; pop-up stores on the ground floor and then food and bars up on the second floor.

The width and size of a container ship fitted out with clothes racks and other merchandising tables makes it a wee bit tricky to look around with a pram (ok lets be honest, it’s a lot tricky, but hey we make do) and the top level is accessible by stairs only but if you have some muscles with you it’s still worth a look around. I’m sure later on in the evening this little spot would get MIGHTY rowdy but 12.30 pm it’s friendly and inviting, with tables basking in the sunshine.

So from here we thought we’d find the shops to look around. And so we looked up and down and around looking for a ‘main’ street that we didn’t find. So (correct me if I’m wrong) but it seems pretty much most of the shops are a mix of chain stores, vintage wares and super trendy designers tucked in and around all the little alleyways. Sooo, as always, on a toddler timeframe we had to move on but we will come back and do it properly now that we know what’s going on.

But next was far more exciting. A twenty-minute walk later we were at The Museum of Childhood (NB there is a bus that goes there too if you aint in a walking mood). Three levels of toys greeted us, spanning over a hundred years of history (probably longer, who knows, lets’ just say we skipped the information booth and went straight for the fun times!). Interactive displays, fully functioning train sets, giant robots…. Oh my goodness Austin was in heaven! Ok, heaven would have been the same place minus all of the glass cabinets but it certainly made for a happier visit (no screaming and crying when you try to pull him away).

Lunch of fish fingers and peas was followed by a run around in Bethnal Park next door. With free entry and a baby’s short attention span this is going to be the purrrfect winter hangout. 

Hello London

Baby meltdown alert

Just like most of life, London touring with a baby is slightly more difficult than life without a baby but it can also be more exciting and certainly more unexpected.

Instead of just doing the walking around, been there, done that situation you actually stop and take it in, and when the small man is making ‘ooh ooh’ sounds at every passing red bus, big building and general tourist walking by the whole day takes on a whole new shiny, exciting feeling.

We started off getting the bus to Big Ben, getting off on the other side of the bridge (which immensely annoyed Pat) as I wanted to get photos looking across to Big Ben. Getting in early worked a treat as there were few people around and all was going FABULOUSLY until Austin had a super melt down ‘no more damn photos!’  The moment was made even better as several French tourists walked past with a what terrible parents are you look on their faces. But really all he wanted to do was give his legs a little run before falling dead off to sleep.

This little spot near Big Ben is a great area to do your tourist walk as there is so much in the one area. We walked up past Westminster Abbey and then down Derby Gate where there were some beautiful buildings to ogle but um yeah, I don’t know what buildings they were so, sorry can’t tell you. Some type of government, queen something.

Trafalgar square was next and if we had time we would have popped in to the National Gallery, but baby was sleeping so we were on a deadline. Time for a coffee stop so we went to Pret in Trafalgar Sqaure – my advice would be AVOID. They do not have toilets, which is pretty annoying as part purpose of our coffee stop was also to bathroom stop. Crisis was averted however as there are public (clean) toilets in Trafalgar Square. But with this in mind you may as well avoid the average Pret coffee and go somewhere else.

Toilet business aside, we finished off our London tour morning on The London Eye. £20 per adult later we were flying high up in the sky.

Can’t wait for more London touring <3