Well, the bus ride went smoothly for the first hour and 58 minutes...toys were played with, books were read, pictures were drawn, snacks were eaten. Then I handed Sophia her jacket and told her to put it on as soon as the bus was stopped and she had unbuckled her seatbelt. A minute later she was getting sick...all over her jacket! Our friend Carlyn grabbed the trash can (rubbish bin, I mean to say) and a kind gentlemen handed me babywipe after babywipe. It was at that point that I realized that although children may seem grown up enough to no longer need changes of clothing and wipes everywhere we go (the wipes stay in my car, but didn't make it on the bus with us), that is not actually the case. As soon as the bus stopped, I washed her jacket as well as I could in the mini sink...but then it was wet (and a bit stinky!) so she still couldn't wear it. I draped the wet jacket over the stroller (push chair, of course) and bundled Sophia up in my giant, geranium pink jacket.
Then we headed down the sidewalk (pavement, I mean) to check out a red telephone booth (hmm, call box). I opened the door so that Sophia could hop in and pretend to make a call while I took her photo and almost fell back from the smell of urine...apparently they are also used as public toilets...good to know. We took the photo from outside the box, thank you very much.
Next we found a souvenir shop since Sophia looked a bit ridiculous in my jacket (and Daddy's would have been worse) and I was quickly getting chilly. She picked out a slightly too big purple sweatshirt (jumper) with rhinestones professing her love of London. It fit over her other clothes and was a perfect way to turn her day around. We picked out a few other things, including a London magnet, which I don't have anyplace to put because our fridge door is wood...oops. My magnet collection will be sitting in a box for awhile, I suppose.
Then we walked through Little Italy, past Leicester Square, and over to Trafalgar Square, where the Chinese New Year show was being held. We walked around, bought a few souvenirs, then looked for some food and a spot to sit. I couldn't believe it, but there was hardly any food there! Only one stall sold anything Asian, and all they had were some barely edible noodles and spring rolls. Having been to Chinese New year celebrations in Hong Kong and Japan, I was expecting lots of great food so I was disappointed, but the girls seemed to enjoy it anyway. We perched them on a low wall ( maybe 5-6 feet high) and then each one of us held on to one of the girls. Apparently, my arms wrapped around my child are not secure enough, because one of the event guards asked them to get down, "for the safety of the children." No comment.
The show was also not spectacular. The lion and dragon dances were good, but the stage was hard to see so it was mostly visable from a television screen and the parade never happened at all. At that point, it seemed like we could have stayed home, eaten frozen Chinese food and watched it on tv (the telly). There was a lot of talking, mostly mentioning that London has "the biggest Chinese New Year celebration outside of Asia" over and over. Maybe I should call the Queen and ask her to point out to whoever was in charge that the number of attendees is not the best measure of success. Quality over quantity please. We watched for awhile, but eventually needed a restroom (loo) and then decided to check out the sights of London.
Our friends headed to Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum, but we were anxious to see the famous sights of London! We saw the Horse Guards, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and of course, Buckingham Palace! Unfortunately, the guards were quite far inside the gates at the palace, and not wearing red either, so we will definitely go back to see the Changing of The Guard on another day! All of the sights were exciting to see and we really enjoyed the park outside the Palace as the girls needed some time to move around freely and we all enjoyed a little peacefulness away from the new year crowd. We also needed a little coffee/hot chocolate and a snack to warm us up (and fill the belly of a Mommy that couldn't stomach awful noodles that tasted more like syrup than food).
After our afternoon snack (tea), we finished our walk about London and headed through Piccadilly back to Trafalgar Square and on to Chinatown. It was so crazy crowded we could barely walk. Both girls were loaded onto the push chair and Tessa promptly fell asleep...lucky kid. We planned to spend awhile in Chinatown. We wanted to find the Boba shop (bubble tea, our favorite!) and we were hoping to check out the shops and then find a restaurant for supper, but it took most of our time and energy just to make it straight through Chinatown! At one point we were unable to move at all until I grabbed the front of the stroller and slowly but firmly pushed my way through the crowd, with Chuckolate pushing the stroller from behind. Once we were out of the crowd, I called our friends and asked if Italian was good for supper so Little Italy is where we headed. I'm sure we will make it back another day soon for some yummy Chinese food, but Italian turned out to be a great ending to our day. We slowly headed back to our bus stop, taking in the fireworks at Trafalgar Square on the way.
The day started off a bit rocky, and I doubt that I will return for another Chinese New Year celebration, but we saw a lot and enjoyed our trip...minus a few unpleasant moments. Check out my slideshow of pictures...
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