Kew Gardens and Westminster

On the Sunday that Paul's parents were in town, we took the train down to London for a day at Kew Gardens and then finished up by walking around Westminster in downtown London. It was our first time taking the train down as a family, although Paul had gone down to London the week previously to attend the V-E Day anniversary celebration. Charlotte wasn't too much a fan of sitting still on the train, but I think it will be better if we get an area to ourselves (if possible) in the future. It was somewhat crowded this trip. 

The National Rail system offers 2-for-1 vouchers on a lot of London attractions, if you take the train from an outside area into the city. We found out that you do have to print the voucher (we tried to use it on my phone) -- although the lady at Kew Gardens was very kind and let us in with a 2-for-1 discount anyway because she "could see that we had tried." I guess that's an A for effort? It would have been even better to have printed tickets at home, because you can sail through a side gate! We might try to do that for future London outings to avoid lines. 

Kew Gardens is huge. It is 300+ acres of mostly wooded areas. We were expecting more manicured/planted flower gardens and were a little disappointed that the Temperate House is closed for the next few years for renovation. But we did have a beautiful day to enjoy walking around the grounds! We had lunch at a cafe in the Gardens, next to the "Creepers and Crawlers" indoor play area for the kiddos. Charlotte enjoyed running around, but I almost had to go MamaBear on some mean little boys who started hitting her on the head and yelling "No girls allowed!" She looked mostly startled and didn't cry. After lunch, we went to the other side of the Gardens to find Queen Charlotte's Cottage to take our Charlotte's picture in front of it... she fell asleep about 5 minutes before we got there. :) Got the picture anyway.

Mom H in front of the Pagoda

Me in front of the blooming azaleas

Incredible rhododendrons

Riding on Dada's shoulders!

Wisteria

Chinese pheasant, such a beautiful bird! 

Charlotte playing in the tunnels at the Climbers & Creepers play area

Mom H at the Queen's Gardens 

Small laburnum arch

Sleeping Charlotte in front of the Queen Charlotte's Cottage

So much walking = time to lay down in the grass

We decided to spend a little time in downtown London in the Westminster area before heading back to St Neots. Charlotte was pretty tired already, but did take a few short stroller naps across the day that seemed to tide her over. We walked to Westminster Abbey, which is closed on Sundays, but we were there just a few minutes before they were going to open it for an organ concert! We decided to go, but once we were inside Paul and I collectively got nervous that Charlotte was going to have a meltdown. He ended up leaving with her before the start of the concert and took her for a walk to Buckingham Palace. The concert was really enjoyable, more so because I wasn't worried about Charlotte. After the concert, we met back up with Paul, then took a few pictures of Big Ben before heading to the train station. Being in downtown London was eye-opening, in terms of how many tourists actually have selfie-sticks. Wow. It was a long day but a lot of fun!

Tired eyes girl

Charlotte and Buckingham Palace

Big Ben!