A jam packed day in our capital city

Peter had managed to get some free tickets for a 14-18 music festival in London and so yesterday Tom took his friend Jim and Anni took her friends Chloe, Sophie and Beth, along with their cousin Lily. Sophie's mum Jane, who is the queen of organising trips and personifies the German word unternehmungslustig, had got a great deal on train tickets by booking them well in advance with her rail card. So the 6 northern kids, Jane and I went along with Beth's mum, Gill down to London for a very long, but action packed day. It started when we arrived at our local train station to hear an emergency announcement telling us to evacuate the station. Standing across the road, feeling a tad scared to be honest, we started to wonder why we were the only people evacuating the station? So we gingerly ventured back in, only to be told by the ticket officer that it was just a drill!!!!

At Euston station, we met up my my very lovely Lily and she guided us through the underground journey to Mile End. It's funny how you can navigate transport systems perfectly well yourself, but when someone else will do it for you, you just let them. The park where the festival was held was quite a long walk from the tube.

Having safely deposited the festival goers, Jane, Gill and I got the tube to Covent Garden, where we had lunch. From there we walked to Trafalgar Square and then on to Buckingham Palace, taking in all the sights and monuments on the way.

We then got the tube to St Paul's cathedral, where we had planned to go to the very top, not realising that you can't do that on Sundays.

There we arranged to meet up with Peter, who will be working down in London for the next couple of days.

So we did the rest of our whistle stop tour of London with him, stopping for something to eat by the Thames, where we rather liked the way these trees had been dressed with spotty fabric. Now there's an idea for our garden!

We also got to ride on a carousel. Quite handy to have Peter in tow to hold our bags and take photos!

I'm not sure who was having the most fun, us or the kids! All too soon it was time to trek back to the East End and collect them from the festival. Tom, Anni and Lily were pleased and surprised to see Peter with us. We parted ways with Peter and Lily when the tube got to Euston.

We'd made really good time to the station, only to find that there had been a fatality in the midlands and trains were subject to delay and short notice cancellation. We had visions of Peter having some surprise guests in the Camden flat. In the end our train was only half an hour late. As we settled in to the quiet carriage (speaking of which, some people really don't grasp the concept of the word QUIET do they?) we heard the announcement that the train was being diverted round the midlands and was due in at Manchester at 2am! Nooooooooooooooooooo! By this stage, after an early start and miles and miles of walking, we were beyond tired. Thankfully though, just before the train was to be diverted, the line was reopened and we were home sweet home just before 1am. Looking back, I can't believe how much I've crammed into this weekend. Well worth it, but no wonder Anni and Chloe are still in their pjs at 5pm!