Today was quite a treat. Our morning began with breakfast baguettes from a little cafe near our apartment called Cafe Link. Then we took s stroll through a beautiful park, across the gorgeous Tower Bridge and over to the Tower of London.
We knew we were in for a treat because we were meeting our docent Sarah Jane from Context Travel to learn the history of the Tower there. What we did not anticipate was how our docent would engage each of us, how she would feel like part of the family and how she would keep the attention span of four munchkins of varying ages during 2 1/2 hours of history. Hats off to Sarah Jane because she was truly outstanding!!!!
We learned all about the history of the Tower of London, stories about life at the Tower. We learned about the Crown Jewels and ceremonies. We learned about the monarchy, the menagerie and we learned about the executions and jail system that they used.
I watched as other families tried to push and shove in their large groups trying to have the opportunity to hear what their tour guide was saying as their children stood blankly looking out across the grounds. I realized how fortunate we were to have Sarah Jean there to guide us and engage our children in a depth of learning that was truly remarkable.
We were lucky enough to be visiting on the opening day of Parlament which was especially cool because the guards- Beefeaters were in special uniforms and they had a 41 shot salute where they fired blanks out of these huge artillery guns. It was pretty spectacular and I loved how excited our docent was about the special ceremonies as her love and excitement poured right into us!
The hours passed so quickly and even though our docent asked us if we needed breaks the children never wanted to pause the tour. Eventually, it came to an end… Only leaving the children wanting more.
We said good bye to our docent, grabbed a quick bite to eat and then went over to where we could view the Tower Bridge.
Sarah Jean had told us that it would be opening at 1:30pm. It was quite the site to see the bridge operate… And something we would have missed had our docent not been there to tell us about it.
We made our way back to the apartment, rested and then went towards Picadilly Circus. This area reminded us of London and New York. Talk gorgeous buildings but then with huge lighted billboards in the center. It felt cool just to walk down the street.
We mostly window shopped but we did make sure to check out Fortnum Mason and their gorgeous Tiffany colored boxes of confectionaries and chocolates.
We ended up at a Thai restaurant for dinner and then Khava for dessert. Khava was a sit down dessert restaurant. Our coffee came complete with chocolate spoons and the boys gelatos came on waffle cone plates. Ella was excited to order macaroons in honor of heading to Paris tomorrow 😉
NOTE: WE WERE GUESTS OF CONTEXT TRAVEL. I RECEIVED A COMPLIMENTARY TOUR OF THE TOWER OF LONDON IN EXCHANGE FOR MY EXPERIENCE AND HONEST THOUGHTS. ALL OPINIONS ARE MY OWN.
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What a nice day for your vacation. Especially that the children were interested in the tour. London is definitely on my list to see someday.
Context Travel had tours designed for kids with experienced docents. There is no way all 4 would have stayed as engaged and learned as much if we had not utilized their services. Completely changed the way we travel. I’m a total tour groupie now. If you do go I would highly recommend using them 😉
How fun!! I haven’t travelled much with tour guides, but at times I find myself really wishing somebody was around! This post makes me want to get to London soon!
This is so cool! I’m a little jealous of these kids, haha. I’d love to go to London!