We decided to make a day of it and have our lunch in London too at one of the Giraffe restaurants - another competition prize. We also decided to go on the London Eye or the Olympic Eye as Maxx calls it.
The day before our trip we made sure everything was organised - we booked out tickets, packed our bags and had an early night. In the morning we were all up bright and early to get the train to London. Unfortunately we hit a small problem! We nearly ended up staying at home! I had two train tickets from a friend to use for our train journey unfortunately when we arrived at the station we were informed we couldn't use them from our train station and that we would have to pay to travel. Urgh.. so £95 (thanks dad) later we got on the train and set off.
We arrived in London in good time and after a short trip on the tube then a short walk to Regent Park we arrived at the Open Air Theatre. We collected our tickets and took our seats ready for the show to begin. The show began with some audience participation, a few jokes from some of the children and a few dinosaur facts. Then came the part we had all been waiting for, two baby dinosaurs that looked very cute and very realistic were brought on to the stage, after that came the flying things (I can't remember the name, oops) they flew right up to the audience which was great as everyone got to see them up close, Maxx however wasn't so sure and hid his face in his mummy's cardigan.
The next part of the show was very scary... a dinosaur had somehow escaped! Cue children and parents frantically looking behind them to see if they could see a dinosaur. As people were searching for the missing dinosaur we were told it was bigger and more ferocious than T-Rex! Instead of coming out of the main stage doors the ferocious dinosaur came through the back of the theatre and frightened half the children to death, Maxx was not impressed and got such a fright he started crying and hid his face again. We explained to him that only the baby dinosaurs were real but he wasn't having any of it and refused to look until the scary dinosaur was gone. Thankfully the show ended on a better note, Maxx's favourite dinosaur is the Diplodocus and he came on stage (well actually something similar but Maxx thought it was a Diplodocus and who are we to tell him otherwise) he loved watching it knock over the trees on stage. After the show the ferocious T-Rex like dinosaur and one of the baby dinosaurs were brought to the foyer so the children could see and touch them up close. Maxx refused to go near the T-Rex type dinosaur and when he came out Maxx was hiding with his mummy until it had gone, there were a few other terrified children hiding behind their parents too. Maxx did pluck up the courage to go over and touch the baby dinosaur which was great. We asked him what he thought of the show when we left and he said he said he really enjoyed it.
After we had been to see Dinosaur Zoo we walked through the beautiful Regent Park and headed to the tube station so we could go for lunch. We found the restaurant easily (I love the map on my phone). We were seated quickly and Maxx got a colouring in sheet and some crayons to keep him entertained whilst we waited for our lunch. We didn't have long to wait for our lunch - which was delicious.
After we have finished our lunch it was time to move onto our next activity the London Eye which Maxx was really excited to go on, as were we. We had booked our tickets online and printed off the confirmation e-mail. It took around 5 minutes to collect the tickets, we then joined the queue for the eye. We weren't sure how long it would take to get on the eye, I thought perhaps 40 minutes but after a very short 5-7 minute wait we were boarding the pod - which continues moving when you get one, eek. There were around 20 people in our pod with a bench in the middle for people to sit on, Maxx wasn't very keen on walking around at first but soon felt comfortable enough to walk around and take some photos with his camera.
Although the day started off differently than we expected it didn't have a negative impact on our day. I'm a big believer in all things happened for a reason and we even ended up on the original train after it was delayed - coincidence? I think not! We all had a fantastic day and although London can be expensive (mainly travel) we can't wait to go back at some point. I would love some suggestions on things to do and places to go in London that are child friendly.
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