Playful Rooted

(That title is a nod to this horrible/wonderful movie.)

While we were still in the planning phases of our trip, I discovered that London was a quick commuter train ride from our hotel in Reading. And I thought, ‘a 40-minute train ride?! Luca and I will spend the whole week in London!’

And then I looked at the ticket prices for that commuter train, and they were shockingly expensive. So I knew we would have to do some different day trips the rest of the week and really just spend one day in London. I knew there would be lots of fun things for kids to do there, but I also knew that since I would be traveling alone with a toddler, I needed to keep my expectations realistic. I’m SO glad I went into the trip with that perspective. We definitely didn’t get to do everything I would have wanted or would have done if I had been by myself. In fact, we really only did a couple things, but we had a great time doing them!

The train from Reading goes to Paddington Station in London. This was a bit of a bummer because it’s far away from a lot of the fun touristy things like Buckingham Palace and Big Ben and all of that. However, it’s really close (just a quick tube ride away) to a bunch of the museums on Exhibition Row. And since I’ve already done most of the touristy stuff in London, and Luca definitely wouldn’t care about a bunch of old buildings, it really worked out for the best.

We spent the morning at the London Natural History Museum, and it was pretty great. To begin with, the building’s architecture and design was just gorgeous. The man who designed it, Sir Richard Owens, wanted it to be “a cathedral to nature,” meaning it would incorporate a lot of elements of nature and just be very beautiful and celebratory. And it was!

There were rooms for pretty much everything you can imagine, and in addition to that, they had a GREAT kids’ area. Luca spent quite a long time investigating fossils and feeling snakeskins, and I had fun chatting with some Australian moms who were there with their kids. Tourists, unite! (Also I really, really love Australian accents.)

If we had had the chance, we definitely would have gone to the London Science Museum also. I think at the age Luca was (17 months), the Natural History Museum was the right choice, but now that he’s approaching age two, I think the Science Museum would be even more exciting and hands-on.

While we were strolling around the museum, I noticed they had a room dedicated to rocks and gems, and that seemed like the perfect (read: most boring) place to take Luca at nap time so he would fall asleep. Worked like a charm. 😀

I had checked our stroller, umbrella, and coats at the coat check when we arrived at the museum, and it was the BEST IDEA I’VE EVER HAD. Well really, it wasn’t my initial idea. We just happened to come in the entrance that had this escalator going straight up into a giant red “ball ball!” (<- that’s Luca talking), and there was NO WAY he wasn’t going to ride it!

Wanting to avoid a full-scale meltdown, I just said, “FINE,” to the idea of checking the stroller so we could ride the escalator, but oh my days (as they say in England), it was an absolutely glorious decision.

So freeing not to have to worry about getting the stroller up and down stairs! Especially because I was alone with the kiddo, it would have been such a hassle trying to navigate that place with a buggy (so British) in tow. I would recommend this approach to any parent at any museum!

After we spent the whole morning at the Natural History Museum, we grabbed some food from nearby for lunch. I was delighted to see that they had a Paul, which is a French bakery chain where I had eaten so many times while traveling around France. I naturally had to get my old standard, a pain au chocolat (plus one for Ben, which I ate on the train ride home. #marriage).  [Side note: I went 100% gluten-free eight days after we came home from Europe, so this is actually a bit painful for me to recall! I MISS PASTRY. Side note over.]

We took our food and walked over to Hyde Park to have a picnic, and it was unfortunately really chilly and slightly drizzly. A horrible day for taking pictures with a flat, white, cloudy sky! It was still a nice little picnic though, and Luca got to see lots of dogs being walked, which was a huge thrill. 🙂

One of my friends had mentioned to me that there was a great playground in Hyde Park, so we walked around for a really long time trying to find it. We finally did and it was worth the effort! The Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Playground had an amazing, huge wooden pirate ship, tons of structures to climb and play on, and just so much more than I was expecting. Luca had a BLAST playing here. He also made a fast friend in this kid named Peter (also from Australia, so.many.aussie.accents! <3) who thought Luca was really cute and held his hand and took him all around the playground. My heart! Seriously the sweetest little kid ever.

I was so so proud of my boy for not being scared or intimidated by the bigger kids on the playground! That may land him in trouble someday, but I love that he’s not afraid to stand up for himself and go for it even though he’s little!

We played at the playground for a couple hours, then started the journey back to the tube stop and then back to Paddington Station to catch our train back to Reading. This would have been no problem with Google Maps the whole way, but my phone was perilously close to dying, so I had to quickly memorize the directions and pray I got them right. That was a bit of a heart-pounding journey, but luckily, I got it – mostly – right. We made it back anyway, and that’s what counts!

I learned so much from this single day of solo travel with a toddler. I’m working on a post that summarizes all my thoughts and tips because I think the experience can be valuable to others, too. My very favorite thing about travel is how much it stretches you. It’s not always easy (in fact, as lovely as this day was, it was freaking hard, too. Not going to lie.), but it’s always, always, always worth it.

See you soon-ish, London! xo