Day 15: Punting in Cambridge and Evening Walk in Leicester Square

March 11th, Thursday.

Today marks the day that we shall return to London. That means it's almost the end of our holidays.

This morning we had a lovely English breakfast cooked all by Pasquale himself (the husband). This time we were smarter (and more kiasu) by not telling him of Vic's allergies, coz we know that they will just take away the offending food, but not replace with any other items. So, since I'm a fresh mushroom lover, I happily took Vic's share of mushroom and egg.

Compared with the previous B&B that we stayed in, Carolina Guest House provide us with a more generous breakfast, with self-help toast and yogurt, double eggs, and more bacons and variety of cereals. I was already full with my own breakfast, but have to eat Vic's egg and mushroom, and William's egg and mushroom (yes, even William got his own plate of food)... by this time I told hubby I'm too full from eating 4 eggs and I can't help him with his.

After breakfast, hubby took the kids out to the nearest petrol station to wash the car while I stayed back in the room to take my bath and do the last minute packing. Now that the car is almost squeeky clean, we have to be very careful not to dirty the interior with footprints or crumbs. So hubby lay the floor with old newspapers and shopping bags (if they find that the car is not "sufficiently clean" they will charge us a valet cost of 70pounds).

We dropped off the luggages at the "official" luggage drop-off centre, which is a bicyle shop near the Cambridge train station. We paid 19 pounds for 2 big luggage, 1 pull trolley, 1 car seat and a harversack. Then we rushed to return the car at the designation venue and arrived there slightly after 1130am.

Once we settled all these, we took the bus to town where we got off near the River Cam and signed up for a punting session with a guide. We were lucky, since this is off peak season so we didn't have much traffic on the river or had to share our gondola with other passengers.

The kids were still, and cautious in the beginning. That probably last less than 10minutes before William started to get more adventurous, and put his hand out of the gondola to touch the water. There were some ducks swimming in the river, and a few swam near our gondola probably looking for food, which we didn't prepare any.

The whole ride lasted 45minutes, for a cost of 43.50pounds! That's not cheap if we convert to RM but I think it was a nice experience for the kids.

When we finished punting, we hopped into the nearby pub, called The Anchor, where Pinkfloyd used to have his gigs. I wasn't very hungry, so I just had the chips from Vic's dish, which was the sausages. William shared his lunch with hubby, a ham and tomato sandwich. He couldn't sit still and decided to eat near the glass door while looking at the gondolas outside.

After lunch we decided to leave Cambridge. There seem to be nothing much to do, and it's better we head to London to settle down before late. So we took a slow walk to to the train station, and hopped on the 445pm train to London King Cross. UK trains are very punctual, and we were informed by the station master that the train will not wait more than 5 minutes to ensure punctuality.

The train was packed, but thank God we got seats near the door to guard our big luggages. William was asleep when we board the train, and I was secretly sad for him that he won't be able to "see" and enjoy the 1hour train ride. But this boy probably knows, because he woke up in the train and I kept the two kids occupied and seated by offering them their favourite snack, gluten-free gorilla munch cereals. Not for long though, because then he wanted to walk which we strictly prohibited for fear he will fall, and it doesn't look good for kids to be running up and down the train aisle as well.

When we got to London, it was rush hour. Vic helped with the push trolley whilst I pushed William on his stroller. Hubby handled the bigger luggages on a trolley. We got a cab and thank God all our stuff and 4 of us fitted into the black cab. Initially we were prepared to separate and take two cabs if there were not enough space. Costed us 9pounds all the way from King Cross to Hyatt Regency London - The Churchill at Portman Square.

The cab cost is not too expensive I would say, but that's also because we were not charged a congestion cost. Hubby discovered that when the cab stop at our destination and if you do not pay the driver asap, the meter will continue running... we "donated" 60pence there... considered tips then.

I must comment something about our return stay to this hotel. We got a double complimentary upgrade... all the way to a full suite! And coincidentally we were staying on the same floor, which is the highest - 9th - as some visiting President of a country! Hahaha... that explains the two armed bodyguards at the corridor leading to our room, which is just a few feet away from where the strongmen are stationed. So can you say we are very very safe, or at any form of risk?

This time around, our suite has got a proper lounge area, and although it has some traces of smoke smell because the suite is a designated smoking room, we accepted it (there were no other suites available, or reject and take our standard room)... for me, I just love the extra space and the Molton Brown toiletries, very thick and heavy robe and we even have a balcony which we didn't use because we didn't want William to go out and play.

Of course, we got very preferential treatment... we were walked up to the 8th floor where the Regency Club was and checked in there and housekeeping were very kind to clean our room twice a day (not the norm, please note)... blah blah... don't get me wrong, we are nobodies. I think it's just nice, and very much God's blessing.

We headed out to Leicester Square in search for food soon after as it was getting late. We found this Chinese restaurant, Imperial China which looked like a small Chinese restaurant from the outside, but was big and well staffed, nice deco with a little chinese bridge leading to the eating area. The price? Normal... and the captain came to recommend dishes which Vic can eat. The kids were starved. But when the food arrived, Vic didn't take more than 2 spoonfuls and then went to rest in William's stroller. The rest of us ate heartily.

After dinner, what's the best thing to do in downtown London? Walk around! Soak in the atmosphere! It was nice. The weather was perfect and the place was not too crowded that we felt unsafe. In fact, there were police patrolling the area. William wanted his independence instead of being carried, and he happily knows that he will get to walk because his jie jie has taken his stroller. So as he roamed around, not wanting to be carried or hold hands, hubby have to keep up with him whilst I snap pictures and followed behind.

We decided to take the bus back instead of the inconvenience of the tube (no lift).