A Day in London Between Accommodation

By Marisa Cooksey

A view of London from the London Eye

On our first international trip as a family, my tribe of 6, consisting of two sleep deprived adults and four children ranging in ages 1-8, left our home in Denver, CO and headed to the UK. We flew into London, England to spend a few days with family and to embrace the title of “true tourist” while there. We found the perfect flat through AirBnB over in Kensington and Chelsea, and spent the first few days browsing museums, taking a double decker bus tour, riding the London Eye, and eating all of the delicious curry we could get our hands on (we also got some fish and chips too, don’t worry). We parted ways with our family the day before we left London. We then packed up our suitcases, readying ourselves to check out, and head to our next destination: Scotland.

While researching how to get from our first destination to the next, my husband happened upon The Caledonian Sleeper Train. The idea of our children experiencing mass transit (yes, the US stamp is on our heads), gave us a thrill. Traveling to Scotland this way would be a first for us too, so everyone in our party was quite excited. 

The next day, after an early morning meeting over coffee with a colleague while my husband took the kids to a nearby playground, we grabbed our things, waved goodbye to the AirBnB and embarked on a travel experience we’d never navigated before: 12 hours without accommodations with our 4 kids. 

For some, this probably seems like small potatoes, but for a newly postpartum mom, not so much. With 2 weeks of luggage for 6 people, also traveling without a stroller (because it got lost in transit on the way to the UK), we were a bit worried about how things would go for naps, meltdowns, carrying our bags, and everything in between with our kids. Do you think we survived? Keep reading to find out!

The first thing we did was take our bags to Kings Cross Station. We whittled down everything we could from our 2 large checked sized rollers to one roller bag, a carryon, the diaper bag, and our baby carrier for the Scotland leg of our trip. Our remaining large roller and carryon bag, we decided to leave in London, as we were flying out of Heathrow in a week’s time. All of this to say - at Kings Cross Station, you can rent a locker and store your bags. We stowed our stuff, making one baggage sized obstacle of the day much easier by freeing our hands. 

From the train station, now 11:00AM, we had until 11:00PM to be back at Kings Cross for our midnight sleeper train departure. Trying to shake off the nerves that every parent gets when they aren’t feeling in control of their situation, we took the tube from Kings Cross Station to Waterloo station, and then headed to our first activity of the day: Sea Life London Aquarium. The kids spotted it a few days prior when we went to ride the London Eye, so we were excited to be able to return to the area. It was a great indoor activity for them to enjoy, and it also burned about 90 minutes before they were all feeling ready for lunch.

We found a cart along the boardwalk and snacked on pasties. At this point, my two youngest children were getting pretty tired, so we walked along the boardwalk, breathing in the smells of cotton candy and salty chips, and headed to the beautiful park by the London Eye itself. By this point, my youngest was fast asleep in the baby carrier, and my husband had the 3 year old in his arms, dozing. We sat down on a park bench facing the Jubilee Gardens, a quaint playground in the park. Our oldest two children played there together while the youngest ones napped in our arms. When they were finished, we found a big tree, parked ourselves underneath it, and took in the beauty of the afternoon, talked about our trip thus far, counted butterflies, and discovered creatures in the clouds.

After everyone’s respite, we took off on foot for our next stop of the day: Buckingham Palace. It’s a little over a mile and a half from the Eye and all of the tourist attractions to the palace, so we decided to walk. Our children were not incredibly stoked about this idea (again US suburbanites here), but we pushed on. The weather was perfect, and the sights were grand. Historic architecture was at every turn and the canopy covered road to the palace was breathtaking. After reaching a mile into our walk, my oldest three were swearing that their feet were going to fall off, and the lamenting was bringing on a slight nervous breakdown (on my end - always aware of being the loud Americans…), so we bribed them with ice creams from a nearby truck. After some licks and bench sitting, we regrouped and continued on.

The Mall, London England

To my surprise, when we reached the palace, I cried. I’d spent my entire life reading so many books set in England, studied its history, and seen countless pictures and paintings of Buckingham Palace over the years. Seeing it in person took my breath away, and it was a moment and a sight that I’ll never forget.

Victoria Memorial, London England

Now listen, I have read many blogs over the years written by parents and travelers who would probably gloss over their children’s reactions, because the romance of international travel, beauty, and children sometimes aren’t a match made in heaven, but my goal is to keep things honest here. So, when my children saw the palace, standing next to me as tears ran down my cheeks, there were a variety of responses such as “can we go now?”, “what do you mean we can’t go inside?”, and “this is boooring!” And you know what? That’s okay. Seeing Buckingham Palace was at the top of my bucket list for the trip, not theirs, and though the kids didn’t enjoy the journey per say, they fared just fine. 

The grounds surrounding Buckingham Palace are peaceful, tree lined, and pristine. We found a bench, let the kids snack on the remaining snacks from the diaper bag, and just paused. Pausing is an art form that I am far from mastering, but moments like these sure make me want to try. 

And once again, I snapped back to reality as the “is there a playground in this park or what?” chorus brought me to the present. It was a bit past 4:00PM at this point, and we knew that the kids were getting petered out and wouldn’t be able to last too much longer without an inevitable breakdown (on their end this time). With that in mind, we walked to the nearest station and took the tube back to Kings Cross Station.

Once we arrived, we found the sweetest waiting area which had tables and chairs, and a small play area for children. We set up camp there. And for the first time in the day, we pulled out our phones and let our kids play some PBS Kids games. While they entered the kids-matrix, my husband went and grabbed dinner for us from one of the restaurants in the station. The way we devoured our noodle bowls was almost comical. It was then my turn to then take a walk around the station, and I grabbed us some cookies for dessert as I explored.

As my youngest toddled around the play area, I took my oldest three children to the Harry Potter store in the station. Leading up to the trip, our family had been reading the first few Harry Potter books aloud together in the evenings, so for them to be at the very station where Harry embarked on his Hogwarts journey was incredibly magical for them, especially at this age. Heck, it was pretty darn magical for me, too! They each chose a trinket from the store, and happily marched back to the waiting area with their new treasures.

At this point, my husband returned to the locker and grabbed the luggage that we would be taking with us to Scotland. It was getting pretty late at this point, so we headed to the waiting area for the Sleeper train. Around 10:00PM, we were allowed in, and there were snacks, comfortable chairs, and a variety of drinks for passengers in The Caledonian Sleeper Train waiting area. There was also a shower here, and we bathed the boys. Looking back, I wish we had put them into their pajamas here, but I did not. Also, since we had whittled down our luggage into one large roller, I absolutely needed to take it into the train with me, as it had literally everything we needed for the next day. Now, my more experienced travelers by train are probably screaming through the screen as they read, “you idiot! This is a terrible idea! Don’t do it!” But, naive me knew nothing of what was to come. 

After some more waiting and now some verrrrrry tired children who were fighting to stay awake, it was finally time to board the train.

The magic and excitement of boarding a train “just like Harry Potter and Ron did!!!” I heard myself almost screaming at my children as we stood in line, trying to get them to hang on just for a little longer, was diminishing fast. We handed over our tickets and made our way to board. The very kind attendant asked, “would you like me to take your large bag to the luggage car?” “Oh no,” I said, not clocking the confused look on his face. I pushed this thing down the tiny hallway, wondering if I’d be able to even fit it into our sleeper car. With some dramatic heaving, I did. My husband and the middle two children entered the neighboring suite. The sleeper cars sleep four people tops, so two suites it was for our group. I helped my oldest into the top bunk, laid the baby on the bottom bunk, and then got to the business of getting everyone’s pajamas out of the bag as well as toiletries and our clothes for tomorrow.

Train Platform at Kings Cross Station, London England

Now to be fair, I’d been up since the early hours and it was a few minutes to midnight at this point. Emotionally, I was the sweet combination of exhausted, slap happy, and unhinged. Since the baby was asleep on the bottom bunk, the only place to open the suitcase was on top of the toilet/shower. I unzip the bag, the train starts moving, and now I’m rocking back and forth, sorting through what seems to be 600 pieces of clothing while trying not to fall asleep and simultaneously almost peeing my pants from laughter. My oldest child, trying his best to stay awake at my request, shimmied out of his clothes and changed into pajamas in his top bunk. I scurried next door and handed my husband a pile of everything he and the middle two boys would need for the night and next morning. He then shimmied back to my room with all of the dirty clothes. I packed everything again, more than ready for a hot shower and to get into bed. 

And this is where the main comedy act began. I had never taken a shower on a train before, so I don’t know what I was expecting, but bathing while holding a small shower hose straddled over a toilet wasn’t what I pictured. Was the water hot? No. Was I grateful for a place to clean up? Absolutely. Will I remember this for the future and pack small overnight bags and not lug a gigantic roller with me and also shower everyone, including myself before we board and wear a lounge set onto the train? Without a doubt. 

Now, a majority clean and semi trembling, I dried off, put on my pajamas and crawled into bed with the baby. I high fived myself for at least changing him with the spare clothes I had from the diaper bag earlier in the station, listening to him snore peacefully beside me. My eyes grew heavy, and I nodded off, feeling victorious for conquering such a day with our crew. The train rocked me to sleep, leaving London behind and heading to Scotland, our next adventure.