the pilgrimage to peter pan

Peter Pan is one of Tess & Brodie's favourite stories, and we have been promising them for ages that we will go and visit the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens when we're up in London. We decided to go when we were up there last week, and were delighted to find out before we went that there was also a Princess Diana Memorial Playground in the park, which was designed on the Peter Pan theme. 

It was quite a trek getting across from Greenwich to Kensington Park - we got to Embankment on the river boat, which is a really easy and pleasant way to get around. However, I had taken the big buggy, so couldn't go on the tube, and was a bit uncertain about where to get buses, so decided to walk the rest of the way.

Apart from the fact that I could barely walk by the time we got to Kensington (or for the rest of the week!), it was a great way to take in a few more sites on the way. We went past the Houses of Parliament & Big Ben (another favourite, so long as it isn't bonging as we go past). Then we went past Buckingham Palace, and looked at the flags - a couple of days earlier, Granny had given Tess & Brodie Union Jack flags from her cruise, and Brodie was particularly obsessed with flags at that point. The Royal Standard was flying, showing that the Queen was in residence. We also looked at the coats of arms on the gates, as we had just watched a film about a unicorn, so Tess & Brodie both spotted that the coat of arms contained unicorns. We also saw different ways of presenting the coat of arms on the gates at Buckingham Palace, where they were in metal & gilt and on the entrance to the Hyde Park, where they were painted.

From there, we went through Hyde Park to Kensington Park and finally reached the Peter Pan statue. We then had to keep going to the far side of the park to get to the playground, and it was getting quite late in the day. I thought we'd have an hour there before it closed, but unfortunately we arrived to find that it closed in 15 minutes!!!! So we had a very rushed play there, and were sad that we were thrown out so quickly, as it was really great. There was a huge pirate ship, a mermaid area, Indian teepees and some little boats to play in. We will definitely go back there for a proper play, but will have to wait a month, as it is about to close for a refurbishment and a fort and some other new bits added.