London Aquarium

Easter Sunday and me and the boys headed into the city for a rare day out in London. As Holly is so young and still breast feeding, Tina decided to stay at home with her whilst me and the boys had tickets for the afternoon showing of Disney on Ice at Wembley Arena. Although the show was not until the afternoon we decided to make a day out of it and head over to one of the museum's in the morning, then have some lunch and then head over to Wembley. En route the boys decided they wanted to go to the London Aquarium rather than a museum and so we headed down to the embankment. Now I know it is half term and Easter Sunday, but I really didn't expect it to be quite so busy.

 

We crossed the millennium bridge and headed through the crowds and the rain to eventually get to the aquarium only to be turned away as they were completely full and only accepting pre-paid tickets. The boys were gutted. They said they would probably open up again some time later but could not advise a time. So we started to head off to get some lunch when we stumbled across the London Eye ticket booth which also sold tickets for the Aquarium. So I asked them if I could buy tickets for today and get in straight away and they said yes! Reluctantly I paid full whack for the tickets as the boys were very upset and as a result of this I didn't use my Kellogg's voucher which would have saved me £20 on the adult entry fee. Anyway we walk back to the aquarium all smug with our tickets in hand only to then find out that they had opened it up to the general public again and I could have saved £20 - gutted! It wasn't all a loss as they queue was massive by this stage and having pre-paid tickets meant we just walked straight past everyone and into the aquarium.

 

Anyway it has been over a decade since I last went to London Aquarium and my has it changed a lot. To start with you walk over a glass floor as you enter the aquarium with some monster size sharks and rays swimming right under your feet. Brandon was a little nervous at first and sort of tip toed over the glass fairly quickly.



 

The glass floor that you walk over as you enter the aquarium.

Joshua and Brandon head in to meet some fishy friends.

Brandon and Joshua trying to wake up a sleeping fish.

The boys were fascinated by the jelly fish and asking lots of questions about how they sting you.

This rather friendly ray kept popping his head out of the water to say hi to the boys.

Joshua and Brandon in the shark tunnel.

There was one huge grouper fish swim over our head whilst in the tunnel. Brandon commented that this fish could eat his head!

Joshua and B in front of the smaller of the shark tanks.

What a stunning looking shark, and this one was probably 7 or 8 ft long.

This was the biggest shark in the tank which must have been maybe 11ft long or so. Joshua was convinced it was a Great White despite me telling him that they cannot be kept captive.

Joshua with sharks swimming over his head.

More sharks.

A beautiful close up shot of the very pretty but very dangerous Lion fish.

A tiny little sea horse grips on to the bottom of the sea grass.

My boys in front of another tank of large looking fish.

I definitely do not remember there being penguins in the London Aquarium. Brandon absolutely loved watching them swimming through the glass panel.

Joshua and Brandon in a shark cage.

Another piccie of Josh and B in front of the smaller shark tank.

Brandon was somewhat nervous to get his photo taken with this monster crab, even with the glass between him and the crab!

So we rushed through the Aquarium as Joshua really wanted his lunch and then headed across Westminster Bridge and back to the Embankment to make our way towards Wembley.

 

Josh and B on Westminster Bridge with the Millennium Wheel in the background.

Joshua, Brandon, Ben and some rain!!!

 

The tube trip to Wembley was a bit of a nightmare. Instead of heading to Wembly Park we jumped on the Bakerloo line to Wembley Central only to find 3 stops before the end everyone was turfed off the train due to track repairs or something. So we were directed on a bus trip to Wembley Central which took much longer and then seemed to dump us off in the middle of nowhere with me not really sure which direction the arena was in. After a 30 mins walk in the pouring rain and carrying Brandon most of the way due to his legs being tired and slow, we finally arrived at Wembley Arena. We arrived with about 20 mins spare before the start of the show, but now it was time to chill and enjoy the show which we had waited so long to see.