Knowing I had to amuse a four year old on Saturday I was pleased with myself for booking tickets to visit the London Aquarium in advance to avoid the queues (adult £14.40 and child £10.58).
But as we walked across the grass near County Hall I heard a little voice pipe up “It’s the wheel! Are we going on it?” Clearly I hadn’t quite got the measure of this four year old. I warned him that the queue would be horrible but he had to see – and it was a very long queue so we wandered on down to the Aquarium without too much fuss.
Actually, there wasn’t a queue at all here. We got through straightaway and ventured into the darkness and to the lift that took us to see the first of many fish. But first we had our photo taken to collect on the way out (£5 for a fridge magnet). The recent refurbishment has made all the walls rather attractive with fish, shark and fossil engravings. We came upon our first beautifully lit fish tanks and he was happy. Mind you, the labyrinth of corridors does make it rather tempting for my small person to want to run on ahead to explore things!
Much excitement as we spied so many colourful fish. He adored peering over the edge at the large ray tanks – especially when they came to the surface and did a little dance. He was also rather taken with the large crabs scrabbling around on the “sea floor”. Obviously, his reading skills did not extend to “Do not touch the fish” so one or two rays may have been manhandled a bit. They didn’t seem too upset.
I was totally impressed again with the huge central tanks containing so many different types of fish – along with massive stingrays that glided along like aeroplanes and a huge sea turtle gracefully skimming the surface above. But he was more impressed when we walked through the underwater tunnel and marvelled at the sea creatures all around us. Interesting that they now have the sharks in a separate enormous tank – the biggest shark is called Georgina. They looked rather scary but my companion did not want to wait and look at them much – he was busy racing off to the next attraction. I liked the nurse shark lying peacefully on the bottom.
The shark walk – where you have to tread carefully over a glass floor viewing the shark tank below – was a hit. We had to do that several times. Be careful if you are afraid of heights – he wasn’t. There was a rock pool area where he was encouraged to put his hand in to touch a live star fish but the pools nearby containing more starfish, prawns, shrimps and crabs were allegedly off limits to small fingers.
He enjoyed the moon jellyfish and was frustrated that the octopus was too shy to show itself. The piranhas were too glittery to be taken seriously as a threat from his perspective. I liked the seahorses, he liked the bright red stripy shrimps with long antennae – possibly because you had to look through domed glass spheres to see them. He liked the bouncy floor in the rain forest bit and he was taken by the fish that swam at the surface with just its eyes popping out of the water. I explained about archer fish “spitting” their insect dinners into the water but sadly none of them were in the mood to provide a demonstration. We spent a while watching the big, fat catfish and their bristly faces. Naturally, he was delighted to find a large tank of clownfish – especially those sitting happily in the anemones - and we spent a while remembering the film “Finding Nemo” and watching the “Dory” fish.
Then there were some really low level tanks where we considered the fresh water fish that we might catch on one of our planned fishing expeditions in the rivers of London. He didn’t want to sit in the theatre and watch a movie about fish – not when the real thing was on display in yet more tanks to inspect. Finally we finished in the large shop – and didn’t manage to escape without purchasing a cuddly ray and a book called “The smiling shark”.
We had had a great time. Then he asked if we could check the queues for The London Eye. I have to give him points for persistence. Actually, the queue did look a little shorter so we joined it. It took about 30 minutes to get to the desk. Adults charged £17.50 but this includes a new 4D experience so we put on our 3D glasses (a little big for the little man) and waited to enter the theatre area. Seagulls, Indian dancing, Chinese new year dragons and lots of fabulous shots of the London Eye and key London attractions – as well as spatterings of water at the appropriate points and a gust of dry ice to make us feel as if we were in the clouds at the end. Then we went to the boarding area and waited a further 20 minutes until we were allowed to join the main queue near the wheel.
Finally we got into one of the two queues, had our bags checked by rather friendly security staff and waited for a further 30 minutes or so to get into our pod. My young companion demonstrated amazing patience in all this – fuelled only with a few fruit flakes and a couple of oreo biscuits. And it was cold (at least it wasn’t raining at this point). Most of the people around us were tourists although there were a few family groups. At last we were shown into our pod – on the still moving wheel which really excited him and we were off on our journey. It’s a pity that the grown up visitors didn’t make space for the small people so that they could see some of the views but I managed to help him look down on the river and the boats. And then – being a Londoner – I pointed out the main sites he could see and the birthplaces of his dad any myself which were just visible on the horizon. No doubt those who paid their money got a commentary on their little devices – those in our pod got a free authentic Londoner’s perspective. Several also benefitted from me offering to take photos of their entire family group.
There was much excitement from my young friend when we finally reached the top. He wondered whether it was going to go fast down the other side. Lucky for us it maintained its nice, gentle pace and all too soon our ride was over. He was very happy and told me next time we would take his Dad, and his brother and sisters, and his friends…..Mmmn.
So, a little pigeon chasing and a photo with Big Ben in the background and our day was nearly complete. Happy moments at Waterloo station while we devoured some chips from Burger King and then found a fruit seller offering strawberries at £1. I would also like to extend my very warmest thanks to the lovely train driver on South West Trains who made a little boy extremely happy by allowing him to sit – just for a moment – in the train driver’s seat and to the other driver on the way back who stopped to say “Hello”.
