We had a long day out in London. I had to miss parkrun, but I saw people heading that way as we caught the train. It was a little misty to start with, but the sun soon came out. As you exit Wembley Park station you can see the famous stadium ahead.
I remember the old one and I attended some concerts there. We were not going there this time, but were headed for the nearby Pixar Experience. This is where you get to hang out in recreations of scenes from those movies. We saw the first Toy Story at the cinema before the kids came along and then got to enjoy them all again with the kids. We wore out some of the DVDs.
The kids really loved Monsters Inc. I have to admit I liked it too.
In the Toy Story sets you are toy sized and some people will act out the scenes. There were a few kids dressed as their favourite characters. For some reason they did not recreate the incinerator scene.
It is a little odd that these are physical versions of digital objects, but it is well done. The cars were full size.
It was a nice bit of nostalgia, but I think little kids would get more out of it as they get to live out the movies they obsess over. It takes about an hour to walk around the various rooms. Of course you exit through the gift shop, but there was nothing there to tempt me. I really do not need another t-shirt, mug or water bottle and I do not need soft toys. There were some figurines, but I thought they were too expensive for what they were. We hopped back on the train into central London.
We passed the house where these two great musicians lived (many years apart). That may be worth a visit another time. We had time to kill before our meal, so we wandered down New Bond Street that is full of all the 'luxury' brands. They do not bother having prices in the windows and if you have to ask then you probably cannot afford anything. That sort of thing really does not interest me much. I will pay for quality, but not silly money. You can sense the wealth around that area with lots of flashy cars. I saw several Aston Martins and Ferraris. They are a bit wasted on city streets.
Our destination was the Ivy Asia in Mayfair. I had been there before for afternoon tea and it is quite a place.
We had lunch this time that included some sushi and I had some teriyaki salmon along with their own brand of lager. For dessert I had the 'samurai' with chocolate mousse and brownie. It was served over a bowl of frozen nitrogen that gave off lots of 'smoke'. They do nice presentation there and the service is excellent.
We ended with a little shopping along Oxford Street, but it is so busy along there and the underground was crowded. We were glad to get a seat on the train home.
It is nice to be so close to London so that we have have days out like this, but I am not sure I would want to live there.