With Boxing Day being our last full day in London we asked the kids what they wanted to do. We want to go to Primark (home of the Hogwarts bargain) they said. We’d been told that the Marble Arch store had different stock to the Tottenham Court store which the girls had visited earlier in the trip. We were also after a Soccer Jersey for our nephew Alastair and some other gifts.
I still had some trepidation (hating crowds as I do), but Megan reassured me that we would be in and out early and quickly and both the kids chorused in with “c’mon Dad … it will be fun!”.
Heading into town we first set off to find the Victoria Palace Theatre. For those into theatre (as Amelia is) you will know this as the London Home of the production – Hamilton. We weren’t off to see the show, Amelia just wanted to see the theatre from the outside and take a selfie with the theatre and Hamilton poster.
Mission accomplished, we re-boarded the tube for Oxford Circus. On first emerging, the crowds were mercifully light and I allowed myself the belief that things would be ok.
We visited the Disney store (where they have some serious Star Wars items for grown-ups), a sports store where it took 2 video calls to Australia to find the right soccer jersey and several other stores while gift hunting.
It was while in the sports store that we realised that ALL of London was now awake and that everybody in London had a burning desire to be in Oxford Street now!
Battling our way to Primark through the crowds was, it turned out, the easy part. I’d been wrong about everybody in London being in Oxford Street, at least half of them were in the Primark Store. I’m not sure what primeval mist descends on Boxing Day, but just standing still (out of the way) while Megan and the kids shopped for their bargains was a guaranteed way to be bustled, jostled and yes, even pushed out of the way. Keeping my cool (barely), I gritted my teeth until, finally, it was announced that the shopping was done.
Escaping back to the familiar (but now much busier) tube we headed back for our last tube ride to Earl’s Court.
Next stop … an early flight from London to Munich to begin the second stage of our adventure.
