London...what Recession?

9/3
We arrived at the Hilton Metropole a bit exhausted. Ate a little room service and decided that we all needed a 4 hr power nap. Awoke a tad groggy, but raring to get out to see a bit of the city. What better spot than Picadilly Circus to get a good taste of London life (ok its Time Square Brit Style).　　Ended up in a decent Italian joint recommended by the hotel called Senior Sassi-decent pasta, Marie`s fishy was too fishy(Branzino is sea bass in Italiano)...
9/4
Woke up late after catching up on sleep, we headed over to awesome dim sum place (Royal China Club)recommended by Marie`s friends living in London. Regents Park was a gorgeous park not too far from the hotel that we had to take Zach to for some needed exercise and fun. Italian again that was nothing to write home about.
9/5
Met up with Yoshi/Matsumi/Maho (Marie`s JCool friends) for Japanese that was very good. Afterwards, we all strolled over to a huge playground for 2 hrs then one more park for another 3 hrs(notice any trend here?). We are keen to get Zach as much as exercise as possible. After a quick change at home, went to Bombay Palace for some of the best Indian food we have had in quite some time. One thing we keep noticing is how crowded most of the restaurants are and how the city is bustling with activity. The hotel was packed and the lobby was teeming with people going to and fro. If there was a recession going on in London, we sure as heck couldn`t feel it.
9/6
Today was a day to do some touristy things. For some of you, you maybe thinking where is the Tate? Where is London Bridge? Where is Covent Gardens? Well, Marie and I have both travelled thru London in the past so it wasn`t as important this time around to do so much touristy stuff. That being said, we felt it was good to give Zach some exposure, so we got on one of those hop on/hop off buses to see places like Buckingham Palace(which happened to be open to the public for only 2 months each year while Queen Elizabeth vacations in Balmoral). The Palace is not so grand from the outside, but once inside, it was resplendent with beautiful paintings/ornately designed rooms/flowing tapestries etc.
Buckingham Palace was only designated the palace for the monarchy in 1837- it had been called Buckingham House before that.
We got back on the bus and stopped off at Westminster Abbey/Big Ben/Houses of Parliament(picture above-somehow caught it with some eerie sun in the background).
Jumped on the bus again and got off at Trafalgar Square to check out the National Gallery. The Gallery was awesome and what tickled us so much was watching our son stand in front of a painting for a few minutes at a time-we didn`t know he was such an art afficionado!!!! I was able to see one of my all time favorite paintings live for the first time-The Umbrellas by Pierre Auguste Renoir that was fascinating in that the painting was started in 1881 and finished in 1886. The gap of five years was enough to show how his painting style had evolved on that one painting....
We jumped to get on the bus not knowing that we got on the wrong one...oh well. We ended up getting off near St. James Park, which happened to be one of Marie`s favorite parks due to how beautifully the trees were inside the park. Ate at Fiamma inside the hotel, which was probably the worst meal of the trip so far...