Gill was asked to pick an adventure in London all part of the new ‘do more with avios’ scheme. She asked me to come along and how could I refuse. We decide to go with the London Aquarium as the weather here can be so hit and miss we thought this would be a safe bet. The Saturday we went up to London was such a beautiful day, any of the choices would have been amazing to do. This meant we got to spend the day in London which is always fun.

It costs £23.50 for adults and £16.95 for children. Children under the age of three get free entry. This ticket entitles you to come and go all day. So you can have a look round, pop out for lunch along the Southbank and then head back later on. If you book the tickets online beforehand you could save up to 15% off too which is great.

They have lots of different sections in the aquarium. You start of by walking over a glass floor to get in. I have to admit this is a bit creepy. Everyone gathers on this, to take photos, I just wanted to walk straight through back to normal ground!

You walk through lots of tanks with lots of different fish in. At every tank they have all types of information, I love reading all of theses. You could be there all day if you did this. The flow of people is quite good, you never feel under pressure to move on from ant tank either so you can go round at your own pace.

We then came to the sting ray pool. This is an open tank, you can all stand round and look into it. The walls are glass too, so smaller children can still see in. I could stand there all day watching them.

There is an stand where you can get your face painted. This costs extra on top of your ticket price. I think Gill really wanted one, if we weren’t going to look round the shops after I think she would have had a glitter face!

You then get to walk through a tank in a glass walk way. Again this scared me. I always think the walls will cave in. It was really good though. I did enjoy it. All the children enjoyed it and seemed amused by it all. This is where we got to see the huge turtles and small sharks.

They also have a penguin enclosure but this was packed. You have to queue to get in and then when you get to the room its full of people. It was really hard to get to the front so you had a clear view of them. We decided to stay at the back and look over people.

It was a really good experience. I have only been the Brighton sea life centre which was quite a few years ago with the girl guides while we were on guide camp. We then decided to head back outside into the sunshine and get some lunch. We walked along the Southbank to find something yummy. We walked past all the street actors, and dancing squads to a cocktail bar. I think it called out to us. It was called Beltane and Pop. You pick all the different types of flavours, toppings, fruit, and then what spirit you want. What a great idea. I bet in the summer it gets packed here. They are like adult slush puppies. These were amazing, if you are ever in the area you need to pop here to try them. I think this is my first 10/10.

We then sat on a bench and had a chat and drank our drinks, people watching. We finished these and found a place for lunch. Not really a surprised we headed to a burger bar. It’s called Bleecker Street. It was so good!!! I am dribbling at the thought of this burger. If I ever need to go to London to work I will be going here on my way home! Obviously we got chips to go with these. Gill got the special ones which was blue cheese sauce with chili sauce, these were really good. I’m not a fan of blue cheese but they were quite nice.

We then headed home for a BBQ. It was the night England were playing Wales in Rugby so we had Gill’s family round to watch. We then sat outside and ate more food. We sat outside with a screen up to watch the game. We had to wrap up warm as it was a chilli evening.

I had such a good day off. I hardly ever get a Saturday off work so it was good to go out and do something good. Thanks Gill for inviting me. Here’s to more to come!