8am departure, arrived in London by 10:15am, traffic wasn't bad actually. We walked from Tottenham Court Rd down Oxford Street to NikeTown London for our first visit of the day. Oxford Street is the busiest shopping street in London. Picture Boylston St and Newbury St together and multiply it by a factor of 10. Its crazy.
Upon our arrival at Nike, the staff greeted us at the door and the group shouted some Nike/Swoosh chants. The kids drew tons of attention from the "common folk". Some were given giant Nike sneaker cutouts to walk around with for a bit, so I tried to catch them for a few pics.
We were told that the entire group would receive a special discount on our purchases today (woohoo!), and we would also be able to participate in the skills challenge area on the ground floor.
The kids were basically drooling over the various types of boots and soccer gear on display. Some bought clothes, some bought sneakers or indoor shoes. All of them came away happy.
Back to the bus to grab our bagged lunches, and over to Trafalgar Square to eat. I can't imagine the number of tourist photos that will have Seacoast United kids in the background when they all climbed up on the monument with the lions.
After lunch, we traveled on foot to various historic sites including Downing Street, Big Ben & the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, Horse Guard's Parade,
Buckingham Palace, St. James Park, and The Mall. All along the way the kids were fed factoids about the various sites. We'll see how well they recall the information during quiz night tomorrow!
Then on to Piccadilly Circus for a stop at Lillywhites and/or Cool Britannia for some souvenirs. Its funny to see how many stops there were along the way for "selfies".
In total the full tour from lunch through boarding the bus home had to be around 3.5 hours in total. Lots of walking but lots of fun too.
FYI...Lillywhites is a sporting goods store in the heart of Piccadilly Circus that is operated by Sports Direct and has considerably better prices than any regular retail store selling the same gear. For parents worrying about spending money, we are trying to point the kids in the right direction if they wish to purchase items here in the city where things can be overpriced.
There was also a pit stop in St James Park for a quick snack break. Most of the group I was with opted for a soft serve ice cream.
After spending more money on little souvenirs (most of the conversations I had with the kids, their gifts included items for family members, not so much for themselves) we waited for the others to wrap up their shopping and then headed back to the bus near Charing Cross.
From there, it was approximately a 2 hour bus ride back to campus with dinner at 7:05pm. The kids had an easy night as they prepare for their 4th day of matches tomorrow.
View today's photo album here.
They Patriots hat is AWESOME!! FREE TB!!
ReplyDelete