This time we stayed in an Airbnb at Canary Wharf — an area that had been in the news before our visit due to the repurposing of the Britannia Hotel to house migrants. The apartment was split level on the 17th floor and it had a lovely view of the talkl buildings and South Dock. Canary Wharf is an excellent place to stay in London, with boat, tube, and DLR connections all within a short walk, as well as numerous shops and restaurants both above and below ground. From London City Airport, we took a black cab costing around £30, with much of the journey spent waiting at traffic lights.

Crust Bros, located just across from Waterloo station, is a friendly and intimate pizza spot where you mark your order on paper placemats that are then whisked away to the kitchen. The pizzas were excellent, and the crust was so moreish that I quickly finished the spicy dip. A significant upgrade from Pizza Punks, which disappointed me last time. My daughter even enjoyed her gluten-free pizza - a commendable effort despite its thinner crust.

Venchi, my favourite ice cream shop in London, now has two branches close to each other near Covent Garden. Nougatine and Chocolatier are spectacular flavours, especially when served in a coated cone. Though pricey (over £20 for four small cones), the ice cream is incredibly smooth and enjoyable.

I had never seen the inside of the Royal Opera House before; it is open to the public after you pass a brief and friendly bag check. We enjoyed some cups of tea and watched ballet on-screen in the pleasant café, reading a thick book about opera. Apparently, there's also a rooftop bar worth exploring in the future.

The 76 bus took us to County Hall. While my daughter revisited the Paddington Bear experience, we relaxed at Gillray's Steakhouse Bar opposite the excellent Peacock Chinese restaurant. Gillray's offers refreshing pale ale on draft, comfortable leather chairs, and lovely views over Westminster.

Initially booked at The Langham, we switched our afternoon tea reservation to Raffles at the OWO (Old War Office) for their "Secrets & Spies" offering. Set in the stunning historic building that once housed Winston Churchill’s office and featured in James Bond films, the décor includes a grand staircase, lavish flower display, and beautiful library room overlooking Horse Guards Parade. If you ever wanted to know what a circa. 1 billion dollar renovation looks like then this is your chance - you can even take it one step further and stay a night in the hotel, with the cheapest room costing just over £1,000 a night.

We enjoyed three English sparkling afternoon teas (£95 each) and one children's tea (£45), along with Singapore Slings (£25 each). Minor criticisms: the scones weren't warm, extra scones weren't offered, and the beautiful Churchill pocket-watch cake was the same size whether shared by two or three people. Highlights included the melt-in-your-mouth ham sandwich, curried chicken sandwich, and exquisite Odette (Sansom) cake (elderflower, raspberry, yoghurt). My daughter loved the children's afternoon tea with its MI6-themed "jammy dodger" and chocolate briefcase. A pianist added a lovely touch, playing songs including "My Favourite Things" from The Sound of Music.

From Embankment Pier, we took the Uber boat (£37.80 for four people) to the impressive O2 Dome at North Greenwich. The venue surprised us with its scale, numerous outlet shops like Radley and Guess, and dining options. Definitely worth visiting even without event tickets.

The LEGO Shop at Leicester Square had a short queue and plenty of fun photo opportunities, including a big red London bus and Harry Potter characters. The highlight was designing and printing our own LEGO minifigures (£10.99 each), which took about 20 minutes.

Our first visit to Hawksmoor at Wood Wharf was delightful. Scallops and smoked salmon starters were satisfying; steaks (rib-eye, fillet, sirloin) exceptional; and the spinach and chips from our side orders were the stand-outs. Desserts were unremarkable, and the Hawksmoor red wine, though enjoyable, felt overpriced at £17 per glass. See the dedicated Food & Drink section below for more info.

Children’s entertainment was a visit to the Lyric Theatre in London for The Smeds and the Smoos. The production was excellent - Julia Donaldson’s books translate brilliantly to the stage - this production was full of lively songs, energetic dancing, and even a splash or two of water towards the audience.

We ended up becoming annual members of the Royal Observatory museums, as it worked out cheaper than buying tickets individually. With the Cutty Sark DLR station out of service, we travelled from Heron Quays at Canary Wharf to North Greenwich. From there, it’s just over a 10-minute walk to the Cutty Sark. The area makes an excellent day out. The Cutty Sark is out of the water and visitors can explore all three levels, including the top deck where you can pose with the ship’s wheel. The middle deck is quite low, so I couldn’t spend too long inside without my back starting to ache though.

The National Maritime Museum is free to enter. The highlights were the children’s activities, where kids can try loading supplies onto a boat using a miniature crane or try out the ferry simulator. Lunch was meant to be at Greenwich Market, but with tired legs we settled for a ham and cheese baguette from the café. The children’s meals (for example, fish fingers and chips) were good.

We had booked tickets in advance for the Planetarium. This was excellent: for 30 minutes, an astronomer guided us through the constellations and planets in the night sky. It’s a real shame it is now closing until 2028 for refurbishment. It looked to be in fine condition, so I don't know why such a long closure is neccessary; especially as it robs London of its only planetarium.

The Royal Observatory itself doesn’t have a huge amount on display. There’s a giant telescope, though it is only in use for special events. Of course, you can stand on the Prime Meridian Line, where East meets West at 0° longitude. It's not a life changing event. Due to the poor weather the Camera Obscura had nothing to show, but outside a very cheerful gentleman had set up an old camera set up which you could look through and see its image upside down.

The best part about the Royal Observatory is undoubtably the spectacular views over Canary Wharf and central London. Truly stunning. There is also a huge amount of park space, which makes it a great spot for a picnic and to play a game, like frisbee.

On our final day, we travelled from Heron Quays DLR via Bank to St Pancras using only escalators and lifts. No stairs! At St Pancras, we had an all-day breakfast (excellent sausages, disappointingly cold beans) and picked up pricey (£2.85 each) Ladurée macaroons for the journey north.

Derbyshire

If you're ever in Derbyshire, visit the Elm Tree gastropub. Their Derbyshire steak burger and fries were superb, as were their gluten-free children's burger and venison cottage pie. The sticky toffee pudding with rum-and-raisin ice cream remains unbeatable for dessert, though the Bakewell tart with clotted cream ice cream was also enjoyable. The Elm Tree is a wonderful county pub that consistently produces great food. I cannot recommend it enough.

We were lucky to find some availability for a 30 minute horse riding lesson (£30) at the Coloured Cob Equestrian Centre near Creswell. They have a lot of horses and a lot of very friendly staff. They also offer pony trekking - when we're back next year we will be sure to book further in advance, so we don't rely on luck alone.

West Scotland

Troon is famous for its golf. There are a lot of courses, but few as beautiful as Dundonald Links - be warned though, as it charges a whopping £245 per person per round. We booked lessons with their excellent golf pro, Jordan. I would heavily recommend this; we even got to play the first four holes of the course with him. I was happy with my bogey on the 540 yard third hole. Let's not mention the rest! There is an excellent bar and restaurant called The Canny Crow onsite, which provides snacks like scone with cream and jam, and, fries. The fish and chips looked good too.

A day return to Ayr costs just less than a fiver on the Scotrail trains. The always windy seafront is home to two very good traditional attractions for children: the pirate mini-golf— a very good 9-hole crazy golf course - and the amusement arcade, which has many modern arcade games as well as timeless classics like 2p coin pushers. Lunch was a very pleasant fish tea (battered haddock, chips, mushy peas and a slice of bread) at the ever-present and reliable Blue Lagoon.

Robert Burns (the Scots poet who we can thank for Auld Lang Syne) grew up in Alloway. A train and a bus took us there from our temporary base in Troon. There are two places to visit – first the Burns museum, which is a large dark room with artefacts from Burns including some of his original writings. There's also an entertaining interactive game for children where you chop haggis and raise hands in time to Auld Lang Syne. The second is the Burns’ cottage, where he grew up. Truthfully there is not so much at either site, but both are pleasant to explore. The Burns museum also often has live entertainment - we enjoyed listening to a good Scottish folk band, who were taking requests.

For lunch in Alloway we went to the Brig ’o’ Doon House Hotel. This is a wonderfully historic and brilliantly maintained hotel - and, luckily, there was a piper outside as a wedding was being hosted. The dining room is beautiful with a sweeping view of the Brig ’o’ Doon. Unfortunately, the food was a little lacklustre - my Sunday roast was underwhelming, with the beef sirloin dry and tough. Even the dessert coupes were a bit synthetic tasting. But the view was amazing, the service friendly, and the setting first class.

We also had a day in Glasgow where we saw the streets being used as a film set for the upcoming Spiderman film. Previously I had visited the Doner Haus, which lacked a wow factor. It has now been replaced with Leopardo. This is a good spot for pizza - they even had a special Scottish menu, from which I had to order the pizza with black pudding. The service was a bit forgetful and slow, but overall it was a good choice for a large group of us to get together.

Edinburgh

During the Fringe, Edinburgh is incredibly busy. The building work (ongoing since before COVID) on North Bridge shows no sign of ending, making the area especially crowded with people. Many shops and cafés had long queues just to get inside. Still, the weather was excellent, and Edinburgh will always be a special place to visit.

This time we stayed in a wooden hut in someone’s garden in Portobello, rented through Airbnb. It was a good base for a three night stay, with Lothian Buses costing £2.20 per adult into the city or around £17 for a taxi.

The new (to me!) W Hotel looks impressive from the outside, but the panoramic views it offers are truly stunning. A visit to the rooftop bar (or Sushi Samba below) is now a must on my Edinburgh list. From the bar you can see Calton Hill, Edinburgh Castle, The Balmoral Hotel, George Street, and more. A glass of champagne and an ice-cold pint of Moretti hit the spot, and they even brought a complimentary peach sorbet for my daughter.

We had booked Fringe tickets about a month in advance, with only one stipulation: we had to see a show in the Udderbelly (the iconic Upside Down Purple Cow). Here’s what we saw:

• Mario the Maker Magician – excellent. Mario (on tour with his family) kept the pace lively and fun, mixing inspiration, education, and humour. We went because my daughter had seen him on Blue Peter, and it was 100% worth it.
• Northern Lights: Accidentally A Cappella – a student cappella group from Durham university had clever arrangements and a strong finale. It's upbeat pop covers and a fast tempo i.e. nothing not to like
• The Box Show – an Australian group who make music from everyday objects, with one member donning the “Jacket of Power”. The committed participation of one audience member made our show, especially a section where music was created from plastic bags. Good fun.
• The Greatest Magic Show – also from Australia. More children’s comedy with some tricks interspersed with comedy that appeals to younger children. It was fine, but we booked it expecting more outright magic.
• The Flying Bubble Show – we heard the performer say "Bubbles" more than a few times! Visually beautiful at times, but the heat seemed to negatively affect his bubble mix. A one-hour runtime felt too long.
• The Wonderful World of Winnie the Pooh – not a Disney-style costume show, but a theatrical retelling and mix of classic Pooh stories centred around friendship. Thoughtful and neatly staged, though sometimes a little hard to hear.
• Ceilidh (Scottish Dancing) – set in the beautiful Royal College of Physicians on George Street. A strict but effective caller forced everyone to put their mobile phones away and get off their seats and dance! Two hours later the hall was buzzing, with tourists and locals all joining in. Highly recommended.

We enjoyed great weather during our stay, and on a sunny Festival day it’s hard to beat drinks in the Assembly Gardens at George Square, Pleasance Dome or Courtyard. Food stalls are plentiful but varied in quality and service. After waiting 15 minutes in one queue, I gave up and took some underwhelming popcorn chicken instead of the Pad Thai. My wife had found another stand and loved their pie, mash, and mushy peas.

Dynamic Earth is a tourist attraction often compared to a miniature Millennium Dome (now the O2 Arena). We had never been before and really enjoyed it. For a £4.50 supplement, we tried the Wallace and Gromit Augmented Reality (AR) app, which added interactive challenges like taking photos of yourself and games where you have to hoover pack Wallace and Gromit's suitcase. The main Dynamic Earth experience takes you on a time-travel journey through the Earth’s formation, glaciers, volcanoes, and more. Very well done and highly recommended for families.

I love the The Shore area of Edinburgh (in Leith), and with the tram now extended there it’s a lot quicker and comfortable to get there than with the old number 22 bus. On a summer’s day it’s beautiful, as the photo above shows.

My favourite bar in all of Edinburgh is probably Teuchters Landing – now bigger than I remember, with a great house lager (though the Paolozzi didn’t quite hit the mark). For dinner we returned to Tapa, a Spanish restaurant we regularly frequented over a decade ago. It has grown and is thriving, with very good food. The Spanish green peppers (padrón) were excellent, and the churros for dessert were faultless.