We went to Disneyland on Wednesday. An inspired call on Rob's part as I'd thought we would go yesterday, but the combined effects of a very packed theme park in the boiling sun, followed by a midnight flight, would have finished me off.
Unfortunately, I have very little photographic evidence of Flossie's Disneyland experience. I think she enjoyed it - there was a certain quiet awe as we entered Sleeping Beauty's castle. We were in a great spot to see the parade, right where the princesses' swan float stopped. Snow White waved at her and blew her a kiss. But of course the camera was with Rob who was resting his foot in the shade so I didn't get a photo.
The star attraction at Disneyland seemed to be Freddie, who got mobbed by Chinese tourists at every turn. At one point, a group of about 30 gathered, passing Freddie around to take photos of him. He was completely unfazed by any of this and smiled away at everyone.
We queued up for ages in the searing heat so that Flossie could have her photo taken with Snow White and Prince Charming only to have her freak out at the last minute. This was the best photo I got before she fled in hysterics.
I'm not sure why she was so overwhelmed - perhaps her fantasy coming to life was just too much. However, Rob and Freddie had their photo taken instead - complete with crutch.
Anyway, next up for poor little Floss was Daddy taking her on a ridiculously scary roller coaster - as evidenced by the sheer terror you can see in the photo that Rob had to buy from the Disney rip-off merchants.
After all that, she just wanted to go home. And who can blame her!
Yesterday we swam at the YMCA pool in the morning and then returned to the yummy yum cha restaurant where Flossie still didn't like the pork buns but managed some pork pies and a mango pudding and Freddie ate everything he could get his hands on.
After a rest, we checked out of the hotel and then took the MTR to Central and the midlevel escalators to the Graham Road market. Flossie was fascinated by all the different fish and shell fish. We found little shops selling all different types of noodles and one stall that had lots of different dried things, including octopus. I'm glad she likes a good market!
We'd managed to avoid the really frenetic side of HK up to that point, but around Central is super busy and not particularly easy with prams or crutches. We got the ferry back to Kowloon and walked up to the park where the children had fun at the playground. Then it was a quick bite to eat at the hotel and a taxi ride to the airport.
Poor Floss fell asleep in the cab and then had to be woken so she could queue for ages at check-in and passport control. We paid to go into an airline lounge so they could both sleep, but she had to wake up again to walk to the boarding gate - 11.30pm by this point. They both slept for the first five hours of the 13 hr flight to Rome. I'm afraid we dosed them both up with extra Phenergan for the second half of the flight - Flossie got another few hours. Freddie developed a Japanese fan club of old ladies at the back of the plane.
We arrived safely in Rome this morning and caught a cab to our apartment right off the Campo dei Fiori. It is a fantastic location and the apartment is bigger than I thought it would be. We are meeting up with Aleen from my mother's group this afternoon for tea - if the children ever wake up. They are both crashed out.
Laura x
