Our Neighborhood -- West End Playgrounds

Thankfully, my kids have not reached the age where they refuse to go to playgrounds, so over the past few months we've explored all the playgrounds we can find close to our flat. This research came in handy when my four year old niece and two year old nephew were visiting. We knew the closest, the most little-kid oriented, the dirtiest, etc. Here are our ratings of four West End playgrounds, vetted by kids with ages ranging from 13 to 2.

Kelvingrove Park (off Kelvin Way -- map)

This playground is perfect for the younger set, with a mini-ropes course, airplane and train equipment, and smaller climbing structures. Close to the Kelvingrove Museum, it's a great spot to let out some energy. Adjacent is a skate/bike park, so you can also watch kids do tricks. And, there's always an ice cream truck parked here. Great park for kids age 2-10 (not much for older kids).

This equipment piece is called a witch's hat, which my children knew from reading Beano and Dandy, classic British comics that they borrowed from our friends, Martin and Lesa's collection.

Old Station Playground (on Hyndland Rd and Hughenden Rd, near Western Lawn and Tennis Club -- map)

This playground is a little off the beaten track, but worth the trek if kids want to climb ropes or play football (soccer). Although the football pitch is a little grubby with cracked pavement and beat-up goal posts, it's a good place to kick the ball around. Better for older kids, as Fenna at four years old was on the edge of being able to use the equipment.

Children's Play Area at Botanics (at the convergence of Byres Rd, Queen Margaret Dr, and Great Western Rd -- map)

This playground has the advantage of being the closest to our flat, but until the arrival of my niece and nephew we didn't go there too much (we would walk along the Kelvin Riverway instead). Once we had a two and four year old in tow, we hit this park twice in their four day stay and could have probably gone there every day. Although it can be crowded, the equipment is varied with some fun stuff for older kids (twirly things to stand on) and play structures suitable for the 2+ crowd. If you're visiting the Botanics and glasshouses (described here) with kids, this is a must stop!

Declan says the merry-go-round is too slow, but Fenna and Pepe enjoyed it anyway.

Check out those flying pony-tails!

Dowanhill Park (on Highburgh Rd, near Hyndland St and Dowanhill St -- map)

Declan's favorite, this park is nestled in the middle of a residential area, quite near Byres Road. It is often empty, so if you want a quiet playground with equipment appropriate for 4+ years, this should be your pick. Also, this playground is two blocks from the farmers' market (dates and described here), so it's a great stop-off when you're headed to buy fresh fruit and veg (and meat, scones, curry, sausages, etc.)

Declan says the merry-go-round is the fastest at this park.

Easter in Scotland -- Duck Eggs and Graveyards

So, it's Easter and we're lucky to have some little kids visiting to remind us about the thrill of the bunny's arrival and finding eggs. My niece kept asking is it time for the Easter bunny to come, where's the Easter bunny now, what's he going to bring, etc.

Last night, we sought egg dying necessities. After confusing a guy working at the local store by asking for white eggs (he thought my brother-in-law had asked for wide eggs), the only white eggs to be found were duck eggs, so here they are about to be boiled. Also, the food dye was a little strange -- the yellow was very viscous, making the dying water very cloudy. We could only find two colors, but luckily blue and yellow make green, so we had three colors in the end!

Scottish Easter eggs -- pastel, but pretty. Scottish Easter treats -- crackers with crowns, jokes, and bunny stickers inside and Kinder Eggs (a Dutch candy egg with a toy inside). No jelly beans, no pastel-foiled Reese's peanut butter cups, no hollow chocolate bunny.

Pepe ready to pull his Easter cracker.

We decided to take an excursion to Stirling Castle, which involved taking the subway to the train, both big thrills for the little cousins.

Some aunty love on the train

Messy ice cream faces

A stick and a hole are the best tourist attractions for a two year old!

Stirling has beautiful architecture; the streets leading up to the castle are lined with 16th and 17th century buildings.

We came up to the castle by cutting through this graveyard, which was one of the highlights of our day trip, especially for the kids who all seem to enjoy running around the gravestones more than anything else.

Stirling is atop a steep hill so there were amazing views of distant fields and mountains and clouds.

The castle had magic shows, unicorn tapestries, and color your own jester computer games -- so lots to amuse the kids. Though the challenge was how to give age-appropriate explanations to my four year old niece about what was happening in the medieval tapestry of the unicorn hunt, graphic scenes of dogs and men attacking the unicorn became herding the unicorn.

Ended the day with the traditional Easter dinner -- fish and chips from our local chippery named Philadelphia.

Crisps Taste-Off Stage One

My nephew reaches to grab the crisps from his sister.

Fenna is victorious!

My sister Amy and her family arrived in Glasgow today and what better way to welcome them than a crisps (chips) taste test. In Scotland, there are more flavors of crisps than you can imagine, including some strange ones like haggis (organ meat and oatmeal mixed together) or mustard and ham or curry, plus more regular flavors like salt and vinegar or cheese and onion. We searched the local stores for a few oddities to try and tasted the following four.

The clear winner was Mexican chilli, which tasted like a spicy BBQ chip. The clear loser was Thai Sweet Chicken, with Amy saying it just tasted weird (kind of a sweet meat flavor). The smoky bacon and king prawn (shrimp) were tied for middle place.

Now, if you haven't yet visited, don't worry there are more taste tests to come with flavors like tomato ketchup and branston pickle (like a sweet/sour, vegetable chutney) and steak and well, you get the idea.

London -- Hunting for Banksy

Our last day in London was Tuesday. Even with a 4:30 train, we still packed in a museum, Korean lunch, and graffiti search.

Cormac has recently become interested in graffiti artist, Banksy, who painted a lot of images providing social commentary and satire around London in the past ten years. So, we went on a search for some remaining Banksy (most of it has been painted over or removed and sold). Luckily, near our flat were three!

The rat above is holding a placard that says Always Fail, which is the UK nickname for the Royal Mail (you can probably guess why). This image is outside a huge Royal Mail processing plant. The faded rat below is holding a camera and is tucked away in a close (an alley with houses on it).

Girl being pulled into ATM machine by a robotic arm, now partially painted over and plexi-glassed -- near the Banksy Bagel Shop (wonder how would he feel about that?)

My favorite Banksy (we didn't see this one on a wall; this is a photo of a photo).

Liam's favorite is a group of children saluting a Tesco bag (Tesco is the big grocery chain in the UK). Declan's favorite is a Star Wars one with an ATAT telling a smaller one I am your father. Cormac's favorite is a rat standing in a green puddle (toxic rat).

Purchases from Portobello Road -- toast rack and candy tin.

Most popular item for shopping in London -- t-shirts! But Declan did get some accessories also -- sunglasses and watch necklace.

A quick dip into the British Museum which was incredibly crowded with people, yet still overwhelming in the number of treasures it contains! I'm always struck with the nerve of England -- that they would take precious items from every spot in the globe seems to be the height of imperialist attitude, but then I'm also grateful that all these prizes are safe and available for people to enjoy, especially after the looting of the Baghdad museum and the destruction of the Afghan Buddhas by the Taliban. It's definitely an ethical dilemma.

As we got ready to head home to the calm of Glasgow, we compiled our favorites from our trip.

The Best of London

Restaurant: Cormac = Four Seasons, Susan = Gail's, Liam and Declan = Sen Viet

Market: Cormac, Liam and Declan = Camden Locks; Susan = Portobello Road

Sight or Museum: Susan = Sherlock Holmes Museum, Declan = Tower of London, Cormac = Tate Modern, Liam = Lucian Freud exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery

London -- Markets, Towers, Docks, Ladykillers

Yesterday (Sunday), we started off with breakfast at this amazing bakery. The light around the sign is actually a halo, the food was that good, especially the croissants. Gail's is a London chain with one in Exmouth Market, right near our flat. I highly recommend them, if you are a fan of delicious baked goods!

After breakfast, we walked along the Regent Canal Path, where we saw houseboats moored, locks in action, and lots of walkers and joggers -- all enjoying the beautiful, sunny day.

We stumbled upon Camden Locks Market, another crowded, outdoor market with ethnic food and clothing and craft stalls. The boys liked this market better than Portobello Road since it had funkier stuff, including KidRobot figures and cool T-shirts.

We saw many tourists with their backpacks like this,which I know is safety conscious, but if I were a thief, it would just make me want to rob this guy even more.

Brittannia reminders everywhere

Old mopeds made into seating for people eating lunch

We rounded off our day with a trip to Chinatown, where we ate at Four Seasons (not the hotel), which offered standard, but good Chinese food -- delicious roast pork. We have found Chinese food in Glasgow to be either Westernized take-away or expensive, so we were happy to have a reasonably priced, solid meal.

Today (Monday), our big plan was to go to the Tower of London. We saw the crown jewels, visited the armour and weapons in the white tower, spied some ravens picking through the trash, and walked along the tower's walls.

The tower used to house the royal menagerie, where the exotic animals given to kings were kept. People used to be able to go into a living room and be entertained by monkeys using people furniture. The menagerie closed and the animals were shipped off to the London zoo, after repeated attacks on people and on animals, including a girl's arm mauled by a lion and a boy attacked by a monkey and an ostrich that died after being fed a nail. Glad to see the change in zoo-keeping over time -- at least they try to simulate the animals' natural habitats and food!

Of course, some animals should be kept in cages.

Or, they may get at the weapons!!

A cool dragon created by old objects, including coins, guns, shields, and chain mail.

We liked this cannon with the sheep on the back -- maybe meant for peace?

Lunch with a view at Zizzi, a UK Italian restaurant chain (there's one two blocks from our flat in Glasgow, but we waited until we traveled to London to go to one - hah). The idyllic view of the harbor at St Katharine's Docks and the delicious super food salad (butternut squash, zucchini, edamame and goat cheese) created a moment of calm that allowed me to face our next charge back to the crowds at Leicester Square to get theatre tickets for tonight and Piccadilly Circus to search for manga books for Cormac.

We went to see the play, The Ladykillers, which was very funny with lots of physical humor, e.g. man gets hit by flipping chalkboard over and over again. So, obviously a big hit with everyone, especially the boys! Another great couple of days in London!