It Wouldn't Be A Francesconi Trip without A Bike Ride

 Day Seven - Friday, December 26, 2025

Our family vacations typically start by exploring cities on bike led by local tour guides. Because so many sites and tours closed on December 24, 25 and 26 we had to pack in what we could earlier in the week and push the our normal "get the lay of the land ride" to our last day in London. So we signed up with Unlimited Bike Tours for the Royal Garden city pedal. 

It wouldn't be a Francesconi event were we not to take full advantage of leftovers. So a breakfast of eggs, bacon and Duchy Arms potatoes filled us up with the energy we needed to make our seven mile trek around the city.

Our bike tour was led by Daniel, an Italian who had an American mother from Chicago so his accent sounded like a Midwesterner. He was on the verge of securing his British citizenship and was a fount of information and stories behind all the landmarks and politicians of London and the UK. 

We started on the tour south of the Thames with the ride going over the river and into the most notable statues, buildings and parks. We pedaled past – the London Eye, Houses of Parliament, Elizabeth Tower with the Big Ben clock, and stood under the Winston Churchill statue. From there we rode off to St. James Park where we witnessed the changing of the horse guard and #10 Downing Street. We left "Royal London" to see Trafalgar Square with the statue of Horacio Nelson (Nelson's Column) before reentering "Royal London" to follow the horses to Buckingham Palace. 

We past Buckingham Palace for the second time on our trip, but this time it was far less crowded since the changing of the guard took place yesterday and doesn't happen every day of the week. From there we cycled into Hyde Park and passed by the Winter Wonderland a Christmas market on steroids that I opted not to subject the family to see. We rode to Kensington Garden, past the Royal Albert Theater, and the Royal Albert Monument back into the center of the city and stopped by the extremely busy and crowded exterior of Windsor Abbey where Princess Diana was buried, Kate and William married and learned Stephen Hawking was the last Brit be buried there to date.

Back across the very crowded London Bridge and bike shop. Daniel recommended heading straight to Richmond – land of Ted Lasso's soccer club and neighborhood and one stop away from our Kew Garden Christmas Lights adventure.

It was a easy Tube trip on the District line out to Richmond. Richmond was fabulous. Still considered part of London it has a quaint, small town feel littered with great shops teeming with Boxing Day bargains. We only had a few snacks of carrots and Hobnobs while we tubed out to Richmond, so before we started exploring, we had a proper cup of tea, sandwiches, pistachio croissants and vanilla macrons.

Next into shops. My boys have now hit an age where they actually enjoy shopping for clothes. It's a Christmas miracle and only took a quarter of a century to happen. We found the clothes to be fashionable, functional and fiscally in our budget. In less than an hour we scooped up two matching coats for the boys, sweaters for Chazz and I, and athleisure for Madelyn and I at Sweaty Betty. Boys peeled off in search of Ted Lasso (well the store selling the show's fictional AFC merchandise) while Madelyn and I continued to shop a bit more. She and I wanted to explore the streets of Richmond and found the river on its border. The town was simply idyllic. 

We rejoined for the boys for beers and ciders at The Prince's Head which is the setting for the "Crown and Anchor" the fictional pub where Ted Lasso is filmed. Clearly everyone knows this as the crowd seemed to be very American. We polished off our drinks and made way to the The Cinnamon Club for dinner. It's a bit of a chain with one in London and this was a terrific choice. They kindly brought an anniversary slice of cake at the end which we were able to celebrate our upcoming 30th milestone surrounded by all three kids - before we set off for Ireland and Chazz was journeying back to the states. 

We took a quick bus ride one stop up to the Royal Botanical Gardens, known as the Kew Gardens. This was one of the very first purchases I made after buying plane tickets and securing lodging. I consulted Jecca Lawson to ask if making the trip to Kew Gardens on our last night in London would be worth it and she concurred. It was great advice. 

Lights at the Kew is 2.7 km path you wander to see the most magnificent lights some that look like plants, other lights decorate the buildings on the gardens and some illuminate the plants and trees. There is so much to see and hear as the walk is set to Christmas music and other holiday sounds. There was a disco dance party floor, a plant scene that mimics an orchestra and a mesmerizing light show set to the Cold Play song Sky Full of Stars. Along the walk you can enjoy cider and mulled wine and cocoa. There are even fire pits for smores. It was spectacular and a must see at the holidays.

Our Tube ride home was easy and quick which was key as we all need to pack and find room for the newly purchased items on our Richmond adventure.