THE London Aquarium, in County Hall on the South Bank just by the London Eye, is only a short walk from either Westminster or Waterloo underground stations.

I would advise against driving there as parking is very limited on the South Bank.

It is the only major aquarium in central London and is Europe’s largest exhibition of global aquatic life.

If you decide to go in the school holidays, be prepared to queue for around twenty minutes before you go inside.

Once inside you are given a map which is really easy to follow and explains which streams, rivers, ponds, reefs, seas and oceans you can see.

With the number of children in the queue I thought it was going to be a very stressful trip but there is something so tranquil and calming about fish that the whole experience was very relaxing, apart from the gift shop of course, which was packed.

FROM PAGE 59 The Aquarium is over three floors and has over 350 different species and over 2 million litres of water.

At each tank there is excellent information about the fish and where they can be found, what they eat and about their habitat.

There is also plenty of staff around to ask for more information if you want.

At any point if you have lost your way the numbered zones, which are indicated next to the tanks and on your map help you locate where you are.

We were hoping to see four very special fish; Nemo, Bubbles, Dory and Bloat from the Disney Pixar film Finding Nemo, and the London Aquarium didn’t disappoint us.

We found them all and they looked even better as real fish than they did as the animated characters we know so well.

We spent quite a long time trying to get the pufferfish (Bloat) to puff up for us but alas it never did as it only ‘puffs’ when in danger.

As you follow your map through the aquarium you are taken from freshwater streams with perch and minnow to much more exciting fish that you would find in the depths of the pacific and tropical seas, such as; sharks, rays, catfish, even four eyed fish.

The sharks and some rays are kept in a huge tank where we took time to sit and watch them swim by deciding which ones were dangerous and which ones looked the scariest.

One of the highlights for my son was to see the sharks and rays and to see the underside of a ray, with its ‘cute little face’.

There were creatures there that I had never heard of including a fascinating creature called a garden eel, which looked like a worm and kept burying itself in the sand, which amused us greatly.

There was also fish that came onto dry land to eat called a mudskipper, which looked a little like a newt. I could keep telling you about the fish but then that would spoil your visit.

Throughout the day there are talks on sharks, coral reefs, rays, the rainforest, and there are feeds to watch too but I would check times before going especially if you want to watch the shark feed as it only takes place three days of the week.

The Aquarium is also full of information about conservation, and how important it is to keep beaches, rivers and oceans clean You can see some of the things that have been found in the river Thames including; mobile phones, watches, champagne bottles (with millennium sparklers inside) and Bart Simpson keyrings.

The London Aquarium’s mission is to provide all visitors with an unrivalled experience of the exciting and diverse underwater world and to encourage respect for nature through education - and it certainly does that.

We had a great day and we will be returning to see our underwater friends very soon.