In a half-hearted attempt to clear out my drafted posts, I’m publishing them without much editing and tons of photos, starting with our trip to London in January. Enjoy!
Overnight flight Tuesday to Wednesday. I got about 3 hours of sleep on the flight due to a surprise wake up from a non life-threatening medical emergency. We were proud we were able to pull out cash, find the underground, buy Oyster cards, make it to rented apartment all by ourselves without a phone to guide us.
We arrived at apartment in Holborn at noon. Our host was very helpful with local restaurant and bar recommendations. We headed to Franco Manca for sourdough pizza for lunch. Delish and inexpensive! Bought sim cards with pay as you go data plans from o2 for our iphone 5ses. Both phones were up and running in about 5 minutes, so different from a phone back home! We overbought data but it was wonderful to have maps/directions, contact with each other while we were separated, access to social media, and the ability to contact our boys back home. We headed to Cittie of Yorke pub to meet up with WP folks. Too exhausted to think straight. Hit up Stainsbury’s for snacks, cheese and meat for dinner, and muffins for breakfast before watching HIMYM and crashing.
The Brians (husband and boss) had to get to conference by 8 but I slept until 9:30. Blissful! I enjoyed a quiet breakfast before heading out to the British Museum, a free history museum only a few blocks away. I explored Greek, Egyptian, and European artifacts and art before heading back to the apartment for Indian food and to be available while my mom took our baby to the doctor. Turns out he had an ear infection and while we didn’t plan on (or prepare for) our boys to be sick while we were gone, things went extremely well and Teddy started antibiotics right away. The conference was just on Thursday so I met up with Brian at the official after party at a pub just down the street from our apartment, a literal 3 minute walk! We loved being so close to everything!
Brian and I walked to Westminster Abbey on our first day of site seeing, about 35 minutes away from the apartment. The Abbey was probably my favorite part of the entire trip. We couldn’t take photos of the interior but it was definitely awe inspiring. For the two of us who love history, architecture, fascinating life stories, and learning, it was a gold mine! There’s a ton of great information at this site. Admission includes a free audio tour which really helped us make the most of our admission. We even ate lunch at the restaurant on site, the Cellarium Cafe. Not only did we not have to hunt for food, it was incredibly tasty!
Westminster Abbey is very close to to the Palace of Westminster and it’s very famous clock, Big Ben. We had enough time to wander around the Palace building and across the River Thames to the London Eye. I am incredibly, paralyzingly terrified of heights and, desiring to keep this trip as inexpensive as possible, we happily skipped the Eye. We were able to make it back to the Abbey in time for the 5:00 pm Evensong service, sitting mere feet away from where the royal family sat for the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. We walked past Buckingham Palace after dark, which was a little disappointing since we couldn’t see much, but made up for it with an intensely delicious dinner at Wahaca, a Mexican restaurant, in Soho. I am extremely skeptical of Mexican food outside of Mexico but our meal was one of the highlights of our trip. We still talk about it 10 months after the fact!
The next day Brian and I walked 45 minutes the opposite direction down the Thames to the Tower of London. I have so many photos of our explorations on this day because the contrast of the very ancient buildings in front of the ultra-modern skyline of London was incredibly striking. The oldest building in the Tower (and my personal favorite) is the White Tower, which was begun in the 1080s. It is mind-blowing to experience to soak in the history of a place that existed hundreds of years before your country of origin was founded. After the Tower tour, my long-suffering husband waited with me at Platform 9 3/4 in King’s Cross station to get a totally necessary photo. To end the day, we met up with the other Brian and folks from Human Made for dinner and drinks before crashing.
Before we had felt settled, it was time for us to make our way back to the airport via the Tube for the excruciatingly long flight home. The flight from the US to London was 7 hours but the opposite direction was 9! We were very, very happy to get off that airplane in Atlanta! We barely had enough time to scratch the surface of all there is to see and do in London and want to return, possibly with our boys, to finish our tourist wish-lists.
