And we’re off to London!

Here we go!

Saturday, May 20…today was the day we headed out for six weeks in Europe…thanks to Daddy (again)! We had family in town so they ate breakfast with us and took us to the airport. We fly a lot but it’s always fun with you get an unexpected treat. The pilots on our first leg let Bea and Teddy sit in the captain’s chair and try in her hat! They certainly enjoyed themselves; thanks Delta! When we arrived, we went into ready mode for a long plane. This means to get full tummies and hangs kiddos into pjs. This is normally the schedule but we were bitten once before when someone fell asleep before “getting ready” for bed. Again thanks to Delta, we go to the lounge to use big clean bathrooms for our transition. Next stop…London! It was an uneventful flight. We at two and two and as I guessed Teddy fell asleep pretty quickly and slept a good five-ish hours. The rest of us got some descent sleep. We we landed it was 6:30am and the kiddos were raring to go! Customs was easy and we got our bags and Uber quickly. Luckily, Cory had asked for an early check in so we were able to get in our room and take a little nap. The kids had a harder time getting to sleep than the adults but eventually we all slept a couple hours. We decided to have a relaxing afternoon by taking the Tube to Kensington Gardens to run around. We took Cory to the Princess Diana Memorial playground this time and her Memorial Fountain. It was a beautiful day with full sunshine! This has been the coldest day yet though at a high of 62. We planned for that to be the norm for the first two weeks; but, it’s been much warmer! Monday morning came around and Cory headed off to work. The kids and I slept in and barely caught breakfast before it was over in the hotel. I always know we need to ease into things after such a big time zone change so we hopped on our first red double decker bus to the V&A Museum that was close. After naps for all 3 of us, we met Cory for supper at Theo’s Simple Italian down the street from the hotel. It was an amazingly, delicious Italian restaurant! Funny enough, I also put out a fire from a table of two ladies nearby who had caught their menu on fire!

On Tuesday, Cory joined us for breakfast before we set out on the Tube to the London Transport Museum. On Tuesdays they have a “Songs and Stories” time which was so fun! Their favorite part was a song about the “big red bus”, “mini” and “underground”. The Museum was perfect for the kiddos!

On day 4 in London, we hit none other than the ZSL London Zoo. We go to a lot of zoos as our little boy loves animals. Luckily, it wasn’t very busy (aside from some school kids) which is always nice. They have a new lion exhibit which was excellent as well as butterfly exhibit. We also watched the feeding of Huntington penguins and the tigers. We can almost not walk by a carousel without riding it so we did on the zoo. The funny part is that the music playing while we rode was Winter Wonderland. Hahaha

Our last full day in London we decided to act like locals. After breakfast, we ran errands. I knew Kensington was a nice area but I didn’t realize how nice. On our way to our Tube stop, we passed a Maserati, Bentley, Lamborghini all in one block….parked on the street! Whew! First and last stops were for the kiddos…Paddington station to see Paddington Bear (again) and the London Eye! We rode it on our last trip but it was such a hit with kids. People have been so helpful all day long with carrying the stroller up stairs or escalators when there wasn’t a lift while I hold Bea and Teddy’s hands. After we got off the Eye a nice lady helped but this time by grabbing Teddy’s hand. She was harmful; however, she walked with such briskness pulling Teddy, that I thought she could run off with Teddy. It scared me to death! We had a little discussion about what to do if someone tries to take you after that. Mercy, it makes my heart start racing as I write just thinking about it again!

On Friday, we knew we needed to run a bit before traveling that afternoon so we got our wiggles out at a playground in Hyde Park. It was one of the few “no sand” playgrounds we’ve found! While they played I called four second-hand bookshops (as I had found out that the books I was looking for were no longer in print) and finally found them. So before heading back to the hotel to pack, we went to Marchpane Bookshop. We have our Eurostar to Paris at four o’clock so we were under the wire to get it all done this morning. As we waited for our Uber ride heading to the Chunnel (preferred by Dell to taxi), Bea asked “is it a black car?” Oh mercy! We do a lot of travel with Daddy! The Chunnel ride was much more fun this time as it wasn’t 11pm at night and the countryside is beautiful!

See you next time London!

Detroit to London