London

Thursday June 22, 2017

After we woke up, packed up, ate, and got everything ready we were able to pull out of the Ogles driveway by 8:30 am. The Drive to London was fairly uneventful. The plan was to drop the rental car off (at the airport), head over to our hotel near Paddington Station, check in, and then meet up with the Ogles around 11 for the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. We gassed up the car one last time (we only had to fill up once during this whole trip! Benefits of driving a diesel) before dropping her off. Easy peasy.

Getting from the rental place to the hotel was a bit of a whoopsie though. John knew of a more direct route that I didn't, and I, knowing we were on a time crunch, took off for the bus station without conferring with him. Big mistake. We ended up backtracking and taking John's much nicer, quicker, more direct route to our hotel. Long story short we didn't end up catching the changing of the guard haha. But, I think it worked out just fine that way. The Ogles weren't able to make it to Buckingham in time either; so we scrapped the idea and decided to join up with them for lunch instead.

The Ogles had told us about a yummy place they'd gone to once before in London called My Old Dutch, so we decided to meet them there. The first step was getting to the restaurant though, which ended up being a bit of a chore since there were multiple locations and someone (who will not be named) told us to go to the wrong one. A 45 minute walk later and we were all united once again at the restaurant. We ended up sitting down right around 12:30 though so it worked out nicely.

My Old Dutch turned out to be a pretty cool restaurant that sold what they call "pancakes" but in american terms end up being these MASSIVE crapes with amazing toppings. The Ogles got a bunch of Nutella topped crepes (I was maybe a tad jealous) while John and I ordered the Amsterdammer (apple, bacon, and syrup) and the My Old Dutch (ham, chicken, peppers, mushrooms, corn, and cheese) to split. Dang they were good, and we couldn't get over how big they were! Probably 15-20" in diameter. Mmmm.

Needless to say the food was good and we all ate too much, but luckily we had a lot of walking planned for the rest of the day to burn it all off. Our first stop was the Tower of London. It was a bit of an ordeal getting there because #kids. Mostly just navigating the tube with a stroller is kind of a nightmare. The place isn't very accessible friendly. Having John and I along definitely helped though. I don't know how they do it with just the two of them haha.

The Tower was cool, big, and very touristy. I think it was our most expensive castle to tour and probably our least favorite haha. We decided to go on the free half-hour tour to start off and so had to wait for about 15 minutes near the entrance on this large grassy area.

I entertained the kids by having them go run to a specific object or complete some sort of task before running back for a high five. What a hit. They surprisingly loved it. One of the times I had them each go stand on a sprinkler access box and count to 50. They both ran and hopped on a square. Alice stood there calmly counting to 50 under her breath while Janiac yelled out her count for all to hear. I think she got to around 17 before tripping up a bit and just giving up and running back haha. So typical of their personalities. It was cute to watch little Claire attempt to follow them and do what they did too. She never did made it very far.

Eventually the tour started and there were maybe 50+ people all trying to listen to the one guide. Waaaay too many. It was hard to hear, the girls couldn't hear or see, and the temperature was steadily rising. Poor Alice kept asking what the guy was saying but it was too difficult to relay all the information on to her.

I hoisted Jane up on my shoulders for a bit and then resorted to a piggy-back ride until we all gave up trying to follow along and decided to just do our own thing. We probably only lasted about five to ten minutes haha.

After ditching the tour we went to see the Crown Jewels. Once we entered the building it felt like we were in Disneyland or something. Lots of people and a bit of a line. In the main room they had a nifty moving sidewalk to take you past all the glass cases with the special jewels and ceremonial instruments incased inside. Brilliant move there. Max cracked a comment saying how "the whole castle should be like that" haha, can't say I don't agree with him. The Jewels were impressive though. So ornate, and huge! Of course they don't let you snap any pictures inside.

Where the Crown Jewels are kept

Once back outside we were all kind of gassed. I just wanted to go up on the wall to catch some views. Lisa Jane and I went up on one side, but it was kind of lame. Then we took turns to go up on a different battlement and get a good look at the Tower Bridge and the White Castle.

John and I took Alice and Jane up while Lisa and Max stayed down with Claire and the stroller. The views up there were pretty awesome.

Eventually we made our way back down and switched rolls with Lisa and Max so they could get a chance to see it as well.

While we were waiting for them to get their fill on the battlements the kids became totally enthralled in a little cosplay production some workers were putting on. Knights and bad guys and such. Jane got a little nervous about the villain though and didn't want to get too close to the action haha.

Then it was a "quick" bathroom break before heading to Westminster Abbey and Parliament. I only mention it because for once we were waiting on the boys. To be fair they only had ONE men's stall, whereas on the women's side there must have been 12-15 of them. Haha!

After dealing with the tube again we popped up in a pretty crowded spot right in the shadow of Big Ben, who totally steals the show in my opinion. Something about that guy... It's soooo pretty! and way more so in person. So big with such pretty gold details. I love it.

It was a great view of the clock tower, but really super packed, so we quickly shuffled our way out of it towards Westminster Abbey.

The Abbey is also amazing. We missed the tour time but some people were lining up and going in (for free) so we hopped in line anyways. It turned out to be for a service; something I think all the adults would have enjoyed, but we felt bad taking the kids in and having them sit quietly for 45 minutes. So we continued walking around and Lisa and I snapped away to our heart's content.

As is the Palace of Westminster (Parliament Building).

Max's idea was to walk around the parliament building to get good views of it all. What he didn't know was that the building juts right up against the River Thames so no one can walk behind it. Instead you have to walk down the river, cross a bridge, walk back on the other side of the river, and then cross back over on another bridge to get the killer views we all wanted. He wasn't happy. Mostly because of the time factor; with kids walks like that alway take a while. I may or may not have just forced the issue and started walking it with Jane though.

To help the walk go quickly we started playing the "landing spot" game. Basically I would have her run to a specific spot and then wait there until the rest of us caught up. Each "landing spot" was either a pipe access lid or some sort of inlaid mark of some kind. It worked very nicely. I'd just carry her across the bridges to give her little legs a break. Alice and Claire, meanwhile, managed by hitching a ride on the stroller. The walk didn't take too long at all and it was TOTALLY worth the views.

One of my most favorite pictures. Everything just looks gorgeous!

Just chillin

Once back to Big Ben we said our goodbye's to the Ogles and went our separate ways. It was so fun hanging out with them for a few days. They're just such a fun and cute family. We'll definitely miss them.

Laughing cuz we tried this picture a few times but Lisa and Max kept inadvertently photobombing

John and I then cut over to The Mall road and walked down to Buckingham Palace where we chilled for a bit and snapped some more pictures of course.

Both of us were completely pooped by this point though. Lisa and Max said we should enjoy our stay in London and go to a show or something, but all either of us wanted to do was get some food and relax at our hotel. So that's what we did.

We searched a bit for some place to eat near Buckingham, but couldn't find anything worth trying, so made our way back to Paddington before searching again. We settled on this good priced Italian place that ended up being delicious. Our last pit stop was at a convenient store to use up the rest of our bills on Ben & Jerry's (you totes get what you pay for with those. OMG!) and a pack of digestives for the road. Our last night of the trip was spent showering, packing, and indulging ourselves with very American ice-cream haha.

What a great trip. Both of us can't wait to take another!