Luke and Courtnie: London

Day 4 continued: We boarded the train for London around 6:00 PM. Going through the chunnel had always been on my bucket list but it was not as cool as I had thought. It was dark and you couldn't even tell when you entered the tunnel. We were traveling at 297 km/h so that's something. I was so tired and missing my boys like crazy at this point. I probably would have been good going home. Luke said no. We found a Pizza Hut on the way to our hotel and thought it would be fast to grab and go. It was not fast and we took the wrong pizza but at that point we were beyond caring. Lindsey came and found us after her school and took our laundry home to do. Thanks Lindsey!

Day 5: Thursday the 16th. We had intended for this to be a lazy day but it didn't turn out to be that way. We, with Lindsey, started out at Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guard but turns out we were a day early. Then we walked over to the National Gallery. Neither of us could remember what we had planned to see there but it was free so we went for it. We went to the impressionist section to see what we could see. It actually turned out to be really cool. There were more Monet's, and Van Gogh's. I even saw a Klimt which I admit I'd never even heard of him until I saw the movie This Means War but it was pretty neat. Luke's favorite were the paintings J.W. Turner. We bought the boys a kids book about British paintings where a little girl goes into the paintings. Luke and I were probably more excited about it than Ryker and Jaxon. After the National Gallery Lindsey left to go to school and Luke and I headed to the British Museum. Their Egypt wing was so big and had a ton of cool stuff. It was fun to see the Rosetta Stone in Person. About halfway through the museum I thought I was going to drop so we headed back to the hotel to relax a little bit before going to Much Ado About Nothing with Lindsey that night. It was nice to veg out a little bit and to watch tv in English :) When we met up with Lindsey and went to dinner at a pub before the play. The news was playing a clip about Trump and we heard a couple of old guys say he was as bad as Hitler. I knew I should have made us "I didn't vote for Trump" shirts. Maybe that's why the French were so cranky to us? The play was really good. We were up in the nosebleeds and thought about trying to sneak down a little lower since the theater wasn't very full but rethought it after we saw someone else get yelled at by a very dedicated usher.

Buckingham Palace

Obligatory phone booth picture

Van Gogh at the National Gallery

Lindsey and Monet in the National Gallery. My mom had this picture in our living room growing up.

Luke's favorite picture in the National Gallery by J.W. Turner.

Looking for some lunch in London

The Rosetta Stone at the British Museum

Fist bump at the British Museum

Much Ado About Nothing by the Royal Shakespeare Company

Day 6: Friday 17th. Breakfast of marmalade on toast. Back to Buckingham Palace for the actual Changing of the Guard. We got set up in what we thought was a good spot and waited. In the distance we could hear a band playing Firework by Katy Perry. Turns out it was the royal band. Afterwards they played the national anthem. We weren't in a very good spot to see the guards change position so we left and headed to Westminster Abby. I was a little disappointed to learn that poets corner isn't actually where all those people were buried and that we weren't allowed to take pictures inside. After Westminster we went to the Tower of London. We stopped at a restaurant and got some fish and chips then headed over. It was pretty cool to be in a place where so much history had happened. They wouldn't let you take any pictures of the crown jewels but they were pretty amazing and all the ridiculous things they had for all the coronations like a four foot wide gold punch bowl. After the Tower we walked over to the Globe. It was closed by the time we got over there but the sunset was beautiful. We took the elevator to the top of the Tate Modern (didn't look at any of the art) and got a good view of nighttime London.

Changing of the Guard.

Westminster Abby. No pictures inside :(

Big Ben and Parliament.

Fish and chips by the tower of London

The Tower of London

Tower Bridge

Armory at the Tower of London

The White Tower

Royal Guard at the Tower of London

Sunset over London Bridge

Visiting the Globe

Day 7: Saturday 18th. Our last day in London. Lindsey met us in the morning and we rented some bikes and rode through Hyde Park on our way to find 221B Baker Street. Originally we had planned on going inside Kensington Palace but ran out of time so settled on a picture out in front. Lindsey had been through the Sherlock Holmes museum before and said it wasn't worth it so we wandered through the gift shop. Their bathrooms were cool! Then we made it to the Globe Theater and got a tour. I had no idea it had only been built in 1996, is the only building in London that is allowed a thatched roof, and there is an indoor theater with no electricity. It would have been really neat to see a play there. If only there was more time! After the Globe we said goodbye to Lindsey and headed back to the train station. Of course I made Luke take a little detour to King's Cross to check out Platform 9 3/4. There was a crazy long line of Harry Potter fans waiting to get pictures taken. We didn't have time to wait in line so I just poked my head close enough for Luke to take my picture. The train ride back to Paris took about 4 hours and I was so ready to be home by that time. There was a little misunderstanding with the hotel room. We booked it on priceline for a pretty good deal, which the hotel staff thought was too good a deal and didn't want to honor it. Still trying to work that one out. The flight home was absolutely miserable. I got sick about two hours in. I have no idea why. It wasn't even turbulent. The next 10 hours was pretty much hell but we finally made it home to our babies. No more long vacations away from kids until they are older. It was way too hard. We FaceTimed every day and Jayme sent me pictures so that made it a little easier seeing their little faces not missing Mom and Dad at all. Thanks Jayme for taking great care of our boys and letting us experience this awesome adventure!