Tenth Week in Germany - kind of

Technically we were in London, not Germany. We returned home from Spain at 10:00pm on a Wednesday and Thursday morning we were on the road by 10:00am for London, England. Greg had to work so the girls and I just played the entire week. What a holiday! Greg and I got Oyster cards for the "tube," which allowed the girls and I to travel around London all week without having to worry about buying tube tickets every time we wanted to go somewhere. The first thing we did in London was, of course, eat fish & chips. Yum!

On Friday, we slept in and just did some things within walking distance from the hotel. The girls were excited about seeing the Tower of London since it was right next to the hotel. The morning was quite a nightmare, as Avery had several meltdowns and smacked her head, walking into a pole. We actually had to go back to the hotel and rest for a bit before we finally made it to the Tower. When we got there, however, all injuries had been forgotten and we had a great time. We saw the crown jewels, several crowns, and one of the highlights, the coronation video of Queen Elizabeth. The idea that there is a current Queen was pretty cool. We saw several towers, including the bloody tower. They had some torture devices they used to use for the prisoners and the girls thought that was really cool, much to my chagrin. Educational though I guess. We saw a change of the guard at one of the towers which was nice because they were right in front of us. By that time, it was time for us to go meet Greg at the hotel and figure out what we wanted to do for dinner. We ate at a great little place called Dickens Inn.

Saturday morning, we got up and headed to Notting Hill to go to Portabella Market. It was very crowded but we had a great time. It is a huge outdoor market with everything from antiques to fruit and pastries. Why are the croissants so much better in Europe than in the States? Yes, we had some very yummy croissants and Queen Anne cherries. We stopped into the travel book shop that inspired the shop in the movie, "Notting Hill." It sounds kind of goofy, I know, but we actually had to buy some travel guides in English, they are not readily available in Germany (in English). So, we did have a purpose to be there. On the way back, we saw a bakery that I had read about called Hummingbird Bakery. In the magazine, they said it is a must do kind of thing. How could we turn down some delicious cupcakes from the Hummingbird? We hung out in St. James Park for a while (across from Buckingham Palace) just to let the kids run around and take a break. We made our way back to the London Bridge where we walked along the Thames and ended up eating at a family style pub, called Hornimans at Hays Galleria. We had good food and the girls did surprisingly well at a sit-down restaurant after being out and about all day.

Sunday, we got up early and traveled from East to West London to attend the Hyde Park Ward. It was great. We saw our sister-in-law's friend from New York and chatted for a while. After church we decided to go on a little excursion to Cambridge, where we punted down the Cam, and learned all kinds of facts about Cambridge University. What a cool place!

Monday, Greg went to work and the girls and I started our mission to pack as much as we could into a week in London. We started with the Zoo. It was great weather, not too hot and not raining. We thought about not going to the aquarium because we had just been to the awesome aquarium in Spain but they talked me into it. It was incredible. They had the most beautiful coral reef exhibit. It is so colorful and intricate. Now I understand why people scuba dive to see it. The higlights were the giraffes, gorillas, bat cave, the pigeons for Bryn. She loves pigeons. We haven't figured out why the fascination with them. They also had a playground which we played at for quite a while. After an ice cream treat, it was time to make our way back to the hotel. I had the bright idea of walking the other way around Regent Park, to go through St. John's Wood. But, we blew past it and ended up getting on the tube at Baker Street. The poor girls were fairly tuckered out after that blunder. When Greg got home, he really wanted to go out and see something, so we went to Covent Garden for dinner. I have never seen Bryn eat so much. We went to an Italian place and had penne, lasagne, and pizza. Really good! We stopped for gelato outside for a bit and watched a few street performers. Always good fun.

Tuesday, we (Ellyn, Bailey, and Avery) had tickets for an evening performance of Mary Poppins so we wanted to lay fairly low as to not tire out the kids too much. The girls were very excited about the prospect of seeing Buckingham Palace - a palace where an actual King and Queen reside - "We so have to do that," exclaims Bailey. So, we got there right as the changing of the guard was happening. It was so crowded. I had to lift the girls up over my head so they could see. The picture was me holding the camera as high as I could to get a picture over the people. We wanted to tour the Mews (stables) as well as the Palace so we did that first. It was nice. The girls wanted me to read the names of all the horses as we walked through the stables. Then, we headed over to the Palace for that tour. I can sum it all up in one word - Nightmare! It would have been fine. Bryn fell asleep in the stroller so I was ecstatic that I would be able to enjoy the tour as well. However, while going through security, they informed me that you cannot take buggies into the palace. Something they had neglected to mention up until this point when I finally had Bryn asleep. So, I had to wake her up, take her out of the stroller, and try to carry her through the tour. This was difficult but fortunately the tour was at your own pace. Bailey got the most out of it as she listened to the entire tour in every room. I must say the gardens were beautiful and it was worth it because Bailey and Avery loved it. I just wish I would have known ahead of time that we couldn't take the stroller. we would have planned our day a bit differently. After all of that, we were all tired. We went back to the hotel to rest and get cleaned up for our night out. This is when we received the call from Greg that he left work two hours early to make sure he was back in time for us to leave for the theatre. However, the highway was completely shut down and there was no way he was going to make it. We knocked on the door across the hall to another Ford employee and miraculously his wife was there and said she could watch Bryn for us until Greg got there. Phew! We ran from the train to the theatre and got there with two minutes to spare. It was AMAZING. Honestly, one of the best musicals I have ever seen. It was a great choice for the girls first musical experience. It surpassed all of my expectations. I highly recommend it!

at Mary Poppins and outside Prince Edward Theatre

Wednesday, we slept in. Then, it was time to shop. We needed a rest from seeing landmarks. We took the tube to Oxford circus and shopped. We went to Primark, and bought a few things, H&M, Next, and some other Oxford Street stores. We really had a blast. This is when I am so glad to have girls. They already like to shop. After we got the mom shopping out of the way, I took them to Hamleys, which is a toy store that is six floors. We stayed there for two hours and played. The girls wanted some dress-up dresses and I looked at the price tag and they were 150 pounds, which converts to $300.00. I told them that I didn't think I could slide that past dad. Instead, they tried them on and I took a picture of them. Then, I told them they could all pick out a book instead. That was a much better plan. We had an awesome day, just us girls, doing girly things. That evening we went by Temple church (it is a Knights Templar church for all of you National Treasure fans). We grabbed some pasties for dinner and ate in St. James Park.

Thursday, I asked the girls what they wanted to do with their last two days in London and their number one choice was do the Tower Bridge tour. It was not enough to take pictures of it from the outside, so we did it. It was a great tour. One of the more interesting things we saw. And, the view was spectacular. We made our way to St. Paul's Cathedral because I thought they should see it. It was not as big of a hit as the Tower Bridge tour, but they liked it. After lunch we decided to go to Westminster Abbey. They have a special kids activities on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. It was nice. The girls made pictures and we got to hang out in the courtyard of Westminster Abbey. Another great day in London. That evening, one of his friends from work wanted to go get some gifts for his kids, so we made our way over to Harrods. The girls played on the toy floor for a while. We walked to Leicester Square and had dinner at a yummy Hamburger joint. Here we are sharing a chocolate malt.

Friday was our last day and we were pretty tired. We had been talking all week about going to the Natural History Museum, so we went around lunch time. We sat on the lawn and ate our lunch. Then, we went in. I was expecting it to be just like every other Natural History Museum we have ever seen. However, we were in for a surprise. In their dinosaur exhibit, they had a Tyrannosaurus Rex, it was not just bones. It was the actual replica, breathing, moving, and roaring. It was like we were in Jurassic Park. It just about scared the pants off of Avery. I wish I would have been able to video tape their reactions. Priceless. Also, they had some prehistoric whale bones that the girls thought were so cool. We finished up pretty early and Bailey had been wanting to go to Kensington High Street all week to see where Roddy from "Flushed Away" lived. She even remembered the address. It was only one tube stop away, so we found it. We took a picture and went back to the hotel. That night we went back to the Dickens Inn for pizza.

Saturday, we had to be on our way by 8:30am to make it to the Eurotunnel by 10:20am. We got there at 10:00am and when we cheked in, it said we had arrived too late for our departure. The next available departure time was 1:11pm. Being the level headed person I am, I ran into the office and started asking very loudly why we could not get on the train if we arrived in time. They assured me there was nothing they could do. I returned to the car and told the fam. Then, we all went in. Greg talked to the same lady and we were in serious shock that we were going to have to wait three hours to board a train. By this time, I was crying. They assured us there was nothing they could do. She pointed us in the direction of a playground they have and we started walking there. After about one minute, the lady came running up to me and tapped me on the shoulder. She said, "We just had a cancellation, and if you hurry, you can make the next train." We started running to the car, got everyone in and made it. Thank goodness we went back in.