Minutes Linger in London

Before I go any further let me fill you in on what you’re about to read. This summer my family and I took a vacation visiting 4 countries across Europe. Traveling is never dull, especially when you’re packing multiple cities into tight schedules while trying to not lose your 3 kids (12, 9, and 8) and also keeping them somewhat happy and entertained, all while trying to have a decent time yourself. I have been asked by MANY people to put my stories on this digital notepad and I thought what the heck, it’s better than doing laundry. So I hope you enjoy and no promises about the frequency of these posts, but hopefully, I’ll make it to the end of the trip because honestly, that was the absolute best.

Day 1: London, England

Leading up to this trip, I knew this day was going to suck, but honestly, I didn’t realize it was going to suck this bad. Our flight took off from Detroit last night and we landed in Heathrow first thing this morning ahead of schedule. I had assumed by the time we got through customs, got our luggage, and took the “tube” to the burrow of London in which we were staying, we would only have a few hours to kill before our 3:00 pm check-in at our hotel. Well, I was VERY wrong. Guess what? A family of 5 going through customs in London apparently gets special skip-the-line treatment and before we knew it we were on the tube, just in time for that morning rush hour. Do you know what is more awkward than being pressed up against numerous strangers as you have airplane funk and stinky pits? Not acknowledging that the person you’re pressed up against even exists. I know I’m from the Midwest and we’re exceptionally friendly, but dang, the empty stares are savage, especially to my Midwestern need to smile and acknowledge any living being.

We made it into Kings Crossing before 9:00 am and as we trudged up the stairs to the earth’s surface from the tunnels deep down below, the McDonald’s sign summoned us to their location for breakfast. We then proceeded to stop by our hotel to take a gamble and maybe get into our rooms early, but after a big fat NOPE, we left our luggage behind and had 5 additional hours to kill.

I should note, that of all 5 of us I got the most sleep on the plane with approximately 30 minutes of broken sleep. So yeah, our family was anything from bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, but we were determined to see some sights and make the most of it. We hopped a train, saw Kensington Palace, walked around, and saw a bunch of beautiful buildings and spent a significant amount of time lying under a tree in a well-known garden that I can’t honestly recall the name of – Green Gardens, is that a place? The shade of that tree was magnificent. I’m confident I could have napped for hours under that tree as thousands of people passed by as droll dripped from my big American mouth. But you know we’re with kids so, safety first…

Kids randomly fell asleep during the next few hours of our adventures and eventually,
we arrived back at the hotel right at check-in time. Getting into our room was so exceptionally glorious, it felt like that big moment of opening a present you’ve been hoping forever for. Accessing our room by far was the highlight of today, but that may be heavily influenced by my sleep-deprived mind and not having to worry about finding a bathroom during our time there (seriously though….a story for another day).

I’m going to bed confident that tomorrow will be a better day.

2 Weeks Later Update: Today I was looking through my spam folder and you know what I come across? An email from the hotel in London was sent the day before our arrival asking if we were interested in early freaking access to our room for only $25! The sheer amount of annoyance that this email didn’t make it into my inbox for me to see. Clearly we would have taken advantage of early access to our room and only $25! It’s clearly too late now to dwell on it, and…what treacherous journeys and stories would I have if everything ran smoothly?

Until next time.
BB