London

"Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." — Samuel Johnson   True That!! We just spent 5 days in London, completely exhausting ourselves and poor kiddos everyday and while we had a blast, I could have spent much longer and still not see everything I wanted to. It was amazing.   Day one. We had a very early morning, our flight boarded at 6am so even with staying the night before in a hotel near the airport, it was still an early start. I tried really hard to get and stay organized this trip and I am glad I did because we immediately ran into issues as soon as we got to the airport. If you are stationed here, and you want to travel out of Germany, this message is for you. You need to have your travel passports AS WELL AS your Military issued No Fee passport and your sponsor has to have a set of orders. Thank God I stuck all of that stuff in my bag just because I am freaking paranoid about stuff! If we had not thought to bring it, had I only had our travel passports, our trip would have ended 45 minutes in. Crisis averted! Team Jessie being a total freak about everything = 1, Life's bumps in the road = 0 .   We got into Stansted about 8, took a FOREVER long bus ride into London (ok, an hour and 15, it felt much longer though.) and were dropped off at the incredibly busy and intimidating Victoria Tube Station. It was craziness, I was totally overwhelmed. We did eventually manage to figure out how to get our Oyster card, so we could travel freely on the tube without constantly buying tickets. This was an amazing purchase. A week worth of unlimited train and bus travel for 30 something pounds. The kids were both free on all of the public transit. SO. Now we have the tickets, we just needed to head over to the apartment. It was actually really simple using the tube system there, although the first time my heart was racing and I was convinced we were definitely going to be on the wrong train. I annoyed Chris very much by asking 5 different people in the station every version of "how do you know if you are getting on the right train in the right direction". By day two we are comfortable with the tube, by day 3 we are pros. Actually we only used the Circle Line train, so it's hard not to be a pro, but I think if we needed to use any of the other lines we totally could have rocked that shit too..   Thankfully our apartment was about a 2 minute walk from the Bayswater station, this is a WONDERFUL area to stay in, quiet and adorable. After the craziness of being plopped right in the middle of London, it was a huge relief to get out of our station and see the calmness of this area. I loved it. We got to the apartment at 11, but could not check in until 2 so we left the bags and went for a walk. We found ourselves 4 minutes down the road in Kensington Gardens. It was so beautiful, the kids loved it, we loved it, a good time was had by all. There are tons of paths, a huge pond with swans and ducks, Princess Diana Memorial park which was so much fun, and of course, Kensington Palace.     After 2 we went back to check in. Our apartment was definitely small and not as clean as I would have liked but it was very affordable, we were able to cook breakfast and dinners there to save on some money and it was MUCH better than being in a hotel. We did eat one dinner out though, we had to try some fish and chips our first night. It was really good!   Day two. Chris was really looking forward to seeing everything over at Tower of London, and he totally wrapped me up in it with one simple statement "You can see the crown jewels..." If we have spent any time together at all, you probably know I am more into sparkly things than a cat is into a laser pointer. I was all in. Tower of London definitely did not disappoint, there was so much to see, we spent half the day there. I bought these tickets online before we left, you can save a couple pounds if you purchase online. We showed up right as they were opening and I was really glad we did because by the time we left, the lines were really long. There are many ways to do Tower of London, you can take a tour and learn a lot, get the guide book or just walk around. Chris already knew a lot about it, and the signs were very informative so we just walked around at our own pace and enjoyed it very much. The kids really loved it, Kory was so into everything. It was everything a little boy could ask for, swords, guns, cannons, armor...a huge freaking dragon made entirely of all these things.. What's not to love. Plus, we let him get ice cream. Kory becoming a coin smith master.  Engraving from a prisoner held in one of the towers Trying out the chainmail. There was a whole room of cannons. Kory thought his Papa would have loved it. The beautiful view of the River Thames and Tower Bridge from the Tower of London gave us our obvious next stop. First though we needed to stop for lunch. There were a bunch of food trucks set up near the bridge, with an adorable sitting area with tables on a large blanket of AstroTurf, so that's where we ate. I am not at all one for taking my kids to restaurants, I know they need to learn to behave somehow but it's just a stress that won't deal with if I don't have to so this was perfect. The view was amazing, the food was so good. I had a bacon sandwich. Yes, HELLO!! B.A.C.O.N. Sandwich. The name says it all, it's just a sandwich of bacon. Nothing else, nothing else needed. It was delicious. I don't know why this isn't a thing everywhere. We walked across the bridge and back for our after lunch stroll, then headed back to the train station to catch the tube to Westminster. Bacon freaking sandwiches!! Here we hit a lot of the major London things, while it wasn't in our interests to go inside everything, we did have a wonderful time walking around sight seeing. In the second half of our day we were able to see London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace. We strolled along, took pictures, Kory got a kick out of the phone booths. He was really excited to see a real one, they had a cardboard one at our library a few weeks ago that he loved. Chris totally surprised me with the idea of stopping in a cupcake shop for a snack, which of course I was down for. It was amazing and I bought some tea to take home. After the cupcakes we went over to Buckingham Palace, I'm not really sure what it was we saw but we were just in time to see a parade of soldiers leaving the palace and heading back towards the barracks, then a line of very decorated Military Gents and Ladies in their fancy hats. So yeah, that was cool.   Yummy Cupcakes!! Day 3. Back to Buckingham. We really enjoyed seeing the palace, and Kory loved seeing the soldiers there so we thought we would head back for the actual Change of Guard ceremony. We went really early and while we did get a great spot to watch the procession, we totally missed the actual change of guard and were on the wrong side to see the guards who were leaving go. But for what we did see, it was really cool! After that, we headed back to the Tower Hill area, Chris had seen a large ship the day before that looked cool so we went to check it out. The H.M.S Belfast was a pretty expensive attraction, though everyone did really enjoy it so that makes it worth it. There was lots for the kids to interact with. There was also a lot of ladders, which meant Harper spent a lot of time in the carrier, and my shoulders were finally starting to object so don't mind the fact that I look really bitchy and am also propping her on any surface I could find haha!!  Harper carries on a conversation with this plastic man.  Battleship strategy  trying to lift the anchor chain Mommy gets a break from big booty duty   Day 4. When we left Germany, we had a list of London things that we definitely wanted to see, and by day two we had checked them all off, except one. Since Kory was about 2 he has loved Dinosaurs. Like seriously loved. He could tell you more about them than I could and can give you their actual names. Names that you would not even think a child could pronounce. I have always wanted to take him to a museum with a great Dino exhibit but we have never lived close enough to one. So, when I looked up the Natural History Museum, it totally made the list. Not only is it *FREE* to get in, you could spend an entire day there...and we did. Day 4 was a day just for the kids, while they had enjoyed a lot of the things throughout the week, there were definitely times where we had to drag them along. This was our "Thanks Guys" to them. We charged up our old camera, gave it to Kory and he had the time of his life walking around snapping pictures and telling me all about everything. We went for the dinosaur exhibit but were totally impressed with the entire thing. So impressed in fact, we didn't even realize we had spent over 5 hours there. Outside was a butterfly exhibit, which we did have to pay for but Harper loves butterflies and so we knew it was going to be worth it. Surprisingly, we ALL thought this was a blast. Kory was really into it, the butterflies were really into Chris and kept landing on him. It was a perfect way to end our trip. He took pictures of everything, this was such a good idea. It kept him engaged the entire time, even through the areas of the museum he maybe wouldn't have otherwise been so interested in. I swear my kid would be totally interested in hundreds of jars of preserved specimens! Coolest part... A human brain and spinal cord! Hard to believe these two amazing stones come from what's in the middle!   Day 5. We did have a later flight but were completely exhausted and it was pouring so we relaxed in the apartment until check out and then headed to the airport early. With packing and traveling to the airport we only had a couple hours that could have been used seeing one last thing but we decided against this, not wanting to make the day feel so hectic, it would already be exhausting. This was a lovely trip, I definitely want to go back. There are so many things to see and do and I am already looking forward to visiting again with the kids at different ages and seeing how they like it.