Or at least, that's how it felt...
At 6:30am we boarded a bus bound for London, our big adventure destination this weekend. We had our itinerary mapped out on a trusty sheet of notebook paper, our coach tickets, a packed breakfast and lunch, and full water bottles. We were ready.
We had already decided that we wanted to hit two major attractions and would leave the rest up to divine appointments or things we thought of along the way. So we did what all good travelers do on a 2 hour bus ride early in the morning, we slept. When we woke up we were just outside of London, so we dutifully scarfed down our blueberry muffins and got a hefty dose of vitamin C with our fresh-squeezed orange juices to power up for whatever lay ahead. It was quite grey, but the weather forecast had predicted a low chance of rain and overcast skies, so we weren't too worried. I also prayed since we had neglected to bring our rain jackets AND our umbrella...
Around 8:30 we arrived at the coach station and started our trek to our first stop, Harrod's. On the way we saw some pretty fancy cars (including a snazzy new Rolls Royce) and a Ferrari dealership (secretly, I think that was one of Josh's favorite parts of the whole day). When we got to Harrod's, however, we quickly realized that we might have been over eager; it didn't open until 10am, so we decided to wander around in Hyde Park, right across the street. It was a beautiful walk that took us over bridges, near the brave, but somewhat ridiculous, roller skiers, near a 5K and 10K race, and through innumerable pigeons, ducks, geese, and swans. Here are some pics of us in the park:
At 6:30am we boarded a bus bound for London, our big adventure destination this weekend. We had our itinerary mapped out on a trusty sheet of notebook paper, our coach tickets, a packed breakfast and lunch, and full water bottles. We were ready.
We had already decided that we wanted to hit two major attractions and would leave the rest up to divine appointments or things we thought of along the way. So we did what all good travelers do on a 2 hour bus ride early in the morning, we slept. When we woke up we were just outside of London, so we dutifully scarfed down our blueberry muffins and got a hefty dose of vitamin C with our fresh-squeezed orange juices to power up for whatever lay ahead. It was quite grey, but the weather forecast had predicted a low chance of rain and overcast skies, so we weren't too worried. I also prayed since we had neglected to bring our rain jackets AND our umbrella...
Around 8:30 we arrived at the coach station and started our trek to our first stop, Harrod's. On the way we saw some pretty fancy cars (including a snazzy new Rolls Royce) and a Ferrari dealership (secretly, I think that was one of Josh's favorite parts of the whole day). When we got to Harrod's, however, we quickly realized that we might have been over eager; it didn't open until 10am, so we decided to wander around in Hyde Park, right across the street. It was a beautiful walk that took us over bridges, near the brave, but somewhat ridiculous, roller skiers, near a 5K and 10K race, and through innumerable pigeons, ducks, geese, and swans. Here are some pics of us in the park:
Once we got done with our park tour, we headed back to Harrod's and got there just about as the doors opened. We saw lots of things, but my main objective was to take Josh through the food halls. When I was there five years ago, that was definitely what impressed me the most.
I mean, seriously, how could you not want one of everything when it look like that?
Not to mention they have a whole hall devoted to chocolate, coffee, and tea (but mostly to chocolate)
Imagine like 10+ cases of innumerable chocolate goodies like the one above...
We saw a little bit of everything, including their spyware room - yes, they have a spyware room, complete with Coke can DVR available for purchase - their fine art room, and their toy floor. I think Josh and I agreed that was by far the best part. We're really just giant kids at heart...
I would definitely have to say my favorites were the massive Steiff stuffed animals like this amazing bear.
After 2 hours in Harrod's, smelling all the amazing food - like at the Godiva cafe... - we were pretty hungry so we decided to go find a cafe to grab a drink at so that we could feel better about eating our packed lunch at their table. We figured Starbucks would probably be most OK with those kind of shennanigans and there just so happened to be one just across the street, so we crashed there and splurged on a mocha so that we could use some table space. It was super crowded, but it was a great view of the city street and I think we enjoyed being out of the hustle and bustle a little bit. Not to mention lunch for two for the price of one mocha isn't bad, especially in London. Before you go thinking we're total cheapskates, we had planned to go out to a nice dinner, so we figured it was worth pinching pennies on the lighter meals when we could throw two peanut butter sandwiches in Josh's backpack. They were delicious and filling and an hour or so later we emerged to go on part two of our quest: finding the Imperial War Museum. But before we embarked on that journey, we decided to go back to Harrod's to get a piece of fancy chocolate to chase our PB&Bs (peanut butter and banana sandwiches). When we finally got into the food halls - it was a LOT more crowded than it had been the hour before - we were almost immediately offered pistachio truffles by the lovely lady behind the counter to sample. Two whole truffles. We gratefully accepted and whispered a thank you prayer to our loving Daddy who so kindly provided us with free chocolates. It's the little things that always remind me how He cares about the details and loves us so much.
After that blessing, we successfully navigated the underground and managed, with the help of Josh's excellent map reading abilities, to make our way to the IWM. Even the front of the building is rather imposing...
I was super impressed with the exhibits here when I came in 2009, but unfortunately they had changed since then... imagine that! Lol, we had a good time, but it wasn't all that I remembered unfortunately. That being said, I think they have one of the most impressive collections of Holocaust remembrance material and I didn't go through that wing this time as I remembered how emotionally drained I felt last time I went through. All in all, I think we would both say it was worth the trip. Sadly, we didn't get to see the WWI exhibit - which is a huge deal here right now as this year is the 100th anniversary of the war - because the queue was snaked around most of the ground floor of the museum when we went to queue up. .... :(
It was still fun though. After the IWM our feet were killing us, so we decided to sit on the wall nearby where we were incredibly entertained by a little girl who was determined to get ALL the water bottles in the recycling bin. But every time she pushed one in two more popped out the other side because it was jam-packed. It was quite funny as she race back and forth and exclaimed to her grandma that she was going to get them in.
After sitting for a bit, it was still much too early for us to go back for dinner, so we decided we would try to go to the London Aquarium we had seen on our way in. We found a roadside map that told us we merely had to walk down to the river and we would be right near there. So we did and we when finally fought our way through the crazy crowd surrounding the London Eye, we found out that the Aquarium fee was a measly £22.20 per person - that's like $35! We decided we weren't that keen to see the fishes after all... Since we didn't have a plan really we decided we'd walk along the Thames heading toward the National Theatre to see if anything interesting was on that night. Nothing was, but we saw some street artists BMXing along the way, snapped some good pics of the Queen's Tower and Parliament, stopped off at an urban skate park to watch the young ones ply their tricks, and sat by the river to people watch.
St. Paul's Cathedral - which was stunning in the sunlight, but the photos really didn't do it justice at all
All in all, it was probably one of the most relaxing and enjoyable parts of the day and the sun even peeked out on us! Eventually, after a LOT of wandering around - including finding a crazy circular IMAX theatre that was in the middle of a roundabout - we decided we should head back for dinner. We had booked a table at Zia Teresa, a cute little Italian restaurant I found on tripadvisor that had some really fabulous reviews. When we got there, we were pleased to find it was cute and quiet and the wait staff was lovely. It got really busy by the time we left, but we had a wonderful meal and never felt rushed. I started with pan-fried squid and potatoes
I meant to take pics of all the courses, but I forgot in my ecstasy... this was the squid starter
that I shared with Josh and followed it up with an eggplant parmesan that was amazing. Josh had haddock with fennel, orange, and green peas and followed that up with a chocolate pear tart that he shared with me. Our waiter did a great job taking care of us (and constantly trying to upsell us), he made the night a lot of fun.
We lingered a bit longer than we had planned at the restaurant, but still felt like we had plenty of time to get back to the coach station until we found that the station entrance we had come from was closed for the night. That wasn't a big deal because there was another one nearby. Unfortunately, once we got to our station where we needed to transfer lines we found out that that line was not running that weekend. Fail. Now I was feeling stressed. And lost. And regretting not buying a flexible bus ticket. To make a long story short we ended up having to backtrack to find another line that would get us to Victoria and then we ran. A lot. The lack of adequate signage in London is appalling... especially when you're desperate to find the stupid coach station that's supposed to be right there. I was ready to cry. Fortunately I have a cool and collected husband who nicely asked the coach driver that was nearby and wasn't freaking out like I was. We ended up getting there with two minutes to spare only to find out that our coach was delayed (and ended up being a half hour late). Thanks Lord for Your big blessings too! And we met a new friend who is also studying Cambridge. That was pretty fantastic. So all in all, it was a very good adventure.
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