London

For those of you who wanted a more in depth account of our vacation I have chosen to blog about it... Mooowahhahahaa!!!
(evil music plays in the background)



If you didn't know, this trip to Paris originally was supposed to happen 3 years ago. I booked everything, got confirmations on the flights and hotel and then started feeling very sick. Alas, I took a pregnancy test and sure enough... Baby number 4, Lilyana decided to interrupt our plans. So we canceled everything and put Paris on the back burner where she has always been. 3 months ago I was dreaming with my friend Dana at work about vacationing and she told me about Contiki tours for people 18-35 years old. I went home and checked out the website, then somehow Josh went to work one day and when he came home I had booked the trip! We got our passports right away and then the waiting came. The nightmares that the plane was going to crash and we would leave our children parent-less to a broken home with no one to love them as much as we did... yadda, yadda, yadda. Thankfully the trip was just 2 short months away by now and it was the Holiday season at work so I was up to my elbows in buttercream and unable to worry constantly, not that I didn't try.

Fast forward to Christmas, awesome. The kids were generously visited by Santa and Mom & Dad (feeling guilty). In the meantime the US was having a TERRIBLE snow storm/blizzard white out,icy conditions as was most of Europe. I was certain our trip was doomed. The 27th rolled around and miracle of all miracles... The skies cleared! Chicago skies were clear, London was foggy (but it always is) and we were cleared for take off! We had arranged for the kids to go on a crazy schedule between 3 different grandparents for this trip to workout, so we packed everyone up and left!

12/28-29/10
A Foggy Day In London Town
We took the overnight flight to London and arrived at 6am, not so fresh and ready for the day. The tube was surprisingly easy to take into town, about an hour ride to our stop at Russell Square. Our hotel, The Royal National(should have been called the Royal Hot Mess) was just a short walk away. It was too early to check-in, so we set off on foot exploring. I was surprised at how warm the temperature was, there was a fine mist in the air. It wasn't really raining, still it was just misting enough to put an annoying film on your glasses but otherwise not troublesome at all.


Russell Square is a lovely little park just a block down from our hotel with a nice little fountain, but nothing much else to look at. We headed down a street towards the British Museum and were pleasantly surprised to find free entry and toilets!

We started a stroll through the galleries, snapped a photo and were promptly told we were not allowed to wheel luggage through the gallery. Boo! But I totally understand this.



So we left and discovered a little cafe down the street. It was warm and a nice place to rest our feet while trying to keep our eyes open. Josh had gotten up at 4am to work at the bakery making croissant and then traveled all day and by now it was way past our bedtime so he was understandably grumpy and tired. We headed back to the hotel after breakfast hoping the Contiki Basement would be open, and it was! We got our room keys and crashed in the hottest most disgusting hotel room I've ever stayed in, but on the bright side it was indoors, had a toilet, and it was very warm!

Semi-refreshed after our naps, we ventured out again about town not wandering too far because we had a meeting at 6pm with our Contiki group. We came upon a shopping center and meandered about the shops including a grocery store where I bought apricots for nourishment and nail clippers, for the obvious. Then we found this little bakery with fabulous looking desserts. We bought many things to sample and lattes to go, nasty espresso and absolute crap pastries. Yuck! We were so hoping for something good to eat! So I nibbled on my grocery apricots and we walked back to the hot mess hotel to our meeting place.

There were 7 tours leaving the next morning with Contiki, so we had to pay close attention! They stressed at the meeting being prompt as not to be left behind and they really meant it! We met a few of our tour mates at the meeting and most people went on to the pub to have a few but we decided to walk towards town and see what trouble we could muster up on our own!

This I must say, turned out to be the best night of our vacation. We walked all the way down to the London Eye, past Westminster Abby, and Big Ben then back up through the theater district where we found this AMAZING pastry shop!










I do not mind spending money on good food. I try to do it quite often, how hard is it to serve me really excellent, fresh ingredients, and not screw it up? Harder than you could imagine I guess because I rarely get to eat things that I believe are truly divine and this pastry shop was outstanding in service and in flavor one in the same.

I had a hot chocolate and fresh berry tart, Josh had a Cappuccino and Tiramisu. I wanted to eat his whole plate, but restrained myself. We got a couple of muffins to go, blueberry and caramel for breakfast... Heaven! (Josh later forgets his Caramel muffin in the Hot Mess Hotel which I still don't forgive him for, What a shame!)

With our bellies happy and feet rested we took off towards Piccadilly Circus. This is truly a sight to see, like the Time Square of London. So much to see and take in, amazing! We headed off down a street, not quite sure of our direction but heading in the general area of our hotel. We came upon a sort of red-light district with many flavorful stores and bars, we should have eaten dinner here. It looked to be the undiscovered/avoided part of London by tourists and the place to have some really awesome food. We were so tired we kept walking, but it would be the first place I'd go back to when we return one day!

After a quick discussion (argument) about which direction we were headed and where we actually needed to go, we were back on track and came upon the British Museum again .... Ah HA! Knowing we where in the right neighborhood once again, it was a short walk through Russell Square back to The Hot Mess Hotel and to bed for the night. (HA!)

12/30/10
A Bus, A Puker, & A Ferry
6am Up and at 'em ready to face the day after a steamy hot night of little sleep, not from what you think. The tour group met and it was a massive lot of semi-confusion until we boarded the tour buses. Then we were off! Cruising the streets of London with our tour guide Ben announcing the sights along the way. We passed The Tower of London on the way out of town which I was really excited about because it was the one thing we did not get to walk passed that I really wanted to see. Thus I am very proud of my crappy picture of it from the Contiki bus!

Not 5 minutes onto the highway and the Canadian girl pukes, seriously. Being in the front of the bus, I didn't get a good fix on who this girl was. Icky. Thus our journey to Dover began! Our guide had the timing down just right as everyone was falling asleep to wake us up by announcing something very important that we must take notes about which generally meant Josh slept while I scribbled chicken scratch through deciphering Ben's thick British Accent.

It was about an hour bus ride to the famous White Cliffs of Dover where we boarded a Ferry to take us across the English Channel to Calais, France. For those of you who have never been on a Ferry, it was a BIG ASS BOAT! So big, you actually drive the bus onto it park and get off to meander about the decks as you cruise across the water. We had breakfast on board, then waited in line for a latte for a good 45 minutes. We still had some time left to kill so Josh sat down while I ventured into the duty free shop! Ben had stressed that timing was very important on this trip and I did not have a watch so I felt the need to buy a very cool bracelet Swatch watch to tell time, which ended up being a good idea! We hopped back on the bus and we were off once again... To France we go!













If this blog has entertained you, you can look forward to my next installment coming as soon as my lazy fingers will type it entitled, "France". Brilliant, right?! If this blog has in anyway upset you, I apologize for it is merely my boring recount of my husband and I's pre-tenth anniversary celebratory trip!