Spring Break: London

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! We are all sporting our green today.

We are at the Euston Train Station on Tuesday, March 17th waiting to get onboard the Caledonian Sleeper car to Edinburgh. Our 5 days in London have been packed and we covered a lot of ground.

Thursday: Flight departed from DFW at 6pm. Thankfully, Grant and Cadie were upgraded which was a gift since we all rolled into the trip very tired. While Colton and I weren’t comfortable, we were grateful to sit together as we weren’t originally going to be by each other which would have made the flight even harder.

Friday: Arrival with a black cab straight to the hotel. I crashed for 3 solid hours of sleep and Colton wasn’t far behind me. I was so grateful that one of our two hotel rooms was ready when we got to the hotel at about 9:30am. We had connecting rooms at the London Hilton Bankside and I loved the hotel. It was convenient, clean, had a great Executive Lounge, and a complimentary full service breakfast. After the naps, we headed to our river cruise on the Thames. After the cruise, we went straight to Starlight Express. We were all really impressed with the high energy show and Colton has been singing “It’s not a matter of it, it’s a matter of when for Hydrogen.” We were pretty impressed with ourselves for staying awake!

Cadie and Colton had a room with 2 twin beds and Grant and I had a lovely room with a king. Cadie was thrilled to be sleepover buddies with Colton. Well, maybe not thrilled, but it worked out great.

Saturday: Grant had 10:30am reservations for the Tower of London. It is incredible how long the Towner of London has been there! Afterwards, we went to see The Producers and it was a funny and great production. After the show, we went straight to The London Eye. After watching the sunset from above, Grant and Cadie went to see “Oh Mary!” and Colton and I went back to the hotel, swam in the pool, and lounged.

Sunday: We started out the day at Hampton Court which was incredible. There was a half marathon that day on the castle grounds, but it didn’t effect our tour at all. I especially enjoyed sitting with Grant and Colton in the dining hall for King Henry VIII and Grant walking Colton through the history. Cadie mostly explored at her own pace. After Hampton Court, we got a quick bite at Vapiano’s and then Colton and I went to Stranger Things The First Shadow while Cadie and Grant walked around in the rain exploring the Mithraeum, an underground roman temple, and other historical sites. We met back at the hotel and Grant and I got a drink at a pub around the corner. Colton and I LOVED the Stranger Things show, especially since we just finished watching the TV series just about 2 months ago.

When Colton and I were navigating back to the hotel from Stranger Things, I was using chatgpt to get tube recommendations. The directions didn’t appear to be great, and Colton then busted out with, “We need to get off at the Waterloo Station, then we can get on the Jubilee Line which will take us to Southwark station and I can get us to our hotel from there.” WHAT? How does he know these things after 48 hours?

Monday: Tour day with Darius. First stop was Windsor Castle, next was Stonehenge, and then we wrapped up at the Roman Baths in Bathe. Colton succinctly describes this day as, “the first castle, the pile of old rocks, and the bubble water.” Darius dropped Grant and I off to see Cabaret and then he took Cadie and Colton to the hotel. Darius was a great driver and we laughed a lot throughout the day.

Tuesday: We rested in the morning and then checked out of our hotel before rushing to catch the 12:15pm shuttle to the Harry Potter Warner Brothers Studios. The studios tour was extensive and we all liked learning about the special effects and process that went into making the movies. Grant still hasn’t watched them! But he still appreciated the technical aspects of the movie production that we learned about during the tour.

Colton’s favorite things in London included the trains, Stranger Things The First Shadow, and the Starlight Express.

Cadie’s favorite things on this leg of the journey included Roman Baths and she really liked the tech elements of Starlight Express. Cadie also agreed this hotel was better than the one she and Grant stayed at a few years ago.

Grant is working while we wait for the train, but Cadie says she thinks he really liked all the theater and also St. Dunstan in the East Church Garden. This is a church that was destroyed during WWII and is now a memorial to the destruction of the war. Cadie and Grant went to the church while Colton and I were at the show on Sunday afternoon.

I loved seeing Stranger Things with Colton, mostly just to have the memory with him. I personally loved seeing The Tower of London, Hampton Court, and Windsor Castle. The royal family and the history of these places is fascinating.

There is so much more we could have done! We ran out of time for Westminster Abby and the British Museum, and Natural History Museum. We’ll have to come back!