Tammy Trip Reports | Day 2

30 Jan

Posted at 06:47h in Uncategorized by Tammy 0 Comments

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Day 2 – London Layover

We were all so excited to be in London that we woke up pretty easily. Chase was picking out all the soccer stadiums as we landed.

The customs line was ginormous, but we didn’t care. Once we got through we headed to the British Airways check in gates to wait for Stephen. Stephen was in another terminal and it took him a very very long time to get over to us. Here we are with all our bags looking at the screens:

If you notice, Ally is sitting on the floor by the bags. At one point she laid her head down in her lap and tried to sleep. This fascinated a little girl who walked by holding her dad’s hand. She asked (in the most adorable British accent), “What is that lady doing, Daddy?”

He said, “She’s sleeping, Honey.” And tried to walk on.

She kept pulling his arm to stop and look and said, “But whyyyy? Why is the lady sleeping, Daddy?” He said, “She probably flew on a plane for a very long time to get here.”

And I saw the corner of Ally’s mouth turn up as she (obviously not totally asleep) listened to the whole thing. It was so cute.

Stephen found us and we checked in for our flight that evening. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t take our bags and we were left with a quandary. We needed to stay awake and adjust to the new time zone. We really didn’t want to sit in the airport all day, especially one with only 45 minutes of free wi-fi. (What up with that, Heathrow?)

So our best option was to tour London. We had plenty of time, but the bags were a problem. We knew there was a place you could leave your bags, so we went off in search of that. Found it, but it was 8.7 euros a bag. We really didn’t want to lug carry-ons either, so we were looking at 21 bags times approximately $11.50. No no no no no.

What to do, what to do.

Then I remembered! There was a hotel attached to the airport! The Sofitel.

I left everyone and walked over to see what the rates were. They were sold out of day rates (oops, didn’t even think about that one) but they had a travel agent discount.

It was a very nice hotel so it was still about 100 euros, but we decided that was worth it.

We checked in to a room for two with 6 people and 21 bags. We were quite a sight!

Stephen succumbed to the siren call of the bed while the rest of us put on some warmer clothes for touring.

I got on the phone trying to confirm our transfers for Barcelona the next day. It was taking forever so I told everyone to start walking and I’d meet them. I went out about 5 minutes later and started jogging towards the store in the airport where I told them I’d meet them. I got about halfway there and realized – I FORGOT MY CAMERA!!

What on earth? It was like a recurring nightmare I have about being somewhere with the most amazing Kodak moments and my camera not working. I’ll blame it on sleep deprivation.

I knew everyone was waiting (and let’s face it, I don’t jog that fast) so I briefly considered trying to make it with just my iPhone. We had two more days in London after the cruise or I wouldn’t even have considered it. It was still a bad idea.

I was in London for heaven’s sake. So I jogged back! And back to the store. We all bought some snacks and then underground passes.

The underground was quite nice! It’s a long ride from the airport, but cheap.

The kids used this time to nap.

I was quite amused by the driver’s voice on the metro. Partly because of the awesome English accent of course, but also because they were so polite!!

In D.C. if you do something stupid, the driver is going to berate you, threaten your freedom, and perhaps ask you to get off. In London someone opened the doors between the cars while the trains were moving. The driver came on and said (you have to read this in a very refined awesome accent), “Please please do not open the doors between the cars while the train is moving. It’s just really not safe! It’s really not! Thank you.”

We exited the metro right at Big Ben. Awesome.

Look kids! Big Ben!

Chase and Mom:

Ally-oop:

We walked over to see the bridge. There’s the eye!

Phone booth photo op!

Then we passed Westminster Abbey. We were all hungry so we decided to wait and tour the Abbey when we came back to London after the cruise.

We asked a security guard for a restaurant suggestion and he pointed us towards a nearby pub.

Here we are!

It was okay. We wanted fish and chips, but they only had cod and chips? We thought that would be similar but it wasn’t really what we were thinking. It was still neat to be there. Oh, and they had free Wi-Fi! Woot!

Here’s our fish:

Chase had shrimp:

Ally had a hamburger that I forgot to take a picture of apparently. Next we started walking towards Buckingham Palace.

My word these buildings were old.

I liked how the crosswalks all had these reminders.

I still forgot once and looked the wrong way and almost got hit. Oops!

Buckingham Palace was beautiful:

Family shot with a random little boy!

While we were facing the statue out front, we heard the crowd scream behind us. I turned around and saw 2 cars entering the palace. A lady passed us and said to her daughter, “I can’t believe we saw her!!”

Ack!! Her?!! We saw the car that the Queen or Kate was in!! Yay!! That totally counts right?

Here’s the car leaving with no passengers:

After our near brush with royalty, we walked back to the underground.

We passed Hyde park:

We had about 30 minutes in the room before we needed to go check in. Stephen had taken a nap, showered and was feeling pretty good. We checked in with our bags. Oops. We had one too many bags.

At the last minute before leaving we decided Stephen would check two bags so we could bring a hang up bag. Military flying with United can check an extra bag at no charge. Well unfortunately this leg was on British Air and we had to pay. 40 pounds! Ouch!

We then had an amusing conversation with my parents when I told them we had to pay for a bag. They said how much? I said “40 pounds.” They said, “No, how much did you pay.” I said, “40 pounds!” It took us a minute to sort that out.

We’re in!

45 minutes of free Wi-Fi!

I think we all slept on this flight. We did get a nice snack wrap before we landed. We arrived in Barcelona about 10:00, so we were ready for bed! Thankfully there was no customs line here. We went to find our hotel shuttle. They were just pulling away so we had to wait about 15 minutes.

Some of us didn’t appreciate having their picture taken after being awake for 36 hours:

The driver laughed when he saw all our bags, but we made it!

Here’s the hotel. It was It wasn’t bad at all considering what we paid. The rooms only slept 2, so we ended up with two rooms. The lobby was verrrrrrrrrry pink: