Tammy Trip Reports | Day 2 – Staying Awake in London!

04 Apr

Posted at 08:11h in Uncategorized by Tammy 0 Comments

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Day 2 – Staying Awake in London!

Yesterday kind of merged into today!

But we were here! We landed around noon at Heathrow, which worked pretty well for the customs line which was much shorter than other times I’ve landed in the morning there.

I took a picture and then remembered I was probably not supposed to do that.

We went through customs, picked up our bags and found the transfer company and the dude with the sign that said “Tammy Whiting!” I checked my messages and my parents had decided they didn’t want to sit at Heathrow for 4 hours, so they were gone. Couldn’t blame them!

Our transfer guy had another couple standing there that had approached him about a transfer and he asked if we minded if they joined in on our ride. We didn’t, of course, and I told him I just needed to run to the ATM and pick up our mobile Wi-Fi.

I sent Ally to the ATM and I went to the Unclaimed Baggage where I was going to pick up the Wi-Fi. I had rented a mobile Wi-Fi device for our trip and I was pretty excited to see how this would work. We knew it wouldn’t work at sea, but we had a lot of port days! And a lot of days before and after we boarded. I was super excited about the ability to check in with Heather, who was covering my email, update social media, and not have to search for free Wi-Fi in ports!

You can purchase the device and pay a daily fee, or rent it. I rented it. It’s unlimited data for up to 5 devices. Brilliant.

They had my name and I picked it up! The company is called Tep, and for some reason, Ally thought it looked like “Jeb”. So we affectionately named him Jeb.

That’s for me!

Here’s the carrying case!

And finally we were in the car.

Our hotel was the Marriott right next to the London Eye and across the bridge from Big Ben. It was such an amazing location!

I actually remembered seeing it on our last trip through London and said I was definitely staying there the next time we came. So we did!

And here’s a pro-tip for you. When you book international air, it’s often cheaper to add a hotel or rental car on. And when I say cheaper, I don’t mean that the hotel or rental car is slightly discounted. I mean that I priced our air, and then I priced it again with two nights at a hotel and the price went down $100 from buying just air. And I had an awesome hotel! I was super excited.

We’re here!

Elevator picture! Otherwise known as – we’ve mostly been awake and in these clothes for like 30 hours picture!

Oh my word I loved this hotel. I loved it! I finally broke out the real camera. Since most rooms in Europe only sleep two or three, Stephen and I had a room right next to the girls. Here’s mine!

It even had a US plug! Woot! And an umbrella. How thoughtful!

The only only downside was there was no bathtub. And those that know me, know that did make me sad.

But this location made up for it!

The wallpaper was a map of London!

While I was taking pictures, I heard from Dad and Mom. They were downstairs with some friends of ours who are living in London for 6 months. I ran down and said hi and told them to give us 20 minutes to freshen up.

I went to the girl’s room and they were literally dancing around the room and filming videos. Never a dull moment.

They got beautified and we were off in search of food!

In search of the lift! We shall not call them elevators anymore!

Look at this awesome wallpaper!

And this wall outside the lifts! Look how cute!

In the lift!

There’s Dad! Out in the courtyard:

We crossed the river. Look kids, Big Ben!

We stopped in a pub right across from Big Ben.

The first of many fish and chips:

It was delicious, but sitting made us all drag a little. So it was good to get back out in the open air!

I just love London.

Here’s Westminster Abbey!

We walked through the college behind the abbey. I decided this is where Ally really should have picked for college.

Parliament had a St Stephen entrance, which we found quite amusing.

After we walked for a while, it was about 4:00. The girls really wanted to do the Eye, so we decided that would be our last stop before bed. Actually, the girls wanted bed right then and there, but I bribed them with the Eye to keep them awake a little longer! We said goodbye to our friends and walked across the bridge.

There we are!

Dad and mom decided they were ready to go back to the room, so we made plans to meet in the morning and said goodnight!

Update, our mobile wireless, Jeb, was a champ. We were all quickly falling in love with him. The girls were snapchatting, I was updating Heather on what we were doing and sending pictures for social media, and anyone who needed us could get a hold of us on Facebook messenger. Seriously. Well done, Jeb!

The amount of tourist traps in this area was hilarious!

The line wasn’t bad at all, and before we knew it, we were on!

This purple thing was hilarious. It was an upside down cow stage!

Our pod –

The views are just spectacular!

Cuties!

You can see the top of Buckingham Palace towards the bottom between the trees (Hyde Park) and the brown dirt patch. I forgot how close we were. We should have walked there!