anyway, Europe was wonderful! we absolutely loved London and I'm still dreaming of the food from Paris. for the purpose of this blog post, we'll focus on London first.
we took a non stop flight from SFO to LHR and arrived at around 2 pm local time. we arranged for a taxi to pick us up and take us to the city center at a cost of about 45 pounds. the airport is about 45 minutes to an hour from the city center so it's quite a bit of a drive. taking the tube would have been more cost effective but we've heard from friends and read blogs that the tube can be really crowded and it is difficult to take when you're hauling your luggage around. that and we are traveling with michelle who is 7 years old...the convenience alone is worth the money.
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| smooth flight from SFO to LHR upgraded to economy plus seats, we got a little bit more leg room |
it was a 4 day weekend in London when we arrived so the city was packed to the gills with tourists! our cab driver took roads to show some of the highlights of the city...we drove past Westminster abbey, big ben, and the museum of natural history. home was the Waldorf Hilton near West End/Covent Garden which was such a convenient location if you decide to stay in the middle of the city. covent garden was 3 blocks away so there was an abundance of restaurants to choose from. on our first night, we had dinner at Bella Italia with a friend of ours who lives in London.
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| Waldorf Hilton London |
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| the view from our room |
on our first full day in London, we decided to take the hop on/hop off tour to maximize our time. it was around 32 pounds per person, I would advise tourists to stop converting the amount to your local currency. =D London is very expensive but really worth a visit. we didn't go to many museums because we know it would bore michelle. we're traveling the world with her but we also know what would keep her entertained. I was planning on skipping the changing of the guards because it gets absolutely crowded and i didn't want to stand around for hours to get the best view but we arrived at Buckingham palace just in time for the changing of the guards and michelle wanted to see it so much so we stayed. she said it was one of the highlights of her trip to London.
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| upper deck of the hop on/hop off bus |
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| at St. Paul's Cathedral |
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| tower of london |
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| tower bridge (not the london bridge) |
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| westminster abbey |
easter sunday, we attended the sunday service at hillsong in London. it was such a blessing to be able to attend their easter service. they dramatized the life of Christ in a modern dance that was just spectacular. very unique. Christianity is perceived by some as boring and outdated but hillsong's easter performance proves that our faith isn't boring and can evolve to keep up with the times. the message isn't lost and just showed that we can spread the gospel in many different ways. =D
the only museum we visited in London was the british museum of natural history. we arrived just a few minutes before the doors were set to open because the lines for this free museum can be really long. like i said, it was a 4 day weekend in London when we arrived so we know that lines would be extra long. it is one of my favorite buildings in the world- beautiful inside and out. the exhibit is great for the kids and michelle had a blast exploring the museum. once you enter the museum, head to the dinosaur exhibit first because this is the most popular part of the museum. get there early and head straight to the dinosaurs!
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| british museum of natural history |
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| inside the museum |
after the museum, we went to the London Eye. i would advise to purchase your tickets in advance and skip the line (27 pounds for fast track). it will cost less if you don't mind standing in line but you're on vacation for a limited time and you don't want to spend precious time standing in line for an attraction. i have a fear of heights so i wasn't sure if i was going to enjoying riding this massive Ferris Wheel...well, i enjoyed it. it moved so smoothly and slow enough that it doesn't feel like you are hundreds of feet from the ground. we were blessed with great weather that day and we really enjoyed the view.
there was a lot of walking involved. i think we walked about 10 miles each day we were on vacation. i was concerned that my r.a. would hold me back from walking and exploring but it didn't, thank God! even michelle was also able to keep up with us. when we went to italy two years ago, she didn't really complain so we were confident she can handle all the sightseeing. she does amazingly well on flights also but lately i've noticed she slept less and spent most of her time watching the in-flight movies. united had a good selection of movies for kids and adults. i saw anchor man 2 (bad), monuments men (good), the book thief (great), and the secret life of walter mitty (good). i watched all these movies on the flight back to sfo. i slept most of the flight from sfo to london (red eye flight).
some of the things we were not able to do but wish we did a.k.a. reasons to go back soon:
we didn't get a chance to see a show on west end =(. we wanted to see a matinee show because we were afraid that michelle will fall asleep in the middle of an evening show due to jetlag. matinees are usually on Thursdays and we were in a different city on Thursday. miss saigon started the week after we returned from europe. will do this next time!
british museum. I've been here once before and truly loved it. this museum is also free and it has a great collection of antiquities plus the rosetta stone (the real one, not the language tutorial).
English countryside. i was told by friends to skip the Stonehenge because it is boring and there's nothing else to see except the stones....i still want to see it and explore the countryside.
on my next blog update i will write a more detailed review of our hotel, the waldorf hilton and london's food.
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