Family Fun in Europe, Part 8: London

This is my eighth post about our family's 2024 trip to Europe. I recommend reading the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh posts before this one.

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London, United Kingdom

On Friday, July 19, I felt lousy, but so much better than the previous day. My nose and throat were perfectly fine, but I was exhausted and seriously overheated, even in the cool morning. I didn't have a fever, but I'd been struggling with temperature regulation on and off since surgery and this day was the worst. Staying in the hotel room wasn't an option, though. We were leaving Belgium early in the morning. I slept for most of the 2-hour train ride to St. Pancras in London. 

They have paid luggage storage at St. Pancras, so dropping off our suitcases was our first order of business. Once that was done, it was time to do some sightseeing. London was the only city on this trip that we'd previously visited, so I'd hoped to see different things this time. For a number of reasons, that didn't work out and we ended up taking a similar hop-on-hop-off tour to the one we'd done five years ago. 

That was fine - five years is a long time, the narration was up-to-date, and the route was slightly different. What wasn't fine - the traffic and the crowds. Oh my gosh. 

Instead of zipping through town and seeing a bunch of different sites with constant narration, we spent huge amounts of time stuck in traffic with no narration. Since recorded narration is triggered by passing a certain location, there were huge gaps between fun facts while we crawled along. Having a live guide would have made a huge difference. 

  

The plan had been to ride the HOHO partway, then get off in order to transfer to the included Thames River cruise, something we didn't do last time. Either the driver didn't announce the stop or all nine of us missed hearing it. Instead of cruising the Thames, we drove over it. 

I did enjoy the parts of the HOHO where traffic wasn't terrible and the narration was more frequent. It was fun seeing sights we'd visited in 2019. 

  

  

We hopped off to have lunch, then hopped back on to continue the loop. 

It was exciting to see Big Ben. When we visited in 2019, it was covered with scaffolding. 

I can't emphasize enough how bad the traffic was on most of the route. It had been a non-issue in April 2019 - just normal city traffic. On that particular Friday in July 2024, it crawled. It took hours to complete what should have been a 60-90 minute loop. We saw emergency vehicles trying to get through traffic unsuccessfully. I am convinced that there are people who died because gridlock prevented first responders from getting to them in a timely manner. 

By the time we got back to where we could transfer to the river cruise, it was already time to pick up our luggage from St. Pancras and head to our hotel near Heathrow. So no Thames River cruise for us, which was very disappointing. The next time we're in London it will be my top priority. 

With luggage in hand, we got an Uber to take us the 19 miles to our hotel, where we planned to drop off luggage and relax a bit before a friend would arrive to take us to dinner. Care to guess how long the drive took? We went 19 miles in 75 minutes. Yuck. No time to relax. But all was forgotten when Mahendra arrived to pick us up from our hotel. It was great to see him and catch up. And boy, were we in for a treat! He drove us through some cute towns and then turned onto this tiny road. Look at the banks. It's a now-paved holloway!

What was the destination of centuries' worth of travelers? The Royal Standard is the oldest pub in England and has operated for over 900 years!

  

Check out the entry way. It doesn't look as dramatic in the photo as in real life, but there's quite a trench in the center from the feet of countless patrons shuffling in over the centuries. 

It was a beautiful day, so literally everyone else was eating outside. We chose to eat indoors in order to experience the history of the place. It was nice to be able to photograph the empty interior without disturbing anyone. 

Bunny!

The Royal Standard serves classic British food. We loved everything we tried. 

  

  

Thanks to Mahendra for taking us to such an interesting and historic place. It was perfect. 

It was quite late when we got back to the hotel, the Radisson Red Heathrow. Why did we stay at an airport hotel when we wouldn't be flying anywhere for two more weeks? I'll tell you on Monday. 

London 2019

I finished the final page from our 2019 Europe trip during the Victoria Marie online crop. Ta da!

London 2019 (affiliate link)

For this layout, I started with the photos (as always). I had a heck of a time choosing just a few pictures to represent the scope of what we did during our time in London. I prioritized the people pictures (and managed to include everyone except my dad) and then filled in as many other things as I could fit and still leave room for a title and journaling. I handwrite my journaling 99% of the time, but I opted to print it this time to fit everything in neatly. 

My favorite thing about this page is the sticker border along the bottom. I was inspired by Victoria's Spooky Border Challenge, which had us create a festive border on a layout. We were allowed to do non-Halloween themes, so this was the perfect chance for me to use a bunch of London stickers that Paper House Productions had sent me. I didn't plan it out; I just started putting stickers down and hoped for the best. I'm really happy with it. I'm going to remember this idea and use it again in the future. It's a great way to embellish a themed page without taking the focus away from the photos. 

I love that the whole trip is in the album now! It was such an epic vacation with so many great memories. 

The Making of Harry Potter

In April 2019, Trevor and I experienced The Making of Harry Potter at Warner Bros. Studio in London. It was absolutely incredible. We loved every minute. I'd go back in a heartbeat. 

The Making of Harry Potter (affiliate link)

As usual, I really struggled trying to decide which pictures to include on the scrapbook layout. I used 75+ photos for the blog post about the visit, so you can imagine how hard it was to narrow those down to the seven I used!

Once I picked my photos, the layout came together easily. I made my photo grid, constructed the title using three stickers, added a journaling box, and anchored the layout with the sticker strip across the bottom. The last touch was adding the Hufflepuff sticker next to Trevor and the Ravenclaw sticker by me. 

I'm so happy with this layout and thrilled to have it in the album. Only two more pages to go before I've finished scrapping our 2019 Europe trip. 

Salisbury, Stonehenge, and Windsor

During our Europe visit in April 2019, we took a 10-hour tour that started in Southampton (where we'd disembarked from a cruise) and took us to Salisbury, Stonehenge, and Windsor, before dropping us at our hotel in London. It was a great day (although the crowds at Stonehenge and Windsor Castle were insane) and we loved seeing these iconic locations in person.  

Salisbury, Stonehenge, and Windsor (affiliate link)

For the layout, I chose five photos from Salisbury (where it was easy to take pictures without 10,000 people in the way), two from Stonehenge, and three from Windsor. If you look really carefully (including in the phone booth), you can spot everyone in the family in at least one photo except for my dad. Fortunately, there's photo evidence of him in the blog post. 

First Trip to Europe: London Part 2

This is my eleventh (and final) post about our family's first trip to Europe. You can find the first post from this trip here and links to all the educational US travel we have done here.

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Trevor and I started out on Thursday, April 18 with my parents, who were walking to a HOHO stop about a mile northeast of our hotel. On the way, we passed by this famous landmark.

We left my parents at their bus, then continued on to Euston Station, where we would be meeting for our tour. 

Tour of what, you ask? I'll get there. First, we needed lunch. There were a lot of choices, but we made a beeline for a pasty. Yum. 

Trevor and I split one and it was delicious. 

Then we chose a donut from Dum Dum Donutterie. These aren't ordinary donuts. They're baked (not fried) croissant donuts. We split a Galaxy donut. Fabulous. 

After lunch, we met up with our tour group, then boarded our train. We traveled for about 25 minutes, got off, then boarded a bus. Ten minutes later, we were at our destination. We received headphones and got ready for our epic, behind-the-scenes tour. Can you guess where we went based on this photo?

 

If you guessed The Making of Harry Potter at Warner Bros. Studio, you're right!

Before I tell you all about it, I need to back up and explain why Trevor and I went alone. It wasn't by choice. Steve, my mom, and my sister are all huge Harry Potter fans too. 

As I've mentioned, Kari did most of the planning for our Europe trip, arranging the cruise, hotels, and the tour I told you about earlier. Months ago, I booked our family's flights, shore excursions, and the train we didn't take. But I didn't plan anything for Rome or London until a few weeks before we traveled. Between my three speaking engagements and a million other things on my plate, it wasn't a priority. When I finally started researching, I discovered the Warner Bros. Studio. At first, I assumed it was like the Wizarding World at Universal here in California, but no. This is where the films were made, and you visit the actual sets, see the real costumes, and literally go behind the scenes of the movies! I was SO excited! 

Kari and family already had their Disneyland Paris plans, so they couldn't join us. But Steve, Mom, and Dad were in. I went to the site to book five tickets... no tickets available for any time on any of the three days we'd be in London. None. What the heck?! I tried other companies. Sold out. Apparently tickets sell out months in advance. Long story short, I contacted all of the tour companies that sell tour tickets (I found 8) and begged them to put me on their waitlists. I refreshed every site every hour (not exaggerating) and FINALLY found two tickets, three days before we were traveling. I snatched them up. I checked for extra tickets while we were in Rome, and once a day while we were on the cruise. Nope. By then, Steve had made plans with Mahendra and my parents had decided to spend their day on the HOHO. So Trevor and I went alone. 

It. Was. Incredible. 

I can't tell you how amazing it was to be in the actual Great Hall with the actual props and actual costumes.

The tour starts with a movie, then you enter the Great Hall. From there, you proceed into the first studio. Remember, these are the actual sets, props, and costumes from the movies.

The tickets I got were for a fully guided tour through Viator, which was FANTASTIC. Definitely go that route if you have the chance. (Book your tickets 6+ months in advance.) Our guide, Hannah, put on her white gloves to show us costume continuity sheets, the insides of textbooks, potions bottles, and even Harry's scar. It was incredible. 

The Mirror of Erised. 

The Griffindor Common Room. 

Dumbledore's office.

My favorite set was the Potions classroom. 

Hagrid's hut was cool, too. 

Actually, everything was cool. Hannah had interesting stories about every single thing.

We listened to her through headphones, so she didn't have to yell and we didn't have to stand right near her.

  

The first portion of our tour lasted two hours. Then we had a 30-minute break, conveniently located near the Butterbeer. Obviously, we had to try both the drink and the ice cream version. Delicious. 

  

We also enjoyed the outdoor sets during our break.

  

Then Hannah rejoined us to continue the guided tour. 

  

Then Diagon Alley. 

The tour concluded at this stunning model of Hogwarts. 

Here's a sense of scale for you. 

The lighting switched gradually from day to night. Gorgeous.

At this point, we were welcome to go back and spend as much time at any of the areas we wanted. Trevor and I went back to do some of the hands-on stuff we hadn't done during the guided tour, then reluctantly said goodbye to Hannah and Warner Bros. We had plans to meet up with Steve and Mahendra for a late dinner, so it was time to go.

We rode the bus back to the train station, then found our train. We arrived in Euston Station, where we'd started, no problem. But, WOW, was it crowded! It was the evening before the start of Easter weekend, and the station was jammed with commuters, vacationers, and families. We had instructions to take the Northern tube line from Euston to Leiscester, then walk a few blocks from there. OK, Black Line. Easy enough.

Trevor and I are not public transportation novices (far from it), but it turned out not to be that easy. It might have been if there hadn't been thousands of people everywhere. We bought our tickets, then got directions to our platform from an employee. We squeezed on the train and only went one stop before Trevor noticed our train was not going the right way. We got off and figured out the mistake (the Black Line splits and we were on the wrong portion), got back on a train to Euston, then got onto the correct train. We reached Leiscester Square and fought through crowds to the restaurant, Maison Bab. 

It was dinner for seven. Mahendra's wife Manna, daughter Pina, and coworker Dimitrios joined us for a spectacular meal. Everything was absolutely delicious and I couldn't have asked for better dining companions. 

We didn't leave the restaurant until 11:00 pm. By the time we walked back to the hotel, it was 11:45 pm... WAY past our bedtime. But what a day!

After our late night, we slept in on Friday, April 19, then headed to Hyde Park via Marble Arch. The only good thing about the protests was that crossing the street was really easy. 

Our goal was to find a geocache. Specifically, a multi called "Arch to Arch." The cache was very well done and took us on a tour of the beautiful and interesting monuments and memorials in Hyde Park. 

While working on a puzzle, this randomly happened. Totally cool. 

We eventually found the cache (yea, us!) and then walked to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The V&A is considered one of the world's best museums of art and design. 

It was spectacular. We absolutely loved it. 

We ate lunch at the V&A, which has the nicest cafeteria-style museum food I've ever seen. 

It has the nicest dining areas, too. 

I discovered my new favorite soda (affiliate link) there. It is SO good. 

My favorite part of the (HUGE) museum was the fashion wing. I am very glad I didn't live in era of skirts wider than your height.

The V&A did a good job with providing hands-on areas. Here, Trevor is feeling the layers that make up this bed. Below we're designing our own monograms. 

I love this bouquet of silverware.

  

Gorgeous jewelry, displayed so beautifully. 

I liked the glass area a lot. 

After a few hours at the V&A, we'd barely scratched the surface of what was there, but we were dragging. All that walking, followed by standing on the marble and tile floors, and we were drained and our feet were sore. We pulled ourselves away, knowing we still had a nearly 2 mile walk back. Fortunately, it was a beautiful walk, this time through a different area of Hyde Park.

We collapsed at the hotel with 20,000+ steps showing on the FitBit. After an hour of rest, we met up with the rest of the family for dinner and a stroll through Hyde Park. Only the close part, thankfully!

We walked back to the hotel (along the roads closed by the protests, which is why they're posing in the center of the street). 

And then it was time to say goodnight and goodbye. We left early the next morning, flying direct from Heathrow to SFO. The rest of the family left a little later than we did and their route was much longer: Heathrow to Iceland to Seattle to Boise. I really miss the days when they lived in California, but I'm glad for the chance to travel with them. What a trip and what an adventure!