First hotel pictures:
I can't say enough good things about our hotel.
We stayed in room 204. Enter the room and this is it.
A closet on one side had closet space.
Opposite side was the kitchenette.
High tech environmental lighting, the lights only work when your key is in the slot.
Ally asked Becky to take lots of pictures of the bathroom.
This is the skylight over the tub. It was great, we didn't even need a nightlight.
Electric towel warmer
Very London. All the street signs look like this and list the neighborhood. This is from our walk to the bus.
Ally and a Becky waiting for our bus. #74 two blocks from our hotel. We rode it several times. The Tube is faster than the bus, but the bus is less expensive and more scenic.
We had a few hours before we needed to get to the airport so we arranged to meet Annabel at the Victoria & Albert Museum. It was a spectacular place.
The entrance hall, it had an enourmous Dale Chihuly sculpture hanging in it. The museum was built as a symbol/ tribute of love between Queen Victoria and her husband Albert.
Lots of very different things on display.
I asked Ally to pose like the picture. She refused, but Becky played along.
One of our "must sees" for this museum was the fashion exhibit.
Greek sculpture, below Becky is standing at the one of Achilles being dipped into the river.
The building itself was incredibly beautiful. The mosaic floor, tin ceiling, mouldings, the entire space was impressive.
We toured the jewel exhibit, but photographs were prohibited in there. The silver room above was just so huge.
Above is the ceiling of the cafe! There were about 5 of those sculptures hanging in the space.
We left after a snack and a few hours. It was time to head to the airport. We walked back to the hotel, it was about a mile and very enjoyable.
We walked past the Natural History Museum.
Back to the hotel, picked up our luggage, walked to the Tube and rode that 45 minutes to the airport. Now is when I'm going to brag.
We managed a whole week with no laundry in 2 carry-on wheeling suitcases, a tote bag and a back pack! Woo hoo for us! They were pretty heavy. But it was totally manageable for us, we could carry the luggage if we needed to, and we didn't check anything in. It was great!
Once at the airport and thru security we had some lunch.
Becky had a traditional dinner of fish and chips and a beer.
Ally had the kids grilled chicken and chips. She also ate all the peas (but not the beans) on her plate. Girl loves her some peas, just not mushy.
Family selfie on the plane!
Ally even ate some of the dinner! The rice in the Curry Chicken dish and she tried a pomegranate seed from the salad.
But a highlight of the flight was that they gave us strawberry ice cream pops!!! I'd never had ice cream on an airplane before.
It was a long 7 hour flight home. We landed at 8pm Boston time, which was 1am London time. Ally and I managed to stay awake the whole time, and Becky napped a little bit. Then we waited in customs for about an hour and took a cab home. We were home around 9:30pm. Greeted our pets, and got ready for bed. Ally and I were asleep by 1030pm, which felt like 330am in London. Everyone was awake this morning early, but that is good to start getting back to our usual time.
It was a fantastic week.
Ally said that everything was her favorite about London. Then qualified that and said almost everything, her feet hurting was not a favorite. LOL lots of walking.
Becky's favorite thing was the British Museum and utilizing the buses so we saw a lot of London.
I'd say the trip itself was my favorite, we went to see friends, and we did, which was a great thing in and of itself, and exploring a foreign place together as a family was really good. I feel very lucky for being able to take the trip and for sharing it with Ally and Becky.
My favorite picture of the three of us from the trip, taken in the courtyard of the V&A.
