Not the smoothest start but then great first day in London!

We’re here!! We made it. It was not the smoothest of journeys, but not bad really, either, and it certainly could be worse. (See news today of a fire at a power substation closing London Heathrow airport for the entire day today, at least! 😳😳 Thank GOD we weren’t flying in today instead!)

We left home at 3:30 sharp on Thursday.

We left him home (my sister-in-law was going to be staying with him/coming for him shortly after she got her kids from school) and we headed out! First stop was to pick up my parents, and then on to O’hare.

First bump in the road was the weather!! A big storm system was moving through and we followed along it mostly the whole drive. Ugh.

Fortunately traffic itself wasn’t too terrible. We stopped off for quick fast food on the way and then parked the van at an airport hotel we’ve used before.

While Ivan paid the parking and we waited for the shuttle, we took some pictures by this cool art wall.

Turns out I matched perfectly!! Hahaha.

Made it over to the airport – our obligatory airport family shot, minus Ivan, who took the photo. (He does not think my traditional family airport shot is quite as “obligatory” as I do… lol.)

Quick through security minus a hold up while all my mom’s stuff got searched, because she forgot to remove a bottle of water from her bag. 🤦‍♀️

We got notice that our 9:15 pm flight was delayed already on the way to the airport. The departure time bounced around several times to 10:05, then 10:55, then 11:25… I was getting nervous it would end up cancelled!! Then the gate also changed….

We waited it out for a bit with a nightcap (beer for them, tea for me) at a little bar near the gate while the boys watched our bags and watched shows on their phones.

We finally got to board after 11 and the plane took off around midnight.

On the flight itself, I got seated near…. dun dun dun…..the dreaded baby. Yes, I had a family with 4 young kids across the aisle from me, complete with the maybe 18 month old who screamed and cried for at least 2 hours continuously. 😩😩😩 I was really trying to feel sympathetic for the parents (and the poor little one who just wanted to be in her crib, I’m sure!!), but between you and me, I was mostly really tired and cranky myself and wanted to try and sleep it was so.freaking.annoying!!!!!! 😩 I did a little deep breathing and put a white noise track on my phone (which still didn’t drown her out…) and tried to remind myself that this is all part of travel… And as a parent, I truly did feel terrible for the family, who stayed a lot calmer with it all than I think I might have.

We arrived around noon London time. Ethan, my parents and I boarded the shuttle to the terminal and waited.. and waited… Ivan and Asher were not coming!! Turns out, Asher managed to lose his AirPods and they could not find them. 😩

The good news is, after the rain, the delays, the BABY, and losing AirPods, the rest of the day went just fine. Lol! Glad we got that stuff out of the way.

Actually, there was one other small issue getting Asher an Oyster card for his youth Underground discount. The machines weren’t taking credit cards (it wasn’t just me! They weren’t working for anyone in the line), but fortunately I was able to talk to a super nice human at a desk with no wait and she got it all squared away. The rest of us our using the tap in/tap out option on our phone which is great.

We took the Piccadilly line to our apartment in South Kensington. It was VERY crowded… the driver kept announcing about “full trains” and I think some disruption that led to fewer lines running or something? I don’t know. A man jumped up and gave me his seat though (“I’m getting off soon anyway!, he assured me, but then I noticed he actually didn’t get off for quite a long time! People are all SO nice here, from what we’ve encountered so far! 🥰).

One perk to the flight delay is that our apartment was ready for check in. Originally thought we’d need to store our luggage, but we were able to head straight there which was GREAT!

The apartment is perfect!! 3 bedroom, 2 bath. It’s a 3 story place, with kitchen, living room, dining room on first floor, 2 bedrooms and a bath for the boys and us on the 2nd floor, and a master bedroom with private bath upstairs for my parents.

Here’s my and Ivan’s sunny bedroom:

We got settled in a bit. The apartment is located on a super fun pedestrian street with tons of mostly different ethnic restaurants and tables outside. It was a gorgeous gorgeous day!!! Sunny and 65 degrees!

We set out to go explore at least a little, wanting to take advantage of the beautiful weather.

Took the tube to Westminster station:

The boys got a little ahead of us at the exit, and Ethan was waving me up to hurry, to come see…. This!

Big Ben in the flesh!!! So exciting!!!

The main idea was to take a little river cruise, again, given the warm, sunny weather.

First we took some pictures of the London Eye in the background:

More Parliament and Big Ben:

And the quintessential red phone booths! I love these pics!!

We bought tix for a cruise at the pier. Luckily, the next boat was in about 15 minutes, at 16:40.

It was a nice little trip, about 30 minutes or so, and a just right activity for our first afternoon while tired and not too much time!

The fresh air felt good and we were all excited to see Tower Bridge up close!

After the boat ride, we walked over to see if by any chance we could get walk in tickets to the Sky Garden. I knew it was highly unlikely, but figured we’d try. I hadn’t booked these in advance and they completely book up. They’re free, but require advance reservations. I just hadn’t wanted to really lock this in and it wasn’t a must do for me, so I didn’t bother. Sure enough, nope, couldn’t get in.

We ended up waking another block over instead to the lower Garden at 120. Also free, no tickets required, and still lovely views with a nice little garden up top. The sun was so pretty at this time of day!!

We wandered around and enjoyed the views for a while and then took the elevator back down.

By now we were HUNGRY!!! I didn’t have phone service (couldn’t get an e-sim to work!) and this area of The City was hopping. We started to look for food, thinking a pub, but quickly realized it was about 6-6:30 pm and every pub was PACKED to the hilt with sharply dressed young professionals who looked like they’d probably just stepped out of a fancy office job.

We wandered around a little (especially loved walking through beautiful Leadenhall Market!!), before deciding to just head back to South Kensington. We were hungry, but decided it would be nice to get back “our street” to eat, anyway.

This area of the city was so cool looking at night! The boys loved this.

From the tube station we went straight for dinner. Such a cute place!! It was busy downstairs but there were a couple open tables upstairs.

And then we ate! And drank a little! And then got very, very tired. Hahaha.

After a quick stop at Tesco Express, we walked back to the apartment, decompressed scrolling our phones (back on WiFi!) for a few minutes while listening to a few news headlines, and then we all crashed! It was after 10 by the time I went to sleep which was TOO late and I was tired!!!!

Slept like a rock and now it’s 9 am and we need to get moving! So much more to see and do but so far we’ve had an amazing introductory day to beautiful London! 😍😍