Lovely London

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Thu: Arriving in style on Airbus A380

The highlight of the day: was the arrival of our British Airways Airbus A380 pulling into our gate. That thing is a mammoth! You couldn't have missed it slowly making its way to the gate. Of course, we booked early and paid extra to secure the upper deck window seat 💪 The anticipation is building up! The flight was delayed for a half hour and the boarding area was a mess but Y got us in the special boarding group 🙌 The boarding tunnel was split into two. We were going with everyone else to the further entrance. Upon seating, I realized it was directly connected to the upper deck entrance. No stairs, nothing, meh. The upper deck could only be felt from the increased distance to the wings and the ground. The wings extended way out. It had a little storage compartment next to the window seats. It's time to take off! Rumble, rumble, rumble. The mammoth seemed sluggish lifting its heavy body into the sky. Y got tired right on time. 6 pm flight FTW 🙌

London was dumping. I didn't expect a sunny sky but…eh. Finding the tube was super easy. Plus. I had Oyster cards from 2020 ready to go. We got on the train that was just about to leave. We had almost 20 stations to go. It was long for all of us jet-lagging people. It got super crowded in the middle but the train was so narrow that people couldn't stand between the seats. Finally, we reached St Pancras. There were just a few more stops to go from there. Things got difficult once we reached our station. Stairs-only spots in the station and the cobblestone streets weren't roller-friendly for V who was carrying all bags for the family. On top of that, we struggled to get into the flat because I didn't watch the instructional videos about getting the keys to the Airbnb 🤦🏻‍♀️ It continues to rain and sprinkle.

After 3 pm, it was time to hit the grocery store. Poor Y. He was so wiped out but was a trooper 💪 No ATM in sight but I could use the card, no problem. The bill was surprisingly low. We ate, cleaned up, and boom passed out.

Fri: Every tourist in London is here!

After a long and plentiful sleep, we woke up refreshed! We took our time getting ready and left the flat at 8 am. Our first agenda was to get on the London bus. We took the 76 bus to St Paul's Cathedral. Then the 26 bus to Big Ben. Y shoots up to the upper deck while we pay and snags the first-row seat. He succeeded on the second leg 😄 The city seems full of red double-decker buses but it feels like every bus except for the one you're waiting for comes by. Big Ben was surrounded by mobs already. We walked to the bridge and decided to take it to the next stop: Changing of the guard at St James Palace.

It wasn't even 10 am yet. We warmed up at a coffee shop. We took our time and got to the Friary Court at 10:40, 5 min before the guard started marching. Oh my! 😱😱😱 The horse police were stopping the road as the mob was wall to wall on the sidewalk to Buckingham Palace 😱 We managed to duck and escape to the mall. The best we could do was to get a glimpse over people's heads. Gotta be on our game next time.

The underestimation didn't end here. The English Rose cafe was just 0.6 miles on the other side of the Palace. What was supposed to be a 15-minute walk ended up taking 1 hour!! The biggest mistake: heading toward the Palace 🤦🏻‍♀️We moved westward through the park with ease. But to get past the palace, we merged back onto the mall. The crowd was flat-out ridiculous there. But it got even worse when we were at the west gate. Nobody was moving! "Every tourist in London is here. Keep moving!", said the horse police. I separated from V and Y so we could independently inch our way out.

We escaped to Birdcage Walk. The ceremony had just finished and we caught the guards returning to Wellington Barracks. We also encountered the motorcycle ride-out. Finally, we were in line at the cafe. I came across this place on TripAdvisor and had this on the list because they had all the must-eats including afternoon tea, cream tea, and English Breakfast. I wasn't the only one who fell into the trap. All I heard from the people waiting was American English 🤦🏻‍♀️ Food was nothing to line up for either.

Alright, let's get back on track. We took the underground to Tower Bridge. It was packed, of course, but this is a must. We walked to the middle where the bridge splits. We went down to the north side of the river. It was full of people that you couldn't walk straight westward. There was a much-needed public toilet just past the impressive gift shop building. This required 50pp. I dreaded breaking the 10-poung bill but things have evolved. The entrance was just like the train station entrance. No change? No problem. Tap your card, voila!

One last stop of the day: Poppies for fish & chips. It was on our way back to the flat via Bus 78. It was gewd. Nice and meaty and fresh 👍 Y was so tired as it's been a long walk-full of day. We all passed out at 8 pm but woke up in the middle of the night. No sleep to too much sleep, back to no sleep.

Sat: London sunshine ☀️

We were exhausted when the alarm went off at 6:10 am 😖 But we had to be at Westminster station at 8 am for a photo session. The photo session was originally Monday morning but the forecast was solid on a rainy Monday morning and a dry weekend. I reached out to Christoph at the last minute and he was nice enough to move it to Saturday morning. We managed to leave at 7:30 am and the photo shoot began. The hour went by quickly and Y was just about losing interest then.

Regency Cafe would've been perfect right now but it's now closed for the Easter weekend until Monday 🤦🏻‍♀️ Old Queens Street Cafe nearby looked promising from a quick search. A big fancy diner had just a few small parties. We ordered the egg Benedict and English breakfast. By the time we got our food, the pace was packed! The food was "fino" and filled us up 👍

We walked back towards the river. At 10:30 am, Westminster was overtaken 🔥 There were so many boating companies lining up Westminster Pier. City cruises were busy but the Clipper was the clear choice for me. The boat came at 11 am. This one came from the west and turned around which meant the daily service line? But the stops were as infrequent as the weekend service? Anyway, it was fun cruising down with the view that's already somewhat become familiar. After passing the Tower Bridge, the boat put in high gear and took us by surprise 😮

The boat pulled into Greenwich Pier at 11:45 am and everyone got off. The only thing we had in mind was the footbridge. There are spiral stairs in the brick dome building. The tunnel takes you across the river. Pretty cool! Y ran across the long tunnel and we were on the other side in no time. We had a quick snack there. Since Y didn't want to go back through the tunnel because of unruly bikers not walking their bikes, we opted to take bus 135 straight to Old Street. The bus came at 12:30 pm and Y got the first row on the upper deck. This made it an interesting ride seeing the big thing maneuver through the narrow streets. It was about a 45-minute ride back to the center.

We got the groceries done for Easter Sunday as the stores will be closed. It was early and super nice outside but we were all done for the day. Y drew Changing of the Guards to his heart's content and turned in early.

Sun: Soyuz to Paddington

Another sleepless night. I was falling asleep reading for Y yet not sleep all night 😖 At least Y slept through 90%! (MISSING)We took the 8:30 am #26 bus to the parliament to check on the bagpipe guy. At 9:30, we had to head to South Kensington for our 10 am entrance to the Science Museum. A long line was forming at 9:45 am. We got in fairly quickly once the door opened. I originally booked this visit for Soyuz but Y zipped through the space area in no time. Y isn't an exhibition kinda guy. My last hope was the Garden where there are supposed to be interactive play areas for kids. This area was much smaller than I had imagined and Y's just about aging out of it. He spent about an hour there.

The picnic area on the third floor was a nice open space and had a few cool items. We slowly made our way out of the museum at 1:30 pm. Y was pretty spent but it was too early to return to the flat. Y squeezed his last energy to hit Paddington Station. We had a snack, snapped pics with the bear, and grabbed a few Paddington London tales for souvenirs. It was still early but that was it for the day. Back at the flat, I researched tomorrow's Changing of the Guard attempt #2 while Y went all out on drawing with V.

Mon: Changing of the Guard done right!

Been there, and seen it. Bring it. Locked in our sight on Friary Court. We bowed to be there by 10 if not 9:45 am. Oh, but the trauma was too fresh, we got there at 9:30 am. But! We were third-party deep! That was to be expected. The telephone booth line at Parliament Square was longer than Saturday. In any case, we secured our front row spot right in front and centered 👍 Oh by the way, it was a nice stroll from Westminster through St James Park.

By 10 am, behind us was filled up to the wall and the crowd lined up the street. At around 10:30 am, the horse police walked close along the sidewalk to make sure our feet were on the sidewalk. Sorry people behind me. I guess I have to stand up 🙁 Shortly after, the ceremony started in the court. I'd imagine it being a smaller ceremony than the Palace but it was close and neat. The guards came right at us. The policemen who opened the gate had machine guns. After the guards left for the Palace, we moved to the mall and waited for the cavalry to pass. And yes! They were coming shortly after! Nailed it! Scored big this morning 🙌

South Kensington was a few stops from there. We're back here for the Natural History Museum entrance at 1 pm. We had sandwiches and hot cross buns and got to the museum at 12:45 pm. The tickets are must must must! We went right past the line snaking around the entrance area.

Honestly, I didn't know why this long line, and Y's never been the dinosaur guy. I didn't have much expectation for this museum. Boy, I couldn't have been more wrong! Right off the bat, the main hall had a blue whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling. It was also lined with amazing skeletons, including mammoth and giraffe. And that's just the intro. The blue zone had dinosaurs and mammals exhibits. In the dinosaur exhibit, I mean, wow. So many skeletons including triceratops and the staples. They even had models that moved to show what it would've been like in real life. The T-Rex? Eeeks. The mammal exhibit was crazy too. This has to be the largest collection of preserved animals. You've heard of it or not, it's here. This was also true for the birds exhibit. We also visited the volcano exhibit in the red zone. That was also a hit with earthquakes and the beginning of time exhibit. We maxed our time there. We were all tired of being on our feet for 3 hours.

Ampersand Hotel was just around the corner. We made it to our 4 pm reservation just in time. Y ordered a kid's afternoon and the adults ordered an afternoon tea and a cream tea. Super cool!! We all got the mix-yourself-lemonade shots to kick off the feast. First, Y got his hot chocolate that wasn't your typical cup. Warm milk came in a space-themed heat mug. He dipped a dinosaur-shaped choco and it melted fairly fast. He had marshmallows and crispy chocolate toppings. On food, everything was so thought out with the quality that matched the ambiance. The biscuits were so yummy - warm, crunchy on the outside, and fluffy on the inside. That clotted cream? Yum! Surprisingly, Y got full quickly. He was on a sugar high the rest of the night and crashed at 8 pm.

Tue: Eurostar

This👆was the inspiration for this trip. Y's been fascinated with it and wanting to ride it for a while. But because we had a short time in London, we just made it a day trip to Lille. We had a 9 am train. Since we needed to arrive 1-1.5 hrs prior for the passport control and the security, we left the flat at 7 am.

Lille was hustling and bustling around the station. The station was adjacent to Westfield and another gigantic station. I was disoriented for sure. Things became even better than I'd ever expected as we walked toward Vieux-Lille. Narrow cobblestone streets with cute houses. It was cold, windy, and sprinkling but we enjoyed the walk nonetheless.

We reached the lunch spot at Estaminet Au Vieux De La Vieille in the cute corner at Place aux Oignons. I opened the door and said "Pour Troix" That prompted the lady to tell me something something vingt something vingt something 😅 I got used to French as I heard more throughout the day but that was a shock to my brain. After a short silence, another attendant quickly translated to English. It was the table numbers to bring upstairs. Up the stairs, Thor showed us to the tables in a corner. The tables were so tight I had to walk sideways between the chairs. I ordered the regional staples: Carbonade Flamande and Welsh, with a glass of beer and water. Carbonade Flamande was amazing. Welsh was salty to me.

We strolled around town, picked up gaufres from Meert, and ate them at la Grand Place. And we were pretty much done walking in the cold and done eating. We slowly returned to the station via the toilet at Westfield. This toilet, too, was a train station entrance. We also picked up a few things to eat at Carrefour. We were at the station by 4:30 pm. In Lille, machine gun-armed soldiers are patrolling. We came across it at least two times. We didn't see any check-in line like at St Pancras. At 6 pm, the info panel said Hall 4 for our train. Hall 4 was at the other end of the station where the passport control and all that took place. It led to yet another waiting area by the stairs (yes, stairs for international travelers 🤦🏻‍♀️) to the platform. Back at St Pancras, we saw Aux Merveilleux de Fred! We missed it in Lille but it found us! It was a fun and a long day.

Wed: making it count on the last day

This was the only chance for the 10 am Sky Garden visit. For me, it was a 10 am slot or bust. The tickets were released on the Monday of two weeks prior…at an unknown hour. I read between 7 am and 10 am, which fell on wee hours in California. But I did it. I checked in the wee hours. Saturday was impossible but I was able to snag the 10-am tickets for Wednesday 🙌

But wait! Before going there, we snuck in a visit to Regency Cafe. It was the last day here and V was ready to go big. It's the first hole-in-a-wall place and we were so glad we made it here! I'd even say that if you had to pick one place to eat in London, this would be it, hands down! You walk in, order, get your table, then your food. Bang bang. Ordering is fast, and so does the food. They threw order numbers out the window. The lady was single-handedly holding the fort at the front counter. She took the orders and called out the order when the kitchen slid the plate out 👍👍 Things are so fast but she's not mad or frustrated. And that deep voice that penetrates the entire dining room! You wouldn't believe it was coming from the same lady who took your order in a high soft voice! And yes, the food. 💯. V ordered the breakfast special with black puddings and liver & bacon (yup, he went big). Everything was fresh and not overly greasy. There was not a single drop left on either plate.

We were on track to get to Sky Garden at 9:50 am. Oh! This is it? The one Y had been calling the sock building! The door was already open and we had to go through the airport-style security before getting on the elevator to the 35th floor. The view was spectacular! There are even 36, 37th-floor terraces. Tables and chairs are readily available for the visitors to use too. Nice! We thoroughly enjoyed it until 11:30 am.

Another thing to knock off today: pie and mash. We took the bus to M.Manze Tower Bridge. This was another hole-in-a-wall in an unassuming local neighborhood. The double-double with liquor sauce looked very intimidating with two pies and scoops of mashed potatoes doused in a pool of sauce. But again, it wasn't as heavy or greasy.

It was not even 1 pm so we decided to walk Tower Bridge since it was a mere km walk. But Y insisted on taking the bus there and we hopped on one for 2 stops. It was less crowded today than Friday. Y expressed interest in the glass floor as we moved through the bridge. We didn't have that on our agenda but today's line seemed tame. Alright, go for it. V went to chaperone. Y pointed out that I might get scared anyway 🤷🏻‍♀️ We parted at the bag scan before buying the tickets. I then moved to the bridge to look up to see if I could catch them. I could sort of make of who's up there but looking up was pretty bright. It was windy and looking up on the riverside was scary so I had to go on the roadside. Right, I don't know if I could've made it across the glass floor. After some time, I saw familiar white pantstrings swimming on the glass floor. Y!! I waved and saw him walking around. Nice job! Y got an "I did it" sticker 😄

It was just about time to head over to Little Angel Theater. The bus was delayed but the theater door opened right when we arrived. I checked in and picked up the souvenir book for today's show, the Everywhere Bear. The auditorium door opened shortly and Y rushed to the first row. That didn't seem to be the most sought-after seats but I agree with Y. What a treat to see the show up close in this very intimate setting. What a cute and touching story ☺️

Welp, that's a wrap! I didn't know what would jive Y in London but he liked all of it! London was extremely cashless. Grocery was ridiculously cheap while eating out was comparable to the Bay Area.

...but wait! This trip wasn't over yet. We arrived at the airport on time at 9 am. We even swung by the store to look for hot cross buns for Y. Upon check-in, the lady pointed out that we needed to rush to the gate. Wait what?! Wow wow wow…large bold numbers read 10:10 😱😱😱 I bought an 11 am flight and there was Z.E.R.O. notice!! "You've got time but you must hurry." Right, and we have to take the tram?? My heart was racing. I think the security people let us cut in but one of our bags was sent to the inspection, no! And this inspector lady was sent from hell. She was taking her sweet time. I told her that the flight was leaving. "What? What time? Oh, you have plenty of time, believe me." She went about inspecting other bags. Finally, she got to our bag and I was just about to lose it. The ticket said the gate closed at 9:40 and it was 9:35!! Lady pleeeeeease! Every time I voiced something, she stopped and started arguing. I'm sure she's had people in a rush like me and hates us but c'mon! OK, ok, are you done? V shubbed everything back in the bag and we dashed to the tram. The tram was parked but it's getting inspected. Whyyyy 😭😭😭 Ok, the door opened. 2 stops. I told Y I'd dash as soon as the door opened so go with Papa. Ready, get set, gooooo! I ran to the escalator, ran up the first escalator, and my legs were giving up on the second escalator. The boarding floor looked empty. Oh please, please, please 🙏 "To San Francisco?" Yes!!!

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Photos

A pelican
St. James Park

Fish n Chips
@Poppies

English Breakfast 1
@Old Queen Street Cafe

Soyuz
@ the Science Museum