The Log Dog Blog: London 2019

I had a two-week break over Christmas and New Year's and we took full advantage of it and traveled to the U.K. and France, during which time we celebrated our 25^th anniversary!

Friday, December 20

My mom and C picked me up after school once my Kiss and Ride duty was done for our 6:20 flight; my mom kindly dropped us off at the airport so that we wouldn't have to park our car there for two weeks. I was a little worried about making the flight, but there were no traffic issues and TSA precheck certainly helped, so we got to our gate in plenty of time. We flew on Virgin Atlantic for the first time, and frankly, we were not impressed. The crew was indifferent at best and the plane was shabby. The only good thing I can say is the layout, 2-4-2, which is one reason we chose that flight. I guess I had pretty high expectations because they have a good reputation, but overall, it was a let down and I highly doubt we will ever fly with them again.

Saturday, December 21

We landed at Heathrow just before 7:00 am and decided to eat breakfast at the airport because the meals on the plane were nothing to write home about. After breakfast, we took tube to our Airbnb neighborhood and wandered around for a few hours. We decided to stop in to a pub, where we found many people eating a full English breakfast and drinking Guinness at 10:30 in the morning.

After a few more hours of exploring, we were finally able to check in to our apartment at 1:00 and it turned out to be a really nice place with a lot of space, so we were very happy! The location was great and we were about ten minutes from the London Bridge train and tube stations. We unpacked and got settled, and then headed back out for a few hours, but finally threw in the towel and went to bed early due to exhaustion!

Sunday, December 22

We had breakfast at our apartment and then took the tube to Paddington Station so I could find the Paddington statue. It is so adorable and I love the character Paddington! We also walked to the Peter Pan statue at Kensington Gardens and checked out Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park. We had planned to spend some time there, but it was insanely busy and the line to enter was extremely long – which was disappointing, but understandable since it was a weekend. If we'd had more time, we would have waited in the line to get in, but we decided to grab some lunch instead before our walking tour.

We went over to Piccadilly Circus because the meeting point was at the Eros statue; we went on a 2.5 hour Harry Potter walking tour around London and it was FABULOUS! I found the tour on Airbnb and it was very inexpensive, so I figured even if it was terrible, it wouldn't be much of a loss. Well it turned out to be some of the best money we've ever spent on vacation! Our tour guide was from Scotland and was so charming and funny! We walked all around as he pointed out filming locations from the Harry Potter films and different spots in the city that are mentioned in the books. It was so great!

We stopped for dinner on our way back to our apartment and then just relaxed after walking all over the city for much of the day!

The only bad moment of the day was when we passed a theater on the tour and they were advertising a MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL SING-ALONG and when we searched for the next opening, because I absolutely LLLLOOOOVVVVEEEE Muppet Christmas Carol, we discovered that all tickets were sold out! I really feel like I missed out on something awesome! It's just not the same to have your own sing-along at home by yourself!

Monday, December 23

This was a day I'd been looking forward to for over six months! We went on the Harry Potter Warner Bros. Tour!

We left our apartment with plenty of time to get to the bus station and get checked in for our tour. However, with it being two days before Christmas, the bus station was completely insane. People everywhere, each with far too many pieces of luggage! And the signs at the bus station were terrible, as were the directions on the printout we had regarding how to board the bus. We ran in circles for close to half an hour. We arrived at the bus station at 10:40. We were supposed to check in at 11:00, and the bus was scheduled to leave at 11:15. When we finally found the right place, checked in, and got on the bus, it was 11:13! As in, we almost missed the bus!

Thankfully, the remainder of the day was amazing, and I've written a separate post of just the photos from the tour that you can find [HERE]. I was blown away and the allotted time was not nearly long enough for my liking because there was so much to see!

After returning to London on the bus in the evening, we had dinner and did a little shopping, but the stores were absolutely packed, so we decided to go back to the apartment and hang out there instead.

Tuesday, December 24

We spent the day just wandering around the city. We had breakfast at a place called The Breakfast Club and the PB&J pancakes were amazing. AMAZING. It was fun to roam around and just soak up the Christmas spirit. Most places closed by 5 pm, so we stopped to get some groceries before heading back. We spent the evening watching Christmas movies and it was perfect!

Wednesday, December 25

It felt strange to be so far from home on Christmas day, but even though it was so different from how we normally spend Christmas, I loved it. We did not get out of our pjs all day! We thought about going out for a walk, but ultimately decided to just have a lazy day. We facetimed with family – so grateful for technology – and binge watched Brooklyn 99 all day. That might not seem super exciting to some people, but it was a wonderful Christmas Day!

facetiming with Riley

our Christmas dinner

Thursday, December 26

It was Boxing Day, so many places were closed. The weather was nice, so we spent the day walking around the city. We went to an Italian restaurant for dinner before going to see Mary Poppins – yet another example of how C always finds super cool things for us to do on trips! The show was so incredible! I loved it and it was so fun to see it in London!

When we were walking home that evening, a fox was walking down the sidewalk in front of us. Yes! A fox! I have a huge love of foxes and we have several that live near our house that we see in our yard and I couldn't believe we saw one on a sidewalk in London!

our fox friend

Friday, December 27

We got up early to pack and we checked out of our Airbnb around 9:00 am. We grabbed some breakfast on our way to the tube, which we took to King's Cross/St. Pancras. We took the Eurostar train to Paris (it goes through the Chunnel), and the ride was only two hours and 15 minutes! If I lived in either Paris or London, I would be taking that train all the time!