ADVENTURES IN LONDON | PART ONE
Thursday - Day 1 - Departure and Arrival
After our eventful and stressful time in the San Diego Airport, we were finally aboard our flight. I had religiously scoured the American Airlines website six or seven months before to snatch up two seats that were in the family section. I learned from a friend who had traveled to Spain recently about planes equipped with cots for long-distance flights. Sure enough, we arrived at our seats and the flight attendant equipped us with a safety belt that was attached to mine for my son and explained that a cot would be brought to us after takeoff. Aboard, settled and equipped we finally breathed a sigh of relief.
It took a couple of hours until my son finally fell asleep, around 10:30 pm PST. We could not be more grateful for the baby cot the airline provided at this time. Not only did he sleep for nearly eight hours, but my husband and I were also able to rest without a baby in our laps. I must admit that the food provided by British Airways was actually pretty good. There was always a gluten-free option for me and the meal was accompanied by wine. I was starting to feel the excitement of the trip at this point.
We arrived at Heathrow Airport in the afternoon local time. My friend was so kind and met us at the airport where we had a bite to eat and a little rest. Although I was a bit anxious to not arrive at our Airbnb too late, it was worth it to have time to catch up with Tasha and for her to share some insights to help with our travels in the city. She was originally going to drive us into London, but her husband wisely reminded her that it would most likely take several hours to drive versus the fifteen minutes it would take by train. No discussion was needed. We took the train. Before I knew it we were on a train to London.
Paddington Station was exactly how I imagined it; busy and full of people. It was quite a bustle to navigate through all the people hurrying about to get to trains and exit the station. We had two large roller bags, we each had a backpack, and a personal bag and my husband had the additional job of carrying the pack-n-play that we borrowed from my friend. We finally exited the station and started to walk toward the address for our Airbnb which was a little more than half a mile away. It was a slow walk since we had all our luggage. We were pretty tired when we arrived at the correct street, but could not find our place. The address I had was wrong.
I wanted to panic a bit at this point and with jet lag starting to set in, I knew I needed to figure things out quickly. Fortunately, I was able to get in touch with the apartment host and after a little work in understanding her French accent and walking up and down Queensway a couple of times, I was able to track down the liaison for the place we were to stay. Relieved and growing more tired by the minute, we were welcomed into a large building and finally into our apartment. Warmed and settled we all gladly took a little time to rest after our long excursion from the train station. We turned in early and my husband and I tried not to think about what was in store for us with a toddler experiencing jet lag.
Friday - Day 2 - Hyde Park, Kensington Palace, Royal Albert Hall
Yes, we woke up in the middle of the night. I believe we all woke up around 2 am local time and stayed awake close to three hours. It wasn't too bad being up in the middle of the night, but we knew we needed to just stay the course and bodies would adjust at some point. Thankfully, our son somehow went to bed without too much encouragement. Before I knew it, late morning light was filling our apartment.
I wanted to keep our second day simple since we woke up later in the morning and still were recovering from our travels. We planned to visit Hyde Park in the morning and then venture back out into the park in the afternoon. During our morning jaunt, we happened upon a little Spanish cafe, Lo Sputino. The cafe sat just around the corner from our apartment and it was the perfect spot for my husband to order his espresso and for me to order a little cup of tea. After our refreshments, we ventured into the park. I was in awe of the lovely park as soon as I stepped past the gates. Hyde Park was green, crisp and fresh. It was easy to forget that the busy streets of London were only a stone's throw away. Our son loved the open space. Dogs were allowed off-leash which created an even more wild ambiance to the park. Our path led us to the Diana Memorial Playground and quite the playground it was. Unlike playgrounds in the US, the jungle gyms were made of wood. It was like were playing make-believe from a children’s story. As I walked across a bridge my boots made a sound of what I could only imagine would be the sound of boots walking across an old pirate ship. It was like I was in Neverland and I was told to walk the plank on Captain Hook's ship. My son was ready to explore without hesitation; wood playground or plastic, he knows a playground when he sees one.
We returned to our street ready for lunch, but found that places didn’t open until noon for lunch; the time was 11:30 am. We walked up and down Queensway to see if anyplace happened to be open a little earlier than noon but to no avail. By the time we were nearing our apartment again, we saw Little Persia, the restaurant we could see from our apartment. The gentlemen standing outside said it was okay for us to be seated ten minutes before the restaurant officially opened. I was so grateful for this little courtesy. We were still adjusting to life in London, so being super touristy by eating at an off time from the locals was a strange sensation. I made sure it didn’t occur again during our trip. The gentleman who seated us and who took care of our meal was wonderful. After letting us settle in, he came over and talked to us about our son. He was expecting his first child in a matter of months and was excited to talk with other parents. It was a relief to know that the gentleman was not bothered by him and the little noise he was making. I quickly realized that people all over the world have children too and many travel with their children, even little ones. This was the encouragement I needed before our trip really got underway. Warm, full, and ever so grateful for such friendly service, we said goodbye to our waiter, wished him luck with his new baby and went home to rest.
After some much-needed sleep, we continued our exploration of Hyde Park. I never like to travel the same road twice when I travel. With that in mind, we walked toward the northwestern side of the park behind Kensington Gardens. It was so lovely walking through the quintessential London Streets.
I wish we would have made Kensington Palace a priority during our visit. We reached the palace gates as the sun was going down. From the outside, the palace looked lovely and I would have liked to explore the gardens and the interior, but we had so many things we wanted to see, I think I would have needed two to three months just to make a dent in all the things I wanted to see and experience.
After passing by Kensington Palace, we neared the end of the park at the south and after stepping past the park gates we beheld Royal Albert Hall. Unfortunately there were no shows of interest for us during our stay, but we enjoyed taking in the bright circular musical hall as twilight crept closer and closer. Besides witnessing Royal Albert Hall, I wanted to visit the Albert Memorial, Queen Victoria’s memorial to her husband. Like many other memorials, this one was majestic and grand and fine tribute.
