Our Grand European Adventure Part 1 – a.k.a. It’s Me!!

So yes, it’s been a little over a month, and I’m finally getting around to posting about our trip. The hubby and I have been super busy, so don’t judge…. I was in the process of typing this up and apparently had a lot to say, so this post will just cover our first stop: London, England.

We started out our trip with a looooooong overnight flight from New Orleans to London (by way of Newark). It was the hubby’s first flight that long, so we came well prepared with movies: all of the Harry Potter movies, in fact. The flight really wasn’t that bad, except that the hubby didn’t eat most of the meals they were serving. Poor Hubby was absolutely starving by the time we landed.

(Side Note No. 1) We also made a huge mistake that I highly recommend anyone traveling overseas from the US take note of: just because you get to fly with a free bag doesn’t mean you should pack the biggest ones you have. Apparently you still have to lug the stupid thing all over the city. We had two large bags and two carry-on size bags, as well as my “travel purse.” Since I’m a little on the petite side, poor hubby had to carry the two large bags up and down flights of stairs while we navigated the Tube (The London underground trains) to get to the apartment where we were staying.

(Side Note No. 2) Let me also take a second also to mention, AirBnB is awesome! It’s the first time we used it, and we were thrilled with all of the places we stayed in. Also, the money we saved not staying in overpriced hotels made us happy. I highly recommend it for travelers, if you don’t mind not having complimentary breakfast, that is.

Anyway, when we finally made it to our apartment, we were exhausted and hungry. Luckily, the owner of the apartment let us drop off our bags and change, even though they had not finished cleaning. With that done, we were free to wander around the area while we waited on our friends to meet up with us from France. We stopped in a little pub for a beer and some “mini” fish and chips… I’m not a super huge fan of Cod, but it was delicious!

Ohm nom nom

Due to our extreme exhaustion, the only plan we had for the rest of the day was to attend an English Premier League game (bucket list item checked off for me and the hubby!) We watched West Ham United and Southampton play (the visiting team, the Southampton Saints, won). It was difficult not to cheer for the Saints, but we were worried we would be kicked out or jumped, so go West Ham! They had a song about blowing bubbles, which I bought a shirt to commemorate… because it was awesome.

It made me happy!

We took a detour on our way home to eat dinner at Kings Cross Station. And obviously to take a picture of Platform 9 3/4. Cue our Harry Potter flight movie marathon excitement:

OMG HARRY POTTER

Apparently wine isn’t as big in London, because the place where we were staying didn’t have wine glasses. We didn’t know this when we bought two bottles of wine at the 24-hour convenience store across the street. So we did what any normal people would do:

Cheers!

We also played a few games of Go Fish, BS and Gypsy Rose, which you probably shouldn’t play when drinking. Cards don’t always flip the right way when you’re trying to bluff.

The next day’s plans included the London Eye, The Tower of London and a walk to Buckingham Palace (which, unfortunately, we couldn’t enter). We really enjoyed all of it, but were absolutely exhausted by the end of the day. I guess that’s when you can tell you’ve had a successful day of touring though.

We were up pretty high in the London Eye.

Protect the Castle!

Did you know Ravens eat meat? Yeah, they are huge and kinda scary…

You shall not pass!

According to the British Flag, the Queen was not at home.

We also met a very friendly squirrel on our walk to the Palace. He crawled up a little girl’s leg to get the food she was offering. And the girl didn’t freak out. Neither did her parents. I would have lost it.

Feed Me!

And that basically concludes the first portion of our adventure. The next morning we got up early and navigated our way back to the airport to fly to Rome.