A few years ago, we started talking to the kids about traveling together as a family. We wanted them to try and save for the trip so we started putting money in a souvenir coconut bank I'd brought back from Hawaii. We talked about where we wanted to go. Eventually, we settled on London and Paris. A big draw to London was going on the Harry Potter studio tour and a big draw to Paris was the food. :) We thought we could do a trip kind of like I did with my sister years ago. We saved a bit and then I think the kids kind of lost hope thinking it would take too long.
Fast forward to winter break this past year, I saw an ad for cheap flights and decided to look into how much it would cost for all of us to go. I was looking at airbnb's and everything simultaneously and figured out that we would have enough if we used the money in our travel fund and our credit card miles. I called Joe and we made the decision to go for it! It was exciting and scary. After that, we started making plans for our trip over spring break. We also cut the kids' allowance way back to finish up saving before the trip so we'd have money for meals and other stuff.
Before we knew it, it was the Thursday before spring break. The kids missed a day and a half of school and we left that morning. We walked to the BART station and we were quite the spectacle!
The kids loved the moving walkways:
I was really impressed with how well the kids all managed their bags throughout the trip. We were able to borrow these kid-sized bags from a friend and they were perfect. We carried Eli's for him but it was light.
We flew from SFO to Iceland for a quick layover (we flew WOW air). We learned why the tickets were so cheap--it was definitely a bare-bones kind of transatlantic flight. No movies, screens, free food or drinks. We managed it fine, though, and some of us even slept. It was quite the sight. Nate and Lizzie were on the side two seats--Nate on the floor and Lizzie on the seats. The other four of us were in the middle seats--Joe managed to fit on the floor and let Eli lay on top of him. Natalie and I shared the four seats.
Beautiful view:
We had a layover in Iceland. I slept a bit more on a bench while Joe and the kids got some food. We all enjoyed seeing that the word for toilets in Icelandic is "snyrtingar."
We had about a 3.5 hour flight from there to Gatwick airport and then took a train into London to Victoria station which was close to our airbnb. The walk to the apartment was tricky since it was raining and we had trouble finding it but we finally did.
We were on the third floor:
We all crashed when we got there (after Joe and I ran out to get some groceries) and I didn't think I'd be able wake them up for our Harry Potter studio tour but we got out the door fine and took an Uber about 45 min outside of London for the tour. It was freezing there but once we got in and got some hot chocolate, we were ready to go.
Don't be fooled by Eli's faces in these. He loved it! He just doesn't like taking pictures. :)
Entering the Great Hall was one of the coolest parts:
The age line:
The actual costumes and invisibility cloak!
The kids got to ride on a broomstick in front of a green screen:
Buckbeak!
Number 4 Privet Drive:
The gorgeous model of Hogwarts:
It was really fun and we were glad we did it!
The next day was Saturday. After sleeping in quite a bit, we headed out to take the tube to see some sights.
Big Ben (under construction):
We went to Westminster Abbey first:
Eli didn't love that but the other kids seemed to.
Then we walked to the London Eye to get tickets for a ride later. We found a super fun park right by it and the kids loved climbing around for a bit there:
From there we walked to Trafalgar Square:
We'd planned on going to the National Gallery but we were all hungry at that point so we decided to walk to Fortnum & Mason's for tea service/early dinner.
The weather was so nice that afternoon:
The service was expensive but I thought it was all delicious and so worth it.
I loved this label--"delightfully still":
Then it was back to the London Eye to ride. Such a beautiful view:
We were all spent after that so we went home to crash.
The next day was Easter Sunday and also my birthday. Joe got up early to walk to the rental place to get our car and saw a lot that way. He even picked up some chocolate for the kids so they could have a little bit of an Easter.
We tried to get out the door pretty early so we could drive out to see Stonehenge.
It was awesome! It was so crazy to see something like this just off the freeway. The stones are huge! The kids loved hanging out at an arts and crafts area in the visitor's center and making things from clay:
The shuttle to Stonehenge wasn't running for a little bit so we walked out there. It ended up being quite far! At least for Eli. He didn't love it. I stayed back with him while the others went ahead. We finally made it there and he was disappointed to see he couldn't climb on the stones. I'm not sure where he had gotten that idea.
From Stonehenge, we drove to Waverley Abbey where we met up with Matt, Melissa, Andrew & Ivy! It was so fun seeing them. They were on the tail end of their trip and I'm glad we overlapped a bit. We had fun exploring the ruins of a 12th century church and seeing a bit of the English countryside.
The local wildlife:
We let our kids climb all over stuff and only realized later what a bad idea that was. Dumb Americans!
At least this tree was probably safe:
The house was beautiful:
We got dinner at a really yummy pizza place after that and then went our separate ways--them to Oxford and us back to London. The next morning, we were up early and off to Paris on the Eurostar.
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