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Family of 4, 2 Young Teens, 14 Nights, 4 Countries

Family of 4, 2 Young Teens, 14 Nights, 4 Countries

Old Jul 20th, 2016, 08:14 AM
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Family of 4, 2 Young Teens, 14 Nights, 4 Countries

Last month we took a family vacation to Europe. Once again, the Fodor’s forums were an invaluable source of information, mostly by reading through trip reports and answers to other people’s questions. I did post several logistic type questions and always received great information in return. My husband marvels that there are people out there who will happily (but sometimes grumpily) answer our questions. So thank you Fodorites, you are much appreciated!

There seem to often be questions about traveling with kids or doing quick stops in cities so hopefully reporting on our trip can help others.

WHO WENT: Me, my husband, our 14 year old son, our 13 year old daughter. My husband and I have both traveled quite a bit around Europe but this was the kids’ first time.

WHERE: I wanted to go to Belgium as I love beer, fries, waffles, mussels and cool, medieval towns. My husband had been before 28 years ago when backpacking around Europe and didn’t mind returning. My husband wanted to go to Ireland because of everything he had heard about it. I had been before 29 years ago when I was studying in the UK and I was happy to return as I had found the Irish to be some of the friendliest people I’d encountered and it is such a beautiful country. We decided to spend the bulk of our time in those two countries. The kids wanted to see London and Paris because they are London and Paris. We decided to give them a quick hit of the two cities and if they liked it they could return in the future on their own dime.

Our itinerary:
2 nights London
2 nights Paris
4 nights Belgium
6 nights Southwest/West Ireland

TIMING: We traveled from Jun 18 to Jul 3 and felt like we were traveling just before the big summer travel window as we really did not find large crowds anywhere. Though we saw lots of Euro Cup fans in Paris and a ton of Americans in Ireland.

OUR TRAVEL STYLE: We’d give slow travelers whiplash. We are fairly fast moving, not big shoppers, and not a huge fan of museums just because there is a museum to see. But will go to a museum if something interests us. We have a weekend home that is at least 3 hours away (and often 4 hours with rush hour/beach traffic.) I mention that to say we are all very used to driving long distances and it doesn’t bother us. My husband and I usually like to enjoy the good food and drink of the countries we are visiting. My kids’ palates are still forming and they like completely different things. So, this trip, it wasn’t a priority to seek out the best places to dine but rather a place that served something decent for everyone so we didn’t have moody teenagers picking at their food ruining our meal.

We flew over using AA miles. A few months prior to the AA/ US Air merger, my husband and I both applied for a credit card through each airline and got 50k miles for each one. Then they merged and everything converted to AA miles. So we had 200k miles to use from that. It cost 240k miles for our family of four to fly roundtrip using the Saaver awards. We could fly in/out of any of the 4 countries. Starting last summer, I began stalking the available seats [which constantly changes] and had matrices and spreadsheets and headaches. Soon after we had the required miles, miraculously, the AA day flight from Philly to LHR had 4 available seats on Sun Jun 19 and I grabbed it. For the return flight, we got 4 seats two weeks later on Sat night Jul 2 Dublin to LHR and then LHR to PHL Sun morning. That wasn’t ideal but I was hoping that 4 seats would eventually open up on the direct DUB to PHL flight.

I used to travel often to London for work in the late 90s. I almost always took the day flight and loved it. Overnight flights are the absolute pits even in business or first class because with 2 meal service disruptions (the smells of the food in coach is enough to shock you awake), there just isn’t enough time to sleep even if you are able to fall asleep. So I was doing a happy dance that we’d be able to fly over during the day and get a good night’s sleep and hit the ground running. Two months later, I awoke to an email from AA informing me that the day flight had been eliminated from their schedule and we were now on a flight to Chicago Sun afternoon and then the overnight from ORD to LHR [cue the sad trombones]. We were now going to fly 2 ½ hours west and turnaround and fly back east on a redeye to London. Not ideal. Long story short, over the next 6 months we changed our booking to PHL to Manchester redeye and were going to take the train to London that morning. Then a flight with a connection in Zurich opened up the day before so we switched to that. But, while the agent reserved it, it was never ticketed. I finally called to inquire and they weren’t allowing it due to the BA fees but never informed me of that. Because of all the headache and changes, they got a liaison to approve putting us on the Sat night PHL to LHR nonstop. This flight was never offered for less than 110k miles each, and I had checked almost every day. In the end, we got our nonstop, albeit a redeye, and we got an extra half day in London. Plus, 4 seats did eventually open up on the Dublin to PHL flight on Jul 3 eliminating the transfer and overnight at Heathrow plus $500 in BA fees. Happy dances all around!

PREPARING FOR JETLAG: Since teenagers aren’t known to be morning people, I tried to prepare the kids for the time change. School finished the Tuesday before we left so they hadn’t gotten into sleep-in summer mode yet. That whole week, I woke them up earlier and earlier and made them go to bed earlier and earlier. Therefore, we really didn’t have issues with going to bed and waking up at normal local times. They had their annual well visits a couple weeks prior and I talked to the doctor about any sleep aids that would help for the flight. She gave us a prescription for Xanax which we tried out the week prior and then took on the flight. It relaxes you and helps you fall asleep but doesn’t make you a zombie, at least it didn’t for any of us.

MOBILE PHONE SERVICE: We have Verizon Wireless here at home. Going to 4 countries, it didn’t make sense getting a local sim card in each place. I have an old iphone 5 that I considered using to open a Tmobile account so we’d have internet/ text/ phone while in Europe. Then I planned to cancel it when we got home. My husband thought it wasn’t needed and in the end I wish I hadn’t let him sway me. When you are accustomed to being able to look up anything, even a radar map to see how far away the rain is, it is pain to not have it. We had wifi each night/morning at our hotels but went old school during the day’s activities. Some restaurants and public places offered it but it didn’t seem widespread. Belgium seemed to be the best place for that. We did sign up for Verizon’s TravelPass before we left in case we did need service. Turns out we did in Ireland with a big snafu that required us to have phone availability so we turned it on for 5 days and it cost us $50—the cost of one month with T-Mobile’s lowest plan.

NEXT: Time to get going…. LONDON !!
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Old Jul 20th, 2016, 09:15 AM
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on for the ride, are we there yet?
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Old Jul 20th, 2016, 12:42 PM
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Almost, bilbo, almost...


My husband had access to the Admirals Club which we took advantage of in Philadelphia before our flight. When seats became available on the nonstop from Dublin for our return, there were no longer any available seats together. So we were scattered in different rows, nearby one another but all next to strangers. The receptionist at the club was able to switch our seats to the 4 middle seats in row 10. That alone was worth going to the club. And the free drinks, soups, crackers/cheese, cookies, brownies and a nice quiet area to relax were all icing on the cake.

Our flight was uneventful, we were able to get maybe 3 or so total hours of sleep and we arrived at Heathrow on Sunday morning about 15 min early, around 8:45am. Immigration took less than 20 minutes. We had bought 30 day advance Heathrow Express tickets at £14.30 for each adult, kids free. It was a quick and easy ride to Paddington (no one looked at or collected our train tickets) where we got our oyster cards and loaded them up with £15 each to cover our travel for the duration of our stay. Then we hopped on the tube to Kings Cross which was near our hotel. For luggage, we each had a carry on roller and a daypack. We had considered taking the underground to KC which would have taken just over an hour. I’ve done it before and it feels endless. In the end, the extra £7 total was worth the 20 to 30 min time savings.

As others have talked about on the forums, figuring out the most cost effective means of getting around and visiting attractions in London seems to involve intricate spreadsheets. Getting into the city from Heathrow, the PAYG oyster card vs the travelcard; are the 2for1 vouchers worth it for a family of 4 since most attractions have a family rate that often isn’t much more than 2 adult tickets. I read threads here, on tripadvisor, on some other site about the 2for1 and the best way take advantage. You need to figure out what you want to visit each day and then do the cost analysis. We used the travelcard and 2 for 1 on the second day and it saved us £45. The other days we used PAYG oyster cards as the savings didn’t offset the extra cost of a paper rail ticket.

I also want to note up front that London attractions are not cheap. The museums are free, which is great, but everything else seems to cost an arm and a leg. We would have liked to have visited the British Museum but didn't have the time and it was below other attractions on the kids' lists.

We stayed at the Premier Inn St Pancras on Euston Road just a block down the road from St. Pancras and Kings Cross station. When we made the reservation, we thought we’d be arriving at Euston Station on the train from Manchester. Then we were leaving on the Eurostar from St. Pancras. So the location was perfect. Even with the change in arrival, we still found the hotel convenient. It is a new hotel and it was clean and comfortable. We had a family room with a queen bed and 2 small twins (probably not as wide as a normal twin). While the room wasn’t huge, it was sufficient for the 4 of us to access our bags and we didn’t feel on top of each other. The best feature was how silent the room was. We were on the first floor overlooking busy Euston Road and heard zero street noise. We arrived at the hotel, stored our luggage with them which took time as it seemed to be a popular time of people coming and going doing the same thing. We finally headed out to find lunch and start enjoying the city.

I gave input on what they might enjoy, but had the kids determine what they wanted to visit in London and Paris and tried to fit as much of it in as I could. My son is a big soccer fan, plays FIFA on Xbox, knows all the players, follows the premier league and UEFA champions league. So the number one thing on his list was going to a football stadium. Since we had our bonus day in London, we decided to go. Arsenal is only a 6 min tube ride from Kings Cross so it would be a quick and easy thing to do, especially with jetlag. They offer a self guided audio tour where you visit the locker rooms, the player’s tunnel, pitchside and dugout, press room as well as sit in the stadium seats. It was perfect. A few weeks before our departure, I looked up to confirm the tour details and a small window popped up saying from mid-May to mid-Aug they would be working on regenerating the pitch and the locker rooms, tunnel, pitchside, dugouts would be inaccessible—basically the whole tour! So Arsenal was now out and our only other choice was Chelsea, his least favorite team. I left it up to him and he decided he still wanted to go. It meant traveling 30 min back across London by tube to get to Stamford Bridge stadium. They have a similar tour to Arsenal but there is a tour guide and the tours leave every 30 min. If booked online, you get a significant savings and when doing so you had to choose a time. We arrived about 40 min before our scheduled time hoping to get on the earlier tour, but they were full so we had to wait. We killed time in the museum that had some interactive activities, video clips, trophies and paraphernalia. My son really enjoyed the tour so I’m glad we did it. Compared to facilities in the US, even college facilities, I was surprised at the spartan locker rooms and shower facilities, especially for the visiting team. The guide said that it is considered one of the better visiting locker rooms too! Basically a bench around the perimeter of a room with hooks above spaced about 2 feet apart. They will be tearing down the 100+ year old stadium for a new, bigger one soon so we can say we saw a piece of history.

It was now about 3pm. We hopped back on the tube to Westminster to enjoy all the sights there—Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, London Eye, promenade along the river. It is such a spectacular sight to walk out of the tube station, look up and see Big Ben and the HoP looming over you. It is so iconic it almost doesn’t feel real. The kids were awed. They loved that the red telephone booths are still around even though no one uses pay phones anymore.

We wandered over to Westminster Abbey and checked out the exterior but neither kid was interested in going inside. From there we walked along St James Park to Trafalgar Square. We would have liked to see the Churchill War Rooms but with jetlag settling in we didn’t know if we’d be able to enjoy it enough to justify the cost. There was a line outside to get in too.

We checked out the lions at Trafalgar Square where there was a live performance of some sort in the center. From there we headed to Covent Garden. Walking around, taking in the city really helped to keep us alert and awake but fatigue was starting to hit. We had dinner at a fish and chips place near Covent Garden and my easygoing son started to go downhill quickly. I figured my moodier daughter would have a harder time but she was a complete trooper.

After dinner we did another lap around the Covent Garden area and watched some street performers as my husband ran off to see if he could find a pub from his younger years. Then we headed to the Covent Garden tube stop with its 200 spiral steps going down to the tracks. I’m surprised none of us passed out from dizziness.

Back at the hotel we cleaned up and passed out. I think we were all out cold by 8 and slept a glorious 12+ hours. In the end, I was so thankful we had this extra day to deal with jetlag and I felt like the kids got a good feel for the city. They were quickly falling in love with it.


NEXT: ST. PAULS; GLOBE THEATER; HAMPTON COURT PALACE; LONDON EYE; RIVER CRUISE
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Old Jul 20th, 2016, 01:37 PM
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Signing on, but puzzled by the spiral stairs at Covent Garden. Weren't the elevators working?
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Old Jul 20th, 2016, 02:00 PM
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The elevators were working but it was crowded and dear ole dad remembered the stairs from his younger years and wanted to go down that way.

We climbed up and down a lot of staircases this trip. Unfortunately my thigh muscles didnt seem to get as ripped as they should have with all the climbing. I guess the beer offset that benefit!
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Old Jul 20th, 2016, 02:12 PM
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"wanted to go down that way" - sooner you than me, but at least it was down and not up!
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Old Jul 20th, 2016, 02:40 PM
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Enjoying! Makes me want to "do" London one more time.
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Old Jul 21st, 2016, 06:18 AM
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Love the report!

You were in London one week before us. I just started working on my report too.

Can't wait to read more!
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Old Jul 21st, 2016, 11:54 AM
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I tried to post a reply but for some reason it would't post - I think Louise had a similar problem.

Anyway what I was trying to say was that I admired your persistence with getting your airline seats and enjoyed the start of the trip [report].

keep it coming!
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Old Jul 21st, 2016, 12:50 PM
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Louis, can't wait to read yours. Annhig, the AA website and I developed a very close relationship!

Here is the next day...

Monday was our only full day in London. With such limited time, I really debated whether a trip out to Hampton Court Palace would be worth it and even asked Fodorites how much time it would take. I thought my kids would love it. The three of us watched the documentary on the palace and King Henry VIII on Netflix and, while it is a decent documentary, they felt like they were sitting through a history class. At the time they were a bit lukewarm on visiting but I decided to put it on the itinerary anyway. Not long before we left, my son overheard me talking to someone about it and he said, “Are we still planning to go to that place?” Then I really started second guessing it. I just didn’t know if our time would be better spent staying in the city and seeing a couple more sites there. In the end, I left the decision up to the family and they decided we should go for it and it was the absolute best decision. The kids consider it one of the highlights of the trip.

We woke up Monday morning to rain. Not the light, drizzly kind but the pouring kind. But when you only have a couple days to see things, you grab your raincoat, umbrella and waterproof shoes, and just don’t let it bother you. There was a Pret a Manger on the corner of our hotel which was perfect to grab a quick pastry or sandwich and coffee for breakfast which we did both mornings.

Since we were going out to the palace in zone 6, it made sense to buy the paper travelcard from the rail station. The oyster cap for zone 1-6 is £11.80 and the travelcard is £12.10 plus the kids were half off at £6.05 each (which was not very clear when researching this beforehand) making the travelcard cheaper. Plus, we got to use the 2for1 vouchers at all the attractions we visited that day and had printed them out prior to leaving home. It was an easy process at each attraction, we just gave the two vouchers to the ticket agent, showed our travelcard and paid for two adult tickets for the 4 of us. As mentioned above, sometimes this only saved us £2-3 since the family price is low but it was really worth it at the London Eye.

Silly me had assumed we’d be hitting the tube prior to 9:30 so our off peak travelcards would not work. Therefore, I planned on having an additional £2.40 on our oyster cards for that single ride. But, with only one bathroom, getting 4 people out the door is not a quick process and we didn’t leave our hotel until close to 9:30. At Kings Cross train station, we went to the ticket booth and quickly got our travel cards. We stopped to look at people posing at platform 9 ¾ with the luggage cart loaded with Harry’s things halfway through the brick. They give the people a Gryffindor scarf and wand to use as they are posing.

We hopped on the tube and headed for St. Paul’s Cathedral (vouchers saved us £3). The kids were really intrigued by the Whispering Gallery and thought climbing the domes would be fun. The church opens at 8:30 but the domes don’t open until 9:30. We walked around the outside looking for the correct entrance and I noticed a large group of young school boys congregating at another entrance and I figured, great, we are going to be there with school groups running around. There was no line at the entrance when we arrived and just a few people scattered throughout the cathedral. After the initial ogle of such an awe inspiring place, we headed for the domes. These 528 steps were the first of many, many sets of stairs on this trip.

The whispering gallery is very cool. At first it didn’t seem to be working for us and a lady suggested I move a few feet to the left and I could hear my husband like he was standing next to me and not across the large dome. Fans of ‘How I Met Your Mother’ should know that the kids had to say the phrases “pu pu platter” and “booger”. We then climbed up to the two other levels where you can go outside and walk around the perimeter taking in the views of the city. Of course, it was still raining and was much windier up there, but that didn’t stop us. Despite the rain and poor conditions, the views were still pretty spectacular. As a note, pay attention to which staircase to use for going up and down. It is clearly marked but as we started down from the third level, a crew of teens was coming up the tiny spiral staircase. The worker at the top would not give them access to outside and made them walk back down-not fun after climbing all those steps.

After we descended, we wandered around and enjoyed the church. All of the sudden, we heard the sounds of a young choir filling the church coming from the crypt. That group of school boys was actually a young choir coming to rehearse. It was beautiful.

From the cathedral, we walked south across Millennium Bridge to Shakespeare’s Globe Theater. Surprising to me, the Globe was high on both kids’ lists. They offer 30 min tours every half hour. We used our vouchers (£11 savings) and waited about 10 minutes for the next tour. The tours are given by the actors in the company and ours was very funny and entertaining. Workers were busy building the set for the Taming of the Shrew that evening. We all really enjoyed the tour. It was fascinating to learn more about what life was like during that time. They also have a great little gift shop with some unique items.

It was now time to make our way to Waterloo Station, about a mile walk, mostly along the river. The rain was down to a light drizzle by now. We needed to grab some lunch on the way. These days, kids like to watch YouTube videos of other people playing video games. I don’t get it, but everyone seems to do it. My son follows a few people in the UK who play FIFA online with their buddies and record it. I have to say, the few I’ve heard, they are very humorous with that great British humor. Anyway, they all talk about Nandos so my son had to eat there. It is a fast food-ish place that serves spicy grilled chicken. It is a chain from South Africa. They have outlets all over London and we passed one on the way to the station so stopped to grab a quick bite. I found the chicken on the bone to be very good but the chicken breast sandwich was a bit dry. They offer spicy mayonnaise for the fries so that was a big plus for me. My husband liked the hand washing station right next to the drink station. Needless to day, both kids loved it.

Taking the train to HCP from Waterloo, there are two trains an hour that are direct and two trains that leave 6 min later and require a change at Surbiton station. The train that goes to Surbiton is an express and you transfer onto the direct train that left Waterloo 6 min prior. It takes a total of 30 min to get the HCP station. We just made the Surbiton train, otherwise it would have cost us 30 min. My son noted that Surbiton station is the one used in the opening scenes of Harry Potter and Half Blood Prince.

The rain had finally let up by now and it was a quick walk to the Palace from the train station. We used vouchers (£2.50 savings) and enjoyed the palace for about 3 ½ hours. The place is huge so I assume it handles crowds well but it felt like we had the place almost to ourselves. My kids liked the Tudor side better than the William III side. Watching the documentary beforehand added to their enjoyment of the palace and they were telling my husband little tidbits along the way (he hasn’t seen it yet). The tennis court was being used by two players, one recognizable by his picture on the wall as some sort of champion of that style of tennis. The gardens are out of this world and the maze was a definite highlight. That maze is no joke. You really get turned around quickly. The kids made it to the center much faster than my husband and me. We were almost there and I saw a sign that said Maze with an arrow and thought I was back at the entrance so turned around. Turns out I was almost to the center. So that cost me 5-10 min. I could hear my son laughing at me from the center but couldn't find them!

We headed back to the station and stayed on the direct train to Waterloo. We could have saved 2 min by transferring at Surbiton but it was nice to just sit in one place for a bit. My son has loved trains since he was a toddler and he loved riding on the trains. As he is getting older, it is nice to see glimpses of the little boy still in him.

By the time we were back in the city, the skies were clear and bright blue. We took the short walk over to the London Eye. The Eye was the one non-negotiable thing the kids wanted to do, even if it was poor weather. Thankfully, we could not have had better weather for it. The London Eye website gave me a headache with all of its ticket choices and feeling like I had to pick a 30 min window or pay through the nose to be able to go whenever we wanted. Deep in the FAQs you find out that if you just show up when you want, the tickets are £24.95, just slightly more than the lowest price ticket locking you into a time. They take the 2for1 vouchers at this price and when you get the vouchers you can book a time if you want through the daysoutguide site. Since we didn’t know our timing, we didn’t do this and decided to just wing it. If we didn’t use the vouchers, we probably would have purchased the Eye+River Cruise package where you pick the cruise time and can go up the Eye anytime that day. That seemed the best deal for flexibility at £93.60 for the 4 of us.

I can’t remember what time we arrived, about 5:30 or 6, and we waited about 20 min to buy the tickets. The line to pick up prepaid tickets seemed almost as long but it probably moved faster. At the line to get on the Eye, a large school group was about to enter and the attendant was trying to get them to line up so he could get a count. We ran up and asked if we could jump in line while he did this and he let us in. Otherwise we would have been behind another 50 people. That line moved fast and we were on a car in less than 10 minutes. The ride is nice, the views are wonderful, the cars are large and you have plenty of room to move around. Is it worth the high cost? Hard to say since it costs a lot to go up the other tall buildings to get similar views. My son, who had been so excited, thought it was overrated. My daughter and husband really enjoyed it though. I guess I’d consider it something to do once.

Once off the Eye, we had 10 min until the next river cruise departed. We ran over to the pier, used our vouchers which the attendant didn’t know how to use and it took some time and help from another attendant to get it sorted. We made it on the boat with just a couple minutes to spare. The vouchers at the Eye and Cruise saved us £17 over the package I mentioned above, but £76 at face value, and we had the ultimate in flexibility. All of us really enjoyed the cruise. The guide was great, humorous and full of little anecdotes-lots of color commentary. It was nice to sit, relax for 40 min and take in the sights. This is the only time we saw Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. The kids weren’t interested enough in the Tower to add to their list and the Bridge would have been something we checked out if we hadn’t gone to HCP.

After the cruise, we walked across the bridge to Westminster again to take in Big Ben and HoP one last time and then headed back to Kings Cross on the underground. I knew that England was playing Slovakia that night at 8pm in the Euro Cup but didn’t put two and two together that it would mean all the pubs would be PACKED full. So my idea of a nice dinner with some pints at a pub near our hotel was dashed. We ended up going to Pizza Express which, despite its name, is a fairly nice pizza joint with good thin crust pizzas and a great selection of interesting toppings. They had nice cold beer so I was happy (but sad we didn't make it to a pub this trip.)

It was a great, full day but we never felt like we were overdoing it. I felt like everything we did was varied and unique. This day turned out to be the favorite day of the whole trip for both kids.


NEXT: Jogging alongside the Guard and the Eiffel Tower!
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Old Jul 21st, 2016, 01:09 PM
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Sounds like a great day, lolfn, and brilliantly planned. I love that you knew you could save 2 minutes at Surbiton! have you thought of making travel planning your full-time job?
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Old Jul 21st, 2016, 01:16 PM
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Wow, you certainly covered a lot! I am a fan of Nandos, but I always get the chicken breast, extra spicy.
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Old Jul 21st, 2016, 02:25 PM
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Great TR! Looking forward to the next installments.
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Old Jul 21st, 2016, 11:05 PM
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I love the detail, this may become the go-to thread for London visitors in 2017..
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Old Jul 22nd, 2016, 06:52 AM
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I definitely did a lot of planning for London and Paris because I knew they were quick hits with lots of options and logistics to figure out. But, I must admit, everything went so smoothly thanks to the planning that our day felt fairly relaxed. We slowed down a lot in Belgium, even forgoing some of the things we had planned to do in order to relax a bit more.
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Old Jul 22nd, 2016, 07:07 AM
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Having been there a few times I like seeing it thru other's eyes. Looking forward to the rest of it.
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Old Jul 22nd, 2016, 07:16 AM
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Just a footnote about surprisingly spartan locker rooms in the football stadium: I happened to see a mention in my paper the other day of a club (in a lower league, admittedly) where the room and water heating in the visitors' changing room was known to malfunction for important matches.......
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Old Jul 22nd, 2016, 07:42 AM
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Patrick, the guide said as much, the visitor's facilities are spartan for a reason.

Chelsea's locker room actually had lockers--a tall box with their picture on the door--but not as large or nice as you'd expect. There was only one ice bath and one, maybe two, trainers table which was surprising. Small shower room too. I know they train at a different facility but would expect the need for more than that after matches.
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Old Jul 22nd, 2016, 07:52 AM
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Tuesday morning, we packed up our stuff that morning and stowed it with the hotel. As far as packing goes, I was late to game on this, but once I figured it out, it was a life changer. We each have and are responsible for our own bag. The kids must pack, organize and carry their own bags. We used to share larger suitcases and I hated how someone would rummage through the whole thing looking for something and everything would become a jumbled mess that I would end up having to sort out. Now, everyone has a packing list and packs their own stuff off that. Everything you bring must fit in a carry on and day pack. At each stop, the kids have to stay on top of their own things. My daughter is an organization pro. My son, not so much. He opened the expander of his bag as soon as he repacked in London all because he was too lazy to fold his clothes properly. But it was no longer my problem. Years ago I bought large space bags for some attic storage and the pack came with “packing” space bags. They were probably about 3 gallon size. We each used one of those instead of large ziplocs for dirty clothes and rolled them to push out the air and then they lay flat and small. It was really helpful to keep dirty clothes separate and for when we had to do laundry. Anyway, that’s my tip of the day!

My daughter wanted to see things related to the Royals and some pomp and pageantry. We didn’t want to waste hours crammed in at Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guards. There are tours you can take that take you to everywhere the Guards are except for the Palace. We chose the Fun London Tour and met them at Piccadilly Circus at 10:15. Augusta was our tour guide and she was fabulous. She was intent on getting the group to the prime front row spots and kept us moving to keep up with everything. In addition, she was a wealth of information on the Guard and Royals and other interesting tidbits. She befriended a former Guard a few years ago and peppered him with questions for insider information. We had front row spots at St. James’ Palace where the new guard comes out, does its little routine (the squiggly side shuffle is cool). The band joins them and then they march out to the Mall and down the street. At the perfect moment so as not too early you are stopped by security or too late that you get behind others, Augusta told us to MOVE and we were able to cross over the Mall and jog alongside of them toward Buckingham Palace. I looked back along the wide sidewalk at one point and saw at least a dozen tour guides scurrying along holding their little flag in the air as their people were trailing the Guard down the street, it was pretty funny. She took us over to the barracks to watch the Guard from there depart for the Palace and eventually the retired Guard return. And then we went to one last place for more Guard marching. We definitely got our fill of seeing the red suited guys with the awesome bear skinned hats. My daughter loved it and it was much more fun for the kids than just standing staring at shoulder blades trying to see through the gates of the palace.

But now we were stuck surrounded by a jillion people who had been standing at the Palace for the event. My daughter wanted to see the Royal Mews and it was a real challenge trying to get over to that side of the Palace. Just crowds everywhere. I can’t imagine it in the real height of tourist season. We eventually made it and she loved seeing the beautiful carriages especially the golden one that is truly spectacular.

By now, the crowds were gone and we were able to get a closer look at Buckingham Palace. It was closing in on 1pm and we had a 3:30 Eurostar to catch to Paris. We walked across a quiet Green Park to the station and went back to Kings Cross.

Since we were done with our oyster cards, we stopped at the machine to get the refund on our £5 deposit plus any monies remaining which turned out to be around £5 each since we didn’t need to use it for a single ride the day before and we didn’t hit the cap today. I don’t know how I expected to receive the refund but was definitely surprised. We ended up getting a total of about £40 back and it was all coins. The machine dispensed one £5 note and the rest in coins. So many coins! Not just £1 or £2 coins, but coins of all sorts-50p, 10p, 20p. They just kept falling, it was like we hit the jackpot at a slot machine. We scooped them out and threw them into a pouch and went out to find a quick lunch since they were recommending arriving at St. Pancras an hour ahead of time due to increased security.

Since Nandos was such a crowd pleaser and there is one across the street from the station, off to Nandos we went. They seat you at a table with menus and when you are ready to order you go up to the cashier to place your order with your table number. We sat down and started organizing and stacking the coins. I felt like I was a poor college student again scrounging up and counting any loose change. I had another pound or two in coins I brought with us from a previous trip so we had about £42 total. (We never had the need for cash in London so never got any from the ATM). We took our stacks to the cashier, placed our order and it came to £41.20. It was meant to be!

We collected our bags from the hotel, walked the short walk to St. Pancras, picked up some food and drinks for the train at the M&S across from where you enter security. In the waiting room, I purchased a carnet of metro tickets at the information desk. You pay a premium of probably about $5 but it was worth it to not have to worry about dealing with it at Gare du Nord. They called our platform and we were off.

London was the perfect entry into Europe for the kids. With our limited time, we were happy with our choice of things to do and don’t have any regrets on the trade-offs (well, maybe missing the War Rooms.) I spent most of my time in London back in the late 80s and it was definitely more gritty then. I remember when I lived in Asia one of my friends worked for a British investment bank in Hong Kong and travelled to London frequently in the mid 90s. He always complained that is was like third world country with a crumbling infrastructure. If that was true, it is no more. It felt all cleaned up and is such an easy city to navigate.


NOW, OFF TO PARIS…
lolfn is offline  
Old Jul 22nd, 2016, 08:58 AM
  #20  
 
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Just a footnote about surprisingly spartan locker rooms in the football stadium: I happened to see a mention in my paper the other day of a club (in a lower league, admittedly) where the room and water heating in the visitors' changing room was known to malfunction for important matches.......>>

Patrick - I am reliably informed that the visitors' dressing rooms at our local rugby club are beyond description. And not in a good way.
annhig is offline  

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