The Strader European Family Vacation-Part Two

London

We stayed in a Holiday Inn just outside London near where Ben was teaching. We ventured out for the first time and rented our own car from the airport along with a trusty Navigation system.

The car was great! The Sat Nav, as they called it, was not so great...and what do you do with a rental car in London and no Sat Nav? Get lost, get car sick and throw up, then have an argument in front of your kids (they were sleeping but it makes the story better) you also call someone you barely now and pay for a 20 min foreign phone call to talk you through the directions....

Once we got the "hang of driving" and we decided I couldn't scream every time I felt like we would run off the road or hit something Ben "pinched the curb" I wanted to say "I told you so" soo bad but didn't, he had to change the tire so I am sure he figured it out...besides I knew for sure he would be EXTRA careful after changing a tire so I guess it worked out for me in the end.


Our first night was like an all night slumber party...we tried to stay up as late as we could, after our 9 hour flight turned into almost 13 hour flight...we managed to stay up until 5pm. Then we all crashed! At 10pm we were all up again, as if it were morning...TV on, toys out, calling room service for food. Around 1 AM the next door neighbor banged on our adjoining door, I guess he didn't just arrived from America with two little kids??? Sorry:)
By 2:30 everyone was settled down again and we slept "in" till 10...this part, for those of you ever adjusting to UK's 8 hour ahead time clock, didn't go so bad...

The next day we headed to LegoLand...I'm sure I know what your thinking...why would we travel all the way to England to visit a park that is right around the corner at home? Strategy my friends...we were able to keep the girls up and busy and HAPPY! A round of applause please! We even found a really cool, really American, restaurant to eat nearby our hotel! SUCCESS!

Ben's classes did go really well, and he taught an extra day then what we expected...we are happy to have had this new contact and WILL be going back if they will have us! While Ben set things up Natalie and Ally did some playing in a HUGE park like setting with GYNORMUS dandelions...the biggest ones I've ever seen!

Another day I took the girls by myself, armed with only one stroller and a sling, onto the train and into downtown London. Once I figured out how to park the car (a whole other car story) we rode the 30 min train in with ease...I must have taken a wrong turn out of Waterloo train station because I ended up walking through a tunneled alley way covered top to bottom with graffiti art. I was convinced myself London is just so artsy and this kind of walkway was totally safe over here...you know London being so edgy and all. There even happened to be a group of "artists" painting a new space...they smiled? Seemed friendly, the spray paint fumes were a little strong. I didn't realize I had taken the "wrong" way until my way back to the station, whereby I came the regular route, with people and sunshine...there should be a bit in the tour book about not walking down strange graffitied tunnels - I wanted to take a picture, I guess it is good I didn't..When we surfaced to sunlight, Natalie said..."Mommy that was a little scary" I agreed with her - even though I never once felt unsafe at the moment...it was retrospect that I thought hmmm probably shouldn't have done that...however on the return trip I managed to get both girls so tired they slept the whole way home...see me in the train station:)

We ended up picnicking at the park just below the London Eye...we played at the awesome playground there! Then visited the Sea Life Aquarium...the girls slept the whole journey home and I was back to pick up Ben ON TIME! Not so bad!

We returned to the same fantastic kid friendly restaurant we even requested our same waiter...