London Baby!!

Day 1 - Travel!

All I can say about the travel is - HOLY COW were we tired when we arrived. We tried to sleep some on the plane, but it’s just impossible when you are crammed into those small seats.  Wish we could have booked ourselves in those individual pods.  Now those are sweet!  

     So the day before we left, we found out Greg had a slight medical issue - long story short but suffice it to say we weren’t sure he was going to be able to travel. Luckily, they got him started on meds ASAP and we were on our way.  We were so thankful.  

We arrived in Chicago with plenty of time to spare so had a bite to eat and did some people watching.  Once on the plane, we unfortunately lost our video monitors in our peasant section… and they worked on trying to reboot it for over 2 hours.  They finally got it working so we could watch movies, if desired. Luckily I had downloaded some stuff on my IPad, so I watched some episodes of OUTLANDER!  Shocker!!  Cody made me fast forward through some racy scenes though… in case someone else saw it.  Oh bother!

    We finally arrived - actually about 30 min early thanks to a tail wind… but after exiting the plane, I am pretty sure we walked about 500 miles through the airport to get to luggage retrieval. Man that  airport is huge! And when you are going on no sleep in the middle of the night - suffice it to say the Reitan family was CRANKY!  I can tell you arguments were had. A certain child of mine, who shall remain nameless, does not function well on no sleep.  Wowza! Words of warning to anyone who may travel with said person in the future. 

     We arrived at Paddington station a bit overwhelmed and thoroughly exhausted. It was rough to get acclimated when you are so incredibly tired.  We dropped off our luggage and off we went.  

     The original plan was to head straight to Abbey Road, and we quickly figured out how plans were going to work. So, we started to just wander. We had tickets for the Hop On Hop Off bus, so we hopped right on. We discovered it to be not really what it was cracked up to be. Crammed into seats with no room to move your legs, and must not have gotten on a good route, it was rather dull.  As I double checked our Google Maps - I realized that we were quite close to ‘3 Saville Row’ - the previous site of Apple Records and where the Beatles performed their rooftop concert.  So we headed there.  This was the first site where Tracy got a bit emotional.  I could not believe I was standing RIGHT THERE! A major WOW moment for me! We wandered a bit around that area, which has a lot of high end shops, including a tailor shop where the royals get their clothes. Fancy Schmancy!  

     After that, we hopped into an Uber, and went to Abbey Road. Another major WOW moment for me! It was glorious. It is something to see, as there are so many people waiting their turn to walk across the road and take photos. Who knew when they randomly took that picture for their album cover what it would be 54 years later/ Just crazy! The Abbey Road Studios are amazing, and of course they have a shop and I went in and dropped a ‘few’ pounds. :).  We sat there for awhile to just watch all of the people.  Greg was getting a real kick out of everyone.  

     Once we finished up there, we were literally like walking zombies. We starting trudging back to where our luggage was at, which was about a 30 minute walk. Not going to lie, it was rough. We finally made it and caught a black cab and headed to our hotel.  We figured we would see if we could check in early, and if not, we would just chill for a bit. We were lucky and they let us check in. Woo hoo!!! We literally crashed in our room - but didn’t let ourselves sleep until we had some lunch. The hotel restaurant is wonderful - as it looks out at the Tower Bridge and has outdoor seating. Greg and I quickly partook in an order of Fish & Chips. After that, we came up to the room and CRASHED! Heavenly sleep! I can’t remember a time I was ever so tired!

     Of course, then Cody and I were awake at about 11pm - so we decided to take a midnight walk across tower bridge. It was beautiful.  We felt more than safe, and just wandered and gazed at the wonderful scenery,, astounded that we were actually here!  

     The hotel also has a Jack Daniels Bar, so we had a cocktail and then hit the hay again. 

     Day 1 down. Not going to lie - first day of travel is ROUGH! I am very glad we didn’t really have specific plans or anything booked because it was a bit hard to appreciate things. We were excited, but in a daze at the same time. 

     Two things checked off my bucket list today - and ready for Day 2 hopeful for more energy!