Our visit to London was a rollercoaster. As our first stop, it naturally was difficult– adjusting to the time change, accepting the fact that we were going to be with each other for a long time, starting homeschooling, and all the normal unknowns of traveling. However, this visit came with a slightly unexpected challenge: the Corona virus.
We arrive
When we first arrived, as we walked though the airport we noticed how empty everything was, it was very eerie. We were very jet lagged and had dinner at an Indian restaurant then immediately went to bed, without out any thoughts of the coronavirus in our head.
Day 1
The next day, our first full day in London, started with a rather sleepy start, but once we were all finally up and at it, we went to the Bank of London Museum. The Bank of London Museum was okay, but we did get to try to lift a $670,000, 99.9% pure-gold bar that was really heavy! Then we had one of my favorite meals of our whole visit, lunch at a restaurant called Old Thameside Pub. The pub was on the water and right next to it you could see the Durmstrang ship from Harry Potter!
At lunch the Coronavirus first struck: we had a stressful talk about how it would affect our trip to come– about how we might not be able to make it places and how it would cause a lot of problems over time. This was also when all of us kids found out about our new plan to go to Namibia. That sounded exciting! That afternoon we visited St. Paul’s cathedral and took a tour in which we visited a couple of famous people from history’s graves… for example, the Duke of Wellington (the guy who killed Napoleon).
To top it all off, we went to a play called Come From Away. The play explained how during 9/11 a lot of people got stranded in a lot of random countries. In the play, 48 planes were grounded in Newfoundland, doubling the current population, and all of the local people accepted them no matter their race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and more. They make sure that everyone is not only cared for, but helped, happy and comfortable. They do such a great job, that 10 years later, a lot of the people who were stranded there came back to visit. It was a great play, and I think that everyone should see it.
Day 2
On the second morning I woke up with a lot more enthusiasm because today was the day that Sydney, Daddy (Joe), and I went to Harry Potter studios! We had a great time; I highly recommend it, and you would enjoy it even if you aren’t a big Harry Potter fan like me. While I was having one of the best times of my life, Alexander and Mommy went to the British Museum and the London Museum. Finally, we all met up for dinner at a restaurant called Farzi, where we had stressful Coronavirus-talk-number-two including added stress because of the NBA and NHL suspending the season and MLB cancelling spring training and delaying opening day.
Day 3
We started off Friday morning on a low note. The Coronavirus struck again and this time, stronger and harder than ever!! Because of the Coronavirus we decided not to go to Germany, which meant we were going to miss Neuschwanstein. I was so sad, even though it meant staying in London.
Almost every trip we take we do an escape room and this one was no exception. Then, we decided to check out the British Museum and we went to the Egypt and Greece sections, and frankly, they were boring. It was just a bunch of objects with unengaging plaques in a small font and the whole layout was really confusing. Because the museum was so tiresome, we decided to go to a different one. This time we went to the Wellcome exhibit, and I sulked the entire time because I thought that if we went to two museums we shouldn’t have to do any homeschooling as well. I won that argument. That night we kids ate at the AirB&B while the adults had a date night at a restaurant called Barrafina.
Final day Day 4
The next morning, we got lucky and were able to get tickets for a tour of Parliament. Oddly, it was cold, but still very interesting. Then we went to Westminster Abbey, where we saw amazing gothic architecture dating back to 1000. We also saw the graves of Isaac Newton, Stephen Hawking, Maxwell, Darwin, Handel, Dickens, and so much more! After another long day we had lunch at the Sherlock Holmes restaurant. The restaurant had the Sherlock Holmes movies playing in the room and Sydney and I accidentally washed our hands in the Men’s room.
After some homeschooling and dinner we saw the concert version of the musical & Juliet and personally, I loved it! It’s about what would have happened in Romeo and Juliet if Juliet hadn’t killed herself. It was funny, engaging and if Shakespeare had seen it, I think he would have really enjoyed it! I liked it so much I wished we could have seen the regular version as well!
Day 5
Once again, we had a slow start to the day, we weren’t expecting to still be in London so we didn’t really have a plan, but we still had a few good ideas. We decided to go to the Natural History museum and the V&A museum. The Natural History museum was awesome, we saw so many cool things and I also highly recommend it. The V&A museum was cool but not as good as the natural history museum in my opinion. That night we saw Magic Goes Wrong, a play about a magician who’s trying to raise money for an imaginary charity, and everything goes terribly. It is hilarious. I highly recommend that as well.
Final Day
Finally, on our final day we started out taking a tour of Shakespeare’s famous Globe Theater, where we learned all about its history. Throughout the whole thing all I could think about was how cold it was. If you decide to do this, then you should definitely dress for freezing weather, I was wearing 3 layers and I was freezing even though it was sunny.
Then we went up the Shard, and had lunch up high in the sky. However Mommy wasn’t feeling well so she took Sydney and I back to the AirB&B while Daddy and Alexander went to the Faraday museum. To top it all off, that night, we decided to leave and go home. The Coronavirus unfortunately ended the trip, at least for now, so, we will see if we continue from here on our journey around the world.
I apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors.
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Awesome pics! London is my favorite city (well, now tied with Tokyo)
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Great post. I could really imagine being there. I am very sorry that your trip is ending though. That feels very sad but the right thing to do.
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Looks super fun! I am sorry you guys are having to head home.
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