London – As told by Jordan

Europe, London, Paris, Travel, Uncategorized

Cheers to you London!

July 16, 2018June 25, 2019by Jordan LynnLeave a Comment

Today was our last day in London and it was long and short all at the same time! We got to sleep in and still ate breakfast at the hotel. After breakfast we packed up all of our stuff and had the hotel hold our luggage so we could go and explore without our giant bags (mom’s). The first thing we did was go and watch the changing of the guards at Buckingham palace, which was super cool. Sad to say that band ain’t got nothing on the fightin’ Texas Aggie band. Still super incredible to see and the royal flag was flying so even crazier to think that the queen was there! After that we took a walk through Hyde park all the way to Kensington palace. Got to say a quick hello to Will, and Kate. Just kidding, but that would have been awesome. The rest of the day was incredibly relaxing. We went back to Hyde park and laid in the grass feeding birds and flying airplanes! After that we had our first experience on a train! It was only 2.5 hours and we all had cool seats all together!! Once we arrived it was really hectic considering we are a family of 6 and all their cars here in France hold max 4 and a driver. BUT we made it to our hotel, some how ended up with 4 rooms and we can see the top of the Eiffel Tower from our window! We ate at a small Italians restaurant and went to check out the Eiffel Tower. Now we are all tucked into bed hoping we can get up at a decent time to start our day ( it’s 1am here, stupid time difference). See some photos below 🙂

Europe, London, Travel, Uncategorized

Oh bloody hell (day 2)

July 15, 2018June 25, 2019by Jordan LynnLeave a Comment

Well, our day 2 started right at 12:01am when we were all woken up by the fire alarm in our hotel. It went off once for not even a minute so we kind of relaxed and then again for quite a few minutes! As we peaked into the hallway multiple people open their doors to do the same. Laney looked at each of them like “alright, which one of us is going to go find out if this is real”. Luckily the women across the hall went down to see what was going on. They returned and said there was a man smoking in his room and set off all the alarms! She also told us goodnight, but not before telling us we had a neat room with stairs!

We started our ACTUAL day at 7:45am at the continental breakfast for our hotel. After eating and having the first COLD water we’ve had all trip we headed out. We were headed to the marble arch to get on our hop-on hop-off bus tour for the day!

We rode around most of the route before we decided to get off at the Tower of London, and Tower of London bridge. The Tower of London was awesome but the bridge was AMAZING! It was incredible to drive over it and then watch it open up for boats. When we went up to the top of the bridge (by stairs) we got to walk across the top where the very middle was only a glass floor! After we made it back down we walked across the bridge, picked up some ice cream and headed back to the bus stop.

When we hopped back on we got to rest our feet for a while before we hopped off and walked to Westminster Abbey. Where we walked by Big Ben, which is completely covered up under construction :(. We walked over to Westminster which was closed to tourist on Sunday’s for worship.

We then headed over to Churchill’s war rooms. Which were so awesome to see! Totally underground and left the way they were with some added security and an added on museum about his life!

After we made it through we headed back to Buckingham Palace and then headed to a true London dinner…at Smash Burger haha.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel and it was for sure time for a nap! After our nap we explored around paddington and found a cute little cafè! Had some cappuccino’s and walked down the side streets until the sun went down!

Easily a successful second day, that ended with 17,000 steps taken! Be back tomorrow after we head to our first train over to Paris!

Europe, London, Uncategorized

First day in London (1)

July 14, 2018June 25, 2019by Jordan LynnLeave a Comment

Well, I think i can say our first day in Europe was a success! I say success because we made it to another country and a whole day without any issues or losing anyone in our family of 6!

We left Houston yesterday, at 4 in the afternoon and landed here in London at 7:30am. While booking this trip months ago it sounded like a great idea, because we would then have a full day…well not so much. Half the family wasn’t able to sleep on the plane so when we got here they were exhausted. And even with sleep masks, neck pillows, and z-quil laney and I only slept for 3 hours.

When we made it to London we hopped on the express train to head to our hotel in paddington! So pleased that our rooms are available and all of us kids are sharing this room with a loft!

When we unpacked all our things it was only 10:30am! Cole immediately laid in bed and was out! The rest of us needed food, and found the pub down the street!

After the pub it was straight back to the hotel because everyone was exhausted. We slept for a good 4 hours! When we were finally all up from our nap we headed out to just explore!! We walked through Hyde park, got some ice cream, ran into the palace, and ended up eating dinner at this great pizza place! After we ate we hopped on the subway to get back to the hotel. But, then my dad realized a stop on the way was Nottinghill, naturally we had to stop. It ended up be an amazing walk where we ended up at Kensington Palace (which was closed) but we did get to see the gardens! Our night ended with a walk back through Hyde park back to our hotel and a quick stop at McDonals, because well why not! All in all even with a 4 hour nap we ended up with almost 20,000 steps!

Not a totally crazy first day but it’s a start!