London - Day 1

Late Sunday morning on July 10th we departed for a long anticipated European adventure. We had decided as a family that instead of staying in one place for a few weeks, we would try to see as much as we could.  I planned a daily itinerary to keep us on track and off we went.  Remember, Friday evening we returned from trek.  All day Saturday we scrambled to finish up packing.  Sunday morning we felt ready for the adventure, but deep down some of us (ME!) were really tired.

I had this really brilliant idea that we should each only pack a duffle backpack as a carry-on. Originally, the one I had in mind also had wheels, but somehow it morphed into this awesome waterproof duffle/backpack that was way too heavy for most to carry, and far too large for a carry on. In the end we checked them all (at a cost) and heaved them around Europe.  Our rolling suitcases seemed like a luxury we lived without!

We arrived at 8:45AM Monday morning in London and looked forward to a full day of sight-seeing.  It took us far longer to get to our hotel, via Paddington Station, than we anticipated.

Then there were complications with our hotel because we admitted there were five of us.  It was a lot of sitting around, negotiating and an expensive upgrade to a junior suite that still didn't fit us all.  Finally we got out into the city and felt especially rushed to fit in all we had hoped to see that day.  

First glimpse of a British phone booth!

Our first stop was the British Museum.  If you've ever been there you know you could spend days exploring the treasures inside.  We had about an hour and half.  It was a glimpse, really.  We walked fast and looked hard.

A view from the museum.

We walked through Covent Garden...

and Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus and Regent and Oxford Streets.  There wasn't much time to stop and smell the roses, and it rained off and on the whole way.

Being in the midst of the Harry Potter series, Ceci loved every Potter item. (This was a spell store...seriously.)

Adele loves to shop.  She'll endure a museum for the museum shop.  She wanted to see what fun things there were to find in London, so we squeezed in stores here and there to satisfy her desires.

We walked past Big Ben.

And we headed to our scheduled ride on the London Eye.

There were beautiful views, and the rain stopped during our ride!

 The best route to our hotel from most places was this double decker.

We walked just shy of 8 miles that day.