London...then Paris with my "original family"

Ok catch up starts NOW.  Here we go on a blog post rewind of the summer.

After our trip to Mexico, I had two weeks at home (which included the only weekend at home with a fun trip to Wichita) and then it was time to go away again.  This time instead of to Mexico, it was to London for work.  Last March, when I was pregnant with Maddie, I made my first trip to London for work and had a grand time.  (You can read about my time there here: day 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5).  So this time, I decided that it would be SUPER fun if my mom, dad and sister tagged along.  Don't worry - you can already guess that I was NOT that detailed of keeping track of our every move this time as I was last time with a post each day.  Just one post.  Two months later.  Such is life.

We had a big year for our family - my dad had just retired and my mom turned 60 - so why not all go to Europe to celebrate!?  And we did just that!!!

On June 13, we headed to Dallas then to London overnight.  We flew American Airlines this time (I flew British Airways last time and it was amazing) and yeah, the airplane was not so great...but we lived through the long flight and when we landed in London...my mom was 60 years old!!!

My dad was already asleep at the KC airport

My seat partner on the way to London!

Sister and mom ready to go to London!

 When we finally got to our flat, it was about 3PM.  And by that point, even though we all got terrible sleep, it would have been silly to try to go to sleep.  So we went exploring.  Walked down to my office, went to the London Bridge, I showed them the tube station closest to our flat and got them some tube passes.  Then we had dinner to celebrate the birthday girl!!!!

And then I got this picture with the caption from Jimmy:

"Pot roast (Maddie's nickname" eating pot roast at Grana's".

Pretty cute, huh?!

Since we were all pooped, we went to bed early and I was up early the next morning and had a nice little commute to work through some pretty amazing streets.  

I loved how quiet it was in the morning by our apartment.

And then you emerge on a main street and see the hustle and bustle that London really is.

My parents and sister had a good day and bought the London Pass and were off to see lots of sights.  When I got home after a long day at work, I was ready to go somewhere, but they were all pooped.  I did convince my dad to go on the Jack the Ripper London Walk.  This was my first time going on a London Walk and it was great!!!  It was only 10 GBP and there was an awesome tour guide that took us all around the city.  Such awesome history and a fun way to enjoy the time after work!!  Glad my dad came with me for sure!!!

The second night, I'm pretty sure was when we went to dinner by Trafalgar Square area.  It was a mess because I told my parents I would meet them outside of a tube stop around there...I really went there to go to the UK baby store in search of a new cord for my pump.  Yep, I was pumping and was stuck with batteries.  Jimmy sent me to the "Buy buy baby" of the UK (called Mothercare) and of course they had no cord...but it was fun to go to a store like that there.  I ended up buying a manual pump in hopes that might be easier.  OMG no, not at all.  So I sucked it up and suffered through battery pumping the whole time.

But after that debacle, I finally found my family and we searched high and low for a restaurant that one of my co-workers recommended.  And then decided we didn't want to go there.

We were starving at that point and went to this delicious Italian place.

One thing to note about London that I seem to forget.  The service there is SO different than the US.  In my mind, they are SOOOO slow.  But really I think they just are like that and want you to enjoy dinner.  Oh and they hate ice.  It's weird.

Wednesday night, my family came in for lunch at my office.  And Mary got our picture on the balcony, which overlooks the Thames River and has an awesome view of the Tower Bridge!

That night, they hosted beers on the balcony because it was SO nice in London that week and my family was there along with another one of my KC co-workers and her husband and 3 kids.  We had fun and I had a few beers and was feeling very happy when it was time to leave!

We had planned on taking the boat to Greenwich, but on our way to the boat, we decided to just take the tube to Canary Wharf instead.

We did have some great views during the walk from my office to the tube station! 

Tower Bridge

Walking by the big boats in St Katharine's docks

Who owns these boats??!

We made it to Canary Wharf via the tube and did our usual "we cannot make a decision on where to eat for dinner" (right, family!?) until we all got so hungry we got mad!!  Ha!

After making our way through a race that was going on, we ended up at Wahaca, which was a DELICIOUS Mexican restaurant (not tex-mex for sure!).  They have mutliple chains/locations and one was actually under construction right by our flat that we walked by like a ton of times, so I'm glad we got to try it.  I thought it was awesome!

Then we took some pictures of Canary Wharf!

On Thursday, my sister and dad took a train to Windsor Castle, outside of London.  I was so jealous because I wanted to go there so bad!!!  They said it was amazing and so fun to get out of the city.  I bet - next time, I'm doing it!!  They also did a ton of stuff during the days with their London Pass.  They were to the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge tour, went to Kensington Palace, did the London Eye, saw Big Ben, took a boat tour and the list goes on.  I'm sure they had fun while I was at work!!  So glad they did!!

We were all pooped knew that Friday morning would come early early!  We booked the Eurostar train to Paris earlier in the week.  My dad and sister had mentioned wanting to go...it wasn't super cheap at all, but cheaper then another plane trip over, so my mom and dad bought us tickets and we were off on the 5:30AM train.

The whole thing was so cool and crazy!  The train station was organized just like an airport is to scan your luggage, take your ticket and go through security.  The train was so nice!!!  It goes under the ocean to from London to Paris - which is nuts.  But in about two hours, we had another stamp on our passports and were in France. So crazy!

Paris is SO different than London for sure - right off the bat the language barrier for sure.  Since we knew we just had that day and wanted to see all the big sites...we bought four tickets for a bus tour that picked us up right outside of the train station.  Which was awesome because we didn't have to learn their train or bus system and it went right to all the main sites.

First stop was Notre Dame, which was amazing.  We might have cut in line (on accident!) to get into it, but it was amazing.  You could light candles for family too - which was really neat.  Lots of prayer and reflection in an amazing building.  We went to a fun little cafe nearby for lunch and had a great lunch - with CREPES of course!!  They were SOOO good.

After lunch, we got back on the bus and made our way over to the Eiffel Tower.  It was SO big and so awesome.  Unfortunately, the line to go up it was SOOO long and we still wanted to see a few more things in more detail before we had to be back to the train station.  So we just walked around and looked and it and then got back on the bus - but I made us take some family pictures (my sister has them!) 

We did take a trip back around on the bus (which went surprisingly slow because there is crazy traffic in Paris!!) and went back to walk through the Louvre area (didn't go in that either) and then back to buy some pretty neat art from the stands nearby the river.  

And we laughed and had fun! 

FINALLY - we got some macaroons, but my poor sister wanted some gelato SO bad and we couldn't find any by the train station as well.  I felt so bad!

Then we had dinner by the station and hung out a little bit before it was time to get loaded in the train again and head back to London.  We didn't get back to London until like 11:30 or so...so we were pooped!!  And our flight back to the States left at 7:30AM, so we had an early car coming to pick us up.  But we made the best of our day in Paris.  And had a good time eating a bunch of sweets on our way back to London.

In the mean time, while I was gone all week - Jimmy and the kids were having some fun!!  I was getting lots of pictures from day care (which was awesome) and from Jimmy.  The worst though (but still cute), was a video that Jimmy sent to me of Charlie singing a song for me and then asking where I was at the end. Poor, sweet boy!!!  You must watch this:

But Jimmy did great and so did the kids.  Jimmy is a rock star for sure and didn't complain once.  (when he goes out of town for work- you better believe I complain!).  They had fun and we got to FaceTime a lot.  The time change just kills me because I have to stay up until 11PM each night to even talk to them.  But they would call me in the car on the way home from school each day and Charlie did SO much better at FaceTiming me and understanding what to do, etc. this time.  It made it so much easier!!!  Let's hope when I go back in January that Maddie has it figured out too!!!

What facetiming with an almost 3 year old looks like!!!

We had a LONG layover in Chicago.  Which they changed on us after we booked our flights and wouldn't let us change.  So annoying.  But we enjoyed the last moments of time with our "original family" aka the Bruns family and ate lots of yummy Garrett's popcorn (ha!). 

And laughed so hard when Jimmy sent us pictures like this!  This kid!!!

Ok, so I probably missed a ton, but there's a quick recap of our fun trip.  I asked my sister if she wanted to blog about it and add some pictures, etc., so we will see if she does!!!  I just love London so much and all my coworkers over there.  While it's quite the trip, they always make it so enjoyable and while I'm able to do all my work with them via video conference each week, it is so much easier physically being there!!  So until next time, London (and maybe Paris, but I wouldn't be sad if I didn't go there again...).  And the best part?  I think my parents and sister enjoyed it!  What a great experience to go just the four of us like we used to do growing up - but this time our first European adventure.  Having them there for sure made me miss my family at home a lot less!!!

London day 5: nothing too exciting!

Today - I worked.  And I'm tired.  This London gig is sure wearing me out!!

Don't worry though - I have one meeting from 8-9AM tomorrow and then a car is picking me up and taking me to the Heathrow Express and then begins my journey back to Kansas City.  I am supposed to arrive after a stop in Chicago at 7:20PM.  We'll see how that goes.  I'm hoping it's on time!

And I'm SO excited.  Seriously, the thought of kissing my sweet boy (and man's) face just makes me so so happy.  My whole family was together last night face timing me (Jimmy, Charlie, my mom, dad and sister) and it was good to see everyone's face, but it made me want to be there SO bad.  And then my mom told me she was making fried cauliflower and that made me even more sad (have you ever had fried cauliflower?  Well - it's amazing).

My plans were to attempt to take the train to Notting Hill after work and explore around there.  Unlucky for me, something at work had me stumped and I'm one of those people that cannot leave without figuring it out.  Especially when it's the topic of the 8AM meeting the next morning.  So I worked "late" until about 6:45 and then FINALLY got my sushi.  Luckily when everyone was walking out, they were talking to me and I got a great recommendation of a lovely sushi place just right by the office.  Wahoo!  No getting lost tonight chasing after Yo Sushi!

When I left the office, it was sprinkling and rather cold.  So all worked out in the world of traveling and I was so happy I didn't have big plans to explore tonight because I don't think I would have made it very far, given that my umbrella (or brolly as they say here sometimes) was back at my room.  When I found the sushi place and went in to ask to order take out (which apparently they call take away) and make sure they take American Express - they were just so nice.  They had me sit down, gave me the menu and let me order - then brought me a free cup of green tea because I was pregnant. The cute little waitress told me I looked very "happy" - which was very sweet of her because I wasn't feeling too happy + I was feeling large and in charge.  Just not happy because I wanted to eat so many yummy sushi rolls they had there, but in my duty as a mum to be, I stuck with cooked stuff. 

However, the green tea did warm me up and make her kick around a little!

They do have a sushi train!  But wasn't happening tonight!

I had to take a picture of the name so I would remember it for next time (when I'm not pregnant!)

And just for the heck of it, I shot a few photos on the walk home.

This one was in the middle of the roads waiting to cross the street - that is traffic going over the London bridge.  You seriously could not pay me to drive in this town.  It's nuts! 

I happened to pass by the Monument to the Great Fire of London on my walk back.  Hmm - interesting.  See, that's just not the type of history or items you are going to cross by in KC!

One thing that is weird yet fascinating to me about this city is that there are toilets out on the streets that you have to pay to use.  It's so strange.  I feel like they are everywhere - but I finally grabbed a shot of one of them!  Just insert your 50 pence and pee away!

While I'm on the subject of bathrooms, I didn't get a shot the other night of the bathroom in flat that I really really like.  Mainly because the shower head is hanging from the ceiling and it's like rain.  And it's amazing.  And this place is just so clean and white and Ikea-ish.  So here are some pictures.

One other very different thing here is the amount of water in all the toilets here.  And the aggression of a flush.  (I'm not sure if that is the correct term, but please tell me you know what I'm referring to?).  So the water level is VERY low in all the toilets - which I'm sure is much more efficient than us wasteful Americans are, but it's just weird and you can never hear yourself pee.  not that I want to - but that's just normal in the US because your pee hits the water, right?  

And flush aggression.  It's very minimal.  And I'm not a fan.  While the aggressive flusher toilet can sometime be scary in the US and I HATE when it squirts up water on you - I'm not a fan of the flushing here.

Ok - off my toilet soap box.

But when I got back, I was so excited to kick off my shoes, get my pajamas on, eat THIS sushi and start getting ready for an early night AND packing up my stuff!!  

Apparently it's odd that I only brought a carry on for LOTS of people.  The guy that I work with that we'll be traveling on the same flight back was in shock!  I think this all stems from my Deloitte days when I traveled every week and just had to be efficient with my stuff.  But really - I only wear one outfit a day, just brought one shirt and pants for PJs, my bathroom stuff (which the liquids had to be smaller, which was fine) and that's really it.  I mean what else do you need?  I still did bring 4 pairs of shoes too.  It's just nice to actually wear everything you bring!!!!  And then tomorrow I can get straight in the car after hugging my men and go HOME!

Happy Thursday to all!

London: Day 4 - defeated tourist

Today, I think exhaustion has start to hit.  Work is crazy and trying to get everything that I would like to wrapped up before I leave Friday morning is not looking like the easiest task - especially because I'm not going to sit at the office all night missing out on stuff in this city!  But I'll make it work.

Tonight I headed to the London Eye (after taking the awesome ferry again).   I had already bought my ticket online, so that was nice and saved me from waiting in one line!  

Headed first into the 4D experience about the London Eye.  I wasn't sure what to think about "4D", but I guess that means it's not just on the screen, but really touches you.  Because there were real life bubbles popping and lights going off and confetti being thrown.  It was pretty neat.  Worth the 4 minutes of my life!

Waiting in line *yes, I feel like all I do is wait in lines* to get on the London Eye.

But this scene made it worth the wait!

It was a pretty amazing structure.   When I was first riding in and saw it from the car, I was terrified and thought it was a fast ferris wheel.  But nope, it moves pretty slow that you can barely feel it moving.  And I only got afraid a few times when it stopped randomly!

Then I just took lots of pictures.  LOTS.  So sorry.  It was just so pretty.

Everyone at the office was making fun of me because I was going to go on Monday night and actually stood in a rather long line to get my ticket, but then realized by the time I finally got on it, it would likely be dark and I really wanted to time it perfect so that I was going up when it was light still and down when the sun was setting/it was getting dark. 

Well - apparently I did time it perfect, because that was exactly what happened and it was beautiful!

The car in front of us was a party of women that someone brought on champagne & appetizers (it must have been like a package or something, but it was pretty cool!).

Selfie (I only got one of these - unlike the crazy foreign girl that stood there for 15 minutes snapping God knows how many pictures of herself.  So weird!)

Headed down!

Waterloo train station (which I eventually got majorly lost in/around)

If I would have just got on the tube and gone back to my flat after that, it probably would have been a good call.  Instead, I had googled where this Yo Sushi place was that I visited on Sunday (but didn't eat at) and I was determined to find it.  I had the google location brought up on my phone, but that apparently wasn't good enough.  My sense of direction in that area (had never gone exploring on that side of the river with really no plan) was useless.  I walked the wrong way for awhile and it was starting to get cold.  I knew I eventually was going to get back on the tube at Waterloo, so I just gave up and decided to head back.  When I finally bit the bullet and turned on the data on my phone so Google maps could guide me there (yes, even though it's a company phone, I'm still cheap and feel bad for spending loads of $$ on data).  Apparently, that couldn't even help me.  I wandered for what I felt like was an hour and still couldn't find it.  By this point I was starving.  And hadn't been on the tube route I was thinking I needed to take back ever, so I figured to start that path and I'd find something along the way.

Well - I got on the right tube, but oh my goodness.  The map is for sure not to scale.  I had to walk so long to get to my train (guess that's what I get for going to the biggest station in London to get on) and then when I got off, I had to walk forever through all these tunnels and up and down all the escalators to FINALLY emerge on the streets again!  It was crazy.  I was getting pretty discouraged (and still hungry) and my legs were hurting from walking.  So I was feeling like a defeated tourist.

One of the billion escalators I walked up

 When I finally started walking streets I was familiar with and saw the building that our office was in - I'm not going to lie, I felt so much better!!  I just wanted to get back!

But then the search for food began.  And since the area I'm staying in is very heavy with tourists and workers during the day, there is not much open at night.  Or let me put it this way, not much open that is good that also takes Amex.  Haha.  Still dealing with this.  Almost over.

I even went into 2 places on my walk back thinking I could just grab take out or something, but one was a super swanky bar that didn't do take out (and I didn't want to sit in alone) and then the other was a pub that smelled bad that I walked in and walked out.  At that point, all I wanted was a burger.  I would have taken McDonald's at that point.

But I decided to just be safe and get it over with, I'd start walking back to my flat and just go to Wagamama (where I'd been Sunday night AND we are having for lunch in our office tomorrow).  But decided I'd just get a salad I'd been eyeing there.  

However, I wanted a burger?  Well - I walked up and guess what I saw?  Gourmet Burger Kitchen.  Very similar in my opinion to Blanc Burgers in KC.

I ordered a completely delicious Avocado, Bacon burger with skinny fries and it was amazing.  I walked back home, read a few chapters from my book and was satisfied.  

Still feeling like a somewhat defeated tourist today, but I'm going to try to go to bed early, hoping that shakes off tomorrow for my last day of work in the office here!

Tomorrow's plans?  One of my coworkers from Lenexa is also here with his wife and son and they are going to see the Lion King tomorrow night and wanted to see if I wanted to tag along.  I thought about it because it was so nice of them to ask, but then I think I'm going to take the tube to Notting Hill and just walk around.  I'm sure there will be nothing too exciting to see, but for some reason, I am so close to it that I kind of just want to say that I've been there.  Plus, I've seen the Lion King on Broadway when it came to KC.  I'm sure the KC Music Hall is NOTHING like a London Broadway experience and if it was Wicked, I'd go again in a heartbeat, but I think I'll stick to flying solo and enjoy one last night alone before I head back to KC on Friday morning.  (OMG - I'm so excited to go home and see my boys and sleep in my own bed!!)