As I start post number two, I have to say that we absolutely loved London. All five of us were totally taken by the city. Even Roger agreed that we could have spent more time there (and that's really saying something).
Monday was a bit chilly and rainy, the first day that wasn't super pleasant weather wise. We had plans to head to Greenwich by boat. We grabbed some Krispy Kreme donuts from a convenience store on the way. The kids loved the cookies and cream donut.
Even though it was chilly, we spent a little bit of time on the upper deck of the boat.
The views of the city were gorgeous! You can see St. Paul's in the background along with several red buses.
London Bridge
We ended up inside when the rain started coming down.
The kids were so sweet and always willing to pose for a photo for me.
Greenwich had a small village feel to it. It was such a quaint, beautiful little place.
We ate at Honest burgers and had one of the best burgers ever, along with fantastic chips. Cruz absolutely loved chips, which are like french fries but better.
We walked through beautiful Greenwich park on our way to the Royal Observatory.
The kids had fun hunting sticks, leaves and bugs.
The Royal Observatory is an 18th century astronomical observatory. It is built on the Prime Meridian at 0 degrees longitude.
The observatory is up on a hill with gorgeous views overlooking the River Thames and London.
GMT is set here.
Giant telescope
One foot in the western hemisphere and one foot in the eastern.
We wandered around town and stopped Hardy's Sweet Shop for a treat.
The kids each chose a London stuffed animal as their souvenir.
We had an amazing dinner at this pub right next to our hotel.
Roger had the traditional English roast dinner
I had fish and chips.
On Tuesday, we got up early to catch our Eurostar train to Paris! We successfully navigated the underground and the international train station to do so.
These two were very excited about the tunnel going under the English Channel.
We had an interesting start to our adventure in Paris. We couldn't find the bus stop for the hop on/hop off bus so that was frustrating. Then, to top it off, it poured so hard. We eventually found the bus though.
Our day in Paris was pretty quick and we got a whirlwind tour of the sites. Rog & Coco at the Louvre.
Grammy and Grampy gave the kids these disposable cameras before we left so they had a blast taking their own pictures. It should be funny to see how they turned out.
We stopped for lunch at super cute Parisian Cafe. I tried the Traditional Cassoulet and it was so yummy!
Coco loves her daddy!
We stopped at Notre Dame Cathedral. It was breathtaking.
Arc de Triomphe
We were way more impressed by the Eiffel Tower than we thought we would be.
It had so much depth to it, colorwise. It was so tall and just really cool to see.
We knew we didn't have long before the rain came down again so we hurried to a different train station to catch our commuter train to Marne de Vallee Chessy or Disneyland Paris! This was the big end of the trip reward for the kids. They were so good the entire time. They walked without complaining, ate at weird times, slept at weird times, saw a lot of historical things, spent a lot of time in museums and on public transportation. They were totally up for the adventure though so we figured we'd cap off the trip with a stop at Disneyland. In the interest of honesty though, while they were amazing travelers, they bickered amongst themselves quite a bit and definitely had their unpleasant moments. I want to make sure I remember this accurately, haha.
We had dinner at Rainforest and checked into our quaint little hotel for the night. The kids thought the room was fun because it had a set of bunkbeds and three single beds.
There were even farm animals at our hotel!
I had a cute video of how excited the kids were but I'm having trouble uploading right now. They were so excited to try out some of the rides that they've been on at Disney World. We were all really impressed with Its a Small World. That one was done so much better in Paris. So was Big Thunder Mt. Railroad. We went on that one twice!
After Disney we went back to London. Tired but happy kiddos.
Back at Heathrow ready to head home. This flight was a daytime flight so we knew there would probably not be much sleeping but we did not hear a single complaint from the kids. They really impressed us.
Roger and I are both so glad that we did this with the kids. We are so thankful that we got to experience London and Paris as a family. We made so many beautiful memories and enjoyed exploring God's big world! We can't wait for our next adventure.
