Covent Garden

On my last day wandering around London on my own, (before Matt was free for the weekend,) I took the Tube to Covent Garden. It was a weird morning...

For one thing, when I got to the market area, I got this weird deja-vu feeling, like I had been there before - which I hadn't of course. But it looked familiar. Then it hit me! My Fair Lady was a family favorite movie when I was a kid - I probably still have the whole thing memorized. The opening scene where Eliza Doolittle meets Professor Higgins for the first time takes place right in this market square. So nerdy, but I thought it was the coolest thing ever!

There was a Shake Shack of all things in Covent Garden, and as I hadn't had breakfast that morning, I decided to eat there. I'm 100% positive the people working there knew thought I was insane eating a burger and custard at 11:30am. I was definitely the only one!

While I was eating there alone someone started singing opera in the lower court yard near my table and it started to rain outside, and as I was sitting there looking out towards St. Paul's church, I had the strangest feeling wash over me - what the heck was I doing here, thousands of miles from my kids, in a foreign country, eating Shake Shack at the scene of one of my favorite childhood movies, all by myself? 

While it felt so weird, it also felt kind of wistfully, achingly wonderful, and I'll definitely never forget that morning.

Soho Date Night

Our trip to London only happened because Matt was called over for work. Not only did he work a full week there, but there were also work dinners most nights. He did, however, happen to get one night where there were no commitments, and we took advantage of it to enjoy a date in Soho. 

It was such a bustling, busy area. A little bit like Times Square in a way, with lots of giant digital billboards, lots of restaurants and theaters and of course, lots of people.

I'm sad that the only picture we were able to get together was a horrible quality phone snap! Oh well. We ate at a tiny little restaurant called Honest Burger. Who says London can't do a good hamburger? The ones we had that night rival any of the burgers we've tried in the U.S. It was such a treat.

Finally, my evening was made perfect by spotting this little guy on the building next to Honest Burger. Ever since watching "Exit Through the Giftshop" a long time ago, I've been a little obsessed with the street art movement, so I was excited to see an Invader in person!

Doing London, Solo.

Matt had to work pretty long days the week we were in London, and that left me with so much alone time that I hardly knew what to do with myself. When you're on the mom clock 24/7, and focusing on three other people's needs at all times of the day (and night,) suddenly having alone time is quite a shock, or at least it was for me!

I knew going into the trip that I was going to either have to be brave and go out into London by myself or just stay in our tiny hotel room all week until Matt was free. I had to give myself some pep-talks and do some deep breathing, but I am really proud that I pushed myself to explore the city all by myself. I felt so empowered and confident by the end of the week! 

Ready to go, and standing by the hotel room door, getting my nerves ready to go out. 

My first couple of days alone, I did a lot of walking. Our hotel was near the Tate Modern museum, and I spent a whole day just there, wandering around the galleries.

I think I went to Paul's Patisserie at least once a day for a cappuccino and giant vanilla macaron. The bliss of being able to sit and enjoy a whole cup of hot coffee and treat without being interrupted or having to share! (Allll the other moms reading this just nodded their heads in understanding.)

Halfway through the week, I started taking the Tube by myself. It really was very easy and mostly enjoyable once I got the hang of it. It was such an exhilarating feeling, being able to access the whole city on my own so easily!

London is expensive, and while most of the museums are free, a lot of the famous sites (the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's, etc) cost a pretty penny (pound, more like,) to tour. And I realized I just didn't feel excited to tour those expensive sites by myself without Matt. Opting to wait until a future trip when we could experience them together, I bought a hop-on-hop-off bus tour/boat cruise tour. 

The bus tour was totally worth the price for me. I think with it being the middle of the work week, every bus I road was practically empty. I had front seat views from the top of the double decker buses for two days! It was relaxing, fun and just the right pace for me. 

Westminster Abbey

Crossing Tower Bridge!

The Tower of London. Can't wait to tour the inside one day (hopefully!)

I snapped a sneaky picture of these cute school girls, because - sooo much cute!

The river cruise tour. 

By the time 3pm rolled around each day, I was exhausted, and it was like a dream to be able to go back to the hotel, grab a coffee in the lobby and go relax in a clean hotel room until Matt got back. 

Yes, that's a slice of pizza being eaten in bed on a white blanket! Because, I mean...

YOLO.

To London!

Oh hi!

I've been pushing blogging to the back burner of my brain and letting the good intentions just boil over. Blah. Jet lag is real, and is made worse by adorable children who simply refuse to sleep longer than 5:30am. But! I think we are finally getting back into a normal-ish rhythm since getting home from the UK/Europe so I'm going to try to make journaling here a more regular part of my weekly agenda again. So many things I want to share and jot down for my own memory's sake. Where to start? Perhaps the flight?

I thought I would be nervous flying across the ocean for the first time, but it was so much fun. (Though, I should note - after a month of being stuck in the house in the middle of Michigan's winter, tending to sick, miserable children who had every bug and flu around during the month of January, solitary confinement would have been fun to me - just saying!) I had never been on such a big plane before. The novelty of in flight meals and tv/movie choices kept me too entertained to sleep much. It was so exciting watching the GPS chart the plane's location as we flew by Iceland and Ireland. 

I felt the need to selfie-document my first moments in the UK - complete with UK toilet!

(Oops. I always forget to shut the stall door when selfie-ing in a restroom, because I'm that cool.)

This is super corny, but I had a real "moment" as soon as I stepped into Heathrow airport. I literally closed my eyes and let it sink in "I'm out the U.S. - I'm standing in London!" Traveling outside the U.S. was a dream come true for me, one I never thought would happen during this time of life. It felt really, really surreal. 

Ok, then I opened my eyes and tried to pretend I was cool and knew what I was doing. 

Excited to ride the Tube and mind those gaps!

Crossing the Millennial Bridge to St. Paul's Cathedral for church.

It was about 9a.m. once we actually got to our hotel. Too early to check in, they let us leave our bags there and we headed out to explore. We ended up walking across the Thames to St. Paul's cathedral and randomly decided to pop in for Sunday services! We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the cathedral (which was awe inspiring - so beautiful,) but I'll keep those memories for the rest of my life. It was a cheerful, sunny service complete with a very talented boys choir (some of them were so little!) 

The rest of the day was a bit of a blur. Matt and I went out with one of his co-workers for a really good Indian lunch, and then we took the Tube up to Trafalgar Square and popped into the National Gallery. (I'm so glad we did this the first day, because a couple of days later when I went back the museum workers were on strike and most of the galleries were closed.)

Monet...

...Van Gogh!

Trafalagar Square was bustling and colorful and majestic. If it wasn't so cold, I would have loved to sit on a step and just people watch all evening.

But it was really cold, and I was tired and ended up going to bed pretty early while Matt went out with his co workers for dinner and drinks. 

Going to sleep in London! With funky pink lights in our hotel room! 

More soon!