Ye Olde England

 I've been counting down the days to this trip. While Valencia is celebrating Fallas, we knew it was the perfect chance for us to show the girls more of Europe. First up on this trip, LONDON! It's London, Baby! Mitch went ahead and got us Big Bus Tour tickets since we only have a few days. And it was perfect! The audio that accompanied told great bits of information about the historic buildings and neighborhoods. It also played some catchy tunes by some of our favorite artists from the UK...the Beatles, Queen, Rolling Stones!

Before we even got going on the tour we checked off Big Ben and Parliament. I think I quoted National Lampoons European Vacation every time we passed by it. Chevy Chase saying "look kids, Big Ben...Parliament" was on repeat in my head. We passed by Westminster Abbey...it was gorgeous and then took our time walking through St. James Park. I was so pleasantly surprised to see all the daffodils and lilacs in bloom. It was so lovely and it was great weather for a spring day, so the locals were all lunching in the park. Just past St. James was Buckingham Palace. We saw the guards and they marched but unfortunately there was no changing of the guard scheduled for the day. Perk, nearly everyone there spoke English so it was pretty easy to get a family picture. 

We kept on walking to one of the destinations on the top of my list, Regents Park. I don't know why, but I wanted to see it. It was amazing and green. Queen Mary's Gardens were just beginning to bloom, so no roses but there were other flowers and it was manicured so well. The girls wanted to find the fountain from the Disney movie Cruella, but come to find out, its actually in Greenwich. Regents led us to Piccadilly Circus, which really just reminded me of a British Times Square. I think I was expecting more street vendors. Oxford Street had all the fancy shopping and then Trafalgar Square. It had some fantastic monuments and fountains but one of the strangest things was a huge Ice Cream sculpture with a cherry (and also a fly and a drone) on top. The girls thought it was pretty cool. 

We hopped on the bus back to Big Ben. We spent a little time walking around the River Thames. We checked out the EYE, but we didn't ride it. We found a playground and Kiersten played with some local kids on their way home from school. We grabbed a snack and hopped on the bus for the night tour. It's always more fun to see a city at night with all the lights. It was really great for us to see Yellow and Blue lights as well as the flag being flown in solidarity with Ukraine. Hattie popped her headphones out for a bit during the tour. They shared about Jack the Ripper. Needless to say, it was her least favorite part of the tour.