After two years of planning, it was finally time for our United Kingdom Cruise! Our bags were packed, the house was clean, and we were washing one more load of laundry before we go. Everything was going smoothly we thought, but we were wrong. Our washer machine broke mid cycle! My dad and Jeremy took the wet clothes and hang them outside and my mom helped me take water out of the washer one bucket at a time. After a call to the repairman, we headed to the airport. At the airport, we met up with my brother Mark, sister-in-law Missy, and aunt Judy and our first flight took us from Minneapolis to Toronto. That flight was only two hours long and we were able to relax a little bit before our next flight of seven hours that will take us to London. By the time we landed at Heathrow, I was ready to get off the plane; we were unable to get a lot of sleep because the baby across the aisle cried all night.
Our first stop was our hotel, Leonardo London Heathrow Airport. This hotel was an eco-certified West Drayton hotel in Heathrow Villages only 2 minutes from the airport.
We were not able to check into our hotel right away as it was only 9:00 in the morning, but we were able to drop off our suitcases and pickup Kevin and Jen who arrived a few hours before us and was already at the hotel. We then went back to the airport to figure out how to use the Elizabeth Line train that will take us to Central London. It wasn't that hard to figure this out and we on our way!
We got off at the Paddington Station and I was amazed how beautiful this building was. Next, we had to find the Underground and get on the yellow line tube to take us to our restaurant. We all were trying to figure out where to go and I found arrows stickers on floor that will show us the way, so we started following the arrows. We followed the arrows for a long time, and they took us in a large circle back to where we started without us finding the Underground! At that moment we turned around and there it was! We were so closed before we started following the arrows!
We took the Underground to Parliament Street to find our restaurant. When we came up the stairs, the first thing I noticed was crowd looking at Big Ben. The restaurant we went to was The Red Lion, which was across the street from the Parliament Building. It was in an old English Pub and the food was great. I had the Mini Steak & Fuller's London Pride Shortcrust Pie serve with Mash and Red Wine Gravy, Yorkshire Pudding with Onion Gravy, and Tripled-Cooked Chips.
After our lunch, we walked to Buckingham Palace via St. James Park. St James Pack had huge trees, a lot of flowers, pelicans, and ducks. On the sidewalk next to the park, people were already camping out for the King's coronation that was four days way and the streets were decorated with flags. There were a lot of people around Buckingham Palace, and they were preparing for the coronation. At an open gate, there was a crowd watching the guards and police getting ready for an arrival of someone. I wanted to wait with them to see who was coming, but no one else wanted to wait with me. I wanted to see if the King or Prince was coming!
At this time, we were so tired and all we wanted to do was go back to the motel. So, we took the Underground train back to the airport to get a taxi back to the hotel. After a shower, a quick drink and snack at the bar, we all got to go to bed!
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