Our fabulous London Adventure

  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I cannot believe that the Christmas season and 2013 is almost over. Dave and I have had such a special year, we have had so many blessings bestowed upon us in so many forms. This year we decided to spend our last Christmas overseas in London. We have always wanted to make the trip but for one reason or another we always pushed it off. Finally we decided it was time since Baby A will be making his grand appearance in the next couple of months. We figured one final trip alone together would be great and London was the perfect destination for a babymoon/anniversarymoon/Christmas vacation. We enjoyed London so much that we didn't want to come home. So here's how our trip went:

  The planning for this trip took more effort than any other trip we have been on. London is expensive! We wanted to stay as long as we could (because taking an 8 month pregnant lady around London takes a little more time and effort haha) but as usual we wanted to do this trip as cheaply (is that even a word?) as we could. We opted to rent an apartment through Airbnb, if you are not familiar with this site it's great! Basically, you rent an apartment from someone for however many days you need. After many searches we finally found one in Kennington, right across the river from Big Ben. In fact, during our stay we could hear him chime! It was great. Here's a view from our apartment:

Unfortunately the crane stayed there the whole time.

 

  First up on our trip we visited Buckingham palace where we were able to see the changing of the guard. After that we ate at a famous pub (unbeknownst to us at the time) called the Prince Albert pub where apparently there is a bell that rings to let the members of parliament know when it's time to finish their food and drinks so they can go vote. Finally, we visited one of our favorite sites of the trip, Westminster Abby. Before we headed in Dave and I had decided we would only spend about an hour there. Just to clarify, that is impossible. We ended up spending over 2 hours walking around this massive Abby and could have spent more but it was nearing closing time for visitors. There's so much to see and take in. We even got to experience a service. We really wanted to attend a Christmas service but unfortunately for us all the tickets had been sold. Yes, they have to sell tickets for the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services. Anyways, here are some photos from our day. We have very few from the Abby and the ones we do have are not very good because Dave was sneaking them with my Iphone. He's so bad..lol! Oh, I almost forgot we saw Big Ben up close

  To conclude our first full day in London, Dave and I had a late (by 1 day) anniversary celebration. We celebrated 2 years of being married! We went to eat at an amazing restaurant called Asia de Cuba (if you happen to find yourself in London, GO!) and went to see The Nutcracker at the London Coliseum. It was an amazing evening spent with an amazing guy.

  Our second day was just as busy. We went to the Tower of London and again Dave and I agreed we would only spend an hour or so. We obviously had no idea what the Tower of London was because as soon as we arrived we realized we would be spending a lot more than an hour. Luckily there was a Starbucks nearby and after spending over 2 hours (we skipped several things) we rested for an hour in the Starbucks. My favorite part of the Tower of London, of course, were the Crown Jewels. We literally walked into a vault to see these jewels. It was quite impressive.  For the rest of the afternoon we rode the hop on hop off bus tour, which was a great idea because I got to sit and we got to see every part of London. Here's some photos:

We didn't even attempt to sneak some photos of the Jewels. They were being watched very closely.

 

 

  The third day we visited the London Eye. For those that don't know, the London Eye is a huge ferris wheel that moves very slowly. It takes about 30 minutes for one rotation. You step into enclosed pods and it takes you high enough to see amazing views of London. Because we decided last minute to visit on the day we did (we switched our plans because it was a sunny day, unlike the rest of the days) we did not buy our tickets in advance. I suggest doing so, just to save some time. We were not in too big of a hurry since this was our only plan for the day but if you are in a time crunch, buy ahead! I do have to say, unless you cannot wait for 15-20 minutes do not buy the fast track. We thought about buying the fast track but the line, which was pretty long, moved super fast. At the end we were glad that we did not spend the extra $30. Here's our photos:

 

 











    On our fourth day, we visited Kensington Palace and had afternoon tea. Kensington Palace is where Princess Diana lived along with other members of the royal family. The State Rooms are the only wings open to tour but it is worth it! This is such an easy place to visit and only takes about an hour to see everything. We really enjoyed Kensington. After visiting the palace we hopped back on the Tube and went to the Harlequin restaurant for afternoon tea. Afternoon tea is definitely my type of outing since we got to sit, relax, and stuff ourselves with pastries, scones, and sandwiches. Here's our photos:

The glass says that it takes 6 boys to carry this train.

 

   On Christmas Eve, Dave and I took a rest day. We wanted to go see St. Paul's cathedral but by the time we were ready to go the church had already closed. We were pretty exhausted by this day, me more so than him. We did get out and go to a traditional British Christmas Eve dinner and the grocery store. We had a lovely view of the London Bridge from our table and it made for a nice meal. We then came home and watched our traditional movie Christmas Vacation. Our last day was Christmas day and we relaxed and spent time with our friends who were also in London. We enjoyed our stay in London so much that we didn't want to leave. Sadly, we knew we had to get back so we can prepare for Baby A's arrival. Speaking of Baby A, as you can see I am quite huge! I am 33 weeks tomorrow. He seems to be doing really well and loves to kick my ribs. We are so excited to ring in 2014 because we know that means we get to meet our baby boy. So that is our London adventure and Baby A update! Happy New Year! :)