London, days 3 and 4

We are back from a two-week US vacation and have many photos to share from that trip. But I guess I need to finish our London story first!

Sunday was also a very full day. After breakfast at the hotel, we stopped to enjoy the sunshine and get a few more photos in Hyde Park on our way to the tube stop. I'm counting this first pic as my 15-week belly shot.


Zachary with his beloved puffs.

Our first stop was St. Paul's Cathedral. Very pretty and huge! If I had planned a little better, we would have visited on Saturday and been able to tour the inside, but next time! There is a Starbucks nearby, so I had a nice bit of relaxation sitting on the steps drinking my coffee, while Frank followed Zach up and down the steps. See the video at the end of this post!

Gorgeous flowers near the cathedral.

Next we crossed the Thames via the Millenium Bridge. The sky was unexpectedly beautiful...I guess I assumed that London was always kinda gray.

You could see the cathedral from the bridge and even from the pub we ate lunch at on the other side of the river. We had fish and chips, of course.

After lunch we made our way to the Tower of London. As you can imagine, the towers themselves are not very stroller-friendly, but we had a good time walking around the courtyard. We saw the Crown Jewels and Coronation Regalia. Zach walked around and practiced going up and down steps some more.

You can see Tower Bridge in the background.

We didn't get any shopping in, but we had to go to Piccadilly Circus just to say we've been there. We walked past all the shops and ate dinner at McDonald's.

Giving Zach a bath in the tiny shower stall was a bit challenging.

We don't have too many photos from the last day; it was raining so we went to the train station early. The train back to Brussels was crowded, the food wasn't as good, and Zach was more of a handful. It takes about an hour to get from the train station to the metro to the tram to our short walk home...and we were very happy to not be hauling Zach and our stuff anymore. Zach in the stroller, one medium-sized suitcase, and the big backpack were about all we could handle on public transportation. To all our future visitors anticipating European travel: Pack light!

You can see from the photos that we had fun in London, despite being tired and dealing with a cranky toddler some of the time. I would do it again. But with a toddler and a baby, do we have any relatives willing to help out?

London, day 2

The photos are up, the words will follow eventually. We are enjoying a laid-back Mother's Day.

Ok, I'm back to update this post. We've been having many adventures that will be recalled in future posts, I'm sure.

We became pretty comfortable with the Underground while we were there. It was a fast and easy way to travel, though apparently it was quite boring for Zach. We had intentions of going back to the hotel for him to nap each afternoon, but it never quite worked out, and this was a familiar sight:


We also got really good at carrying the stroller up and down short flights of steps--pretty common in most of the stations. And taking the stroller on escalators, some of which were probably the longest I've ever seen.


Saturday morning we headed to Harrod's Department store. I'm not sure of all the history behind this place, but it's been around for a really long time and is so huge that we got lost and couldn't find our way out.

While in the store we visited the toy section, where Zach took a liking to the remote control cars. Go figure.

By the time we found our way out, Zach was asleep. It was nice when that happened, but it never lasted for too long.

We couldn't resist a phone booth photo. I don't know if Zach approved.

Lunch was at Hard Rock Cafe. Good food, but pretty crowded as expected. Zach now appreciates the crayons that come with kids' menus.

Buckingham Palace. What can I say? It was big. They don't give tours this time of year, but I would like to go back and take one sometime. We had great weather and the London marathon was the next day, so there were lots of people around.

Right next to the palace is another large, beautiful park. Time to let the monkey RUN!

Saturday evening was our big planned event: going up in the London Eye and taking a river cruise.

The Eye was actually a lot more spacious than you would think...each capsule holds 25 people. We took turns chasing Zach and taking photos.

He is very interested in the cameras (always has been, because it's something with buttons), but now he likes to help take pictures and look at them after.

Spectacular views. Many, many photos taken of basically the same things just because it was so pretty.

We were so busy looking out the windows that we almost forgot to have someone take a photo of us together.


Daddy had to calm him down with puffs during the cruise because it was getting late and a bit chilly.

We saw some buildings during the cruise, but the best part were the bridges. Tower Bridge was the fanciest, by far, and London Bridge is rather plain.

The rest of the photos coming soon :)

London, day 1

We took a fun and exhausting trip to London a couple weeks ago, and here's the proof! No, really we took sooooo many pics that I'll have to split this up into at least 3 posts (and that's just the highlights).

One of my and Frank's favorite parts of the whole trip was the train ride. We bought first-class seats, which meant more room and food :) On the way there we were almost alone in our car, so we didn't have to worry when Zach got up and walked around. Frank claims that the train stop in Lille, France on the way there and back counts as him having visited that country (we can check it off the list), but don't think I'm letting him get away with it!


Zachary just loves those puffs. He also ate bread. Not very well-rounded, but at least he sat still for awhile.

The two hours on the train went by quickly, then we were in London!

We navigated the tube (the Underground) to a stop near our hotel and had to walk a few blocks.

We knew that even a Best Western would be a little different in Europe. Little was the word for it.

We were staying close to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, so after resting for a bit we went back out to explore. This is one of the entrances to the park, and the panorama in the last post was taken later in the weekend from inside that pavillion.

We sought out the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground because Zach was just dying to get out of the stroller. Little did we know, though we should have guessed, that this would become a recurring theme of the weekend. We didn't stay long, because there were like a million kids there, and most of the equipment was in sandpits, but he did get to play some.

We took a lot of photos in the parks we visited in London--so beautiful! We ate near our hotel, then went back and put Zach to bed, not minding the early curfew one bit :)