Family Trip Report - London, Paris & Amsterdam - July 2016 LONDON DAYS 1-3

Before starting the trip report, I just wanted to say that our daughter did not join us until the 6th day of our trip. She graduated with her Medical Assistant degree in May. We had bee planning this trip for about 2 years & while we knew she had to take a state certification for her degree, we assumed (incorrectly) that it would be at the same time as her other exams in May. In April 2016 she called me & said "I have bad news. My Med Cert. test will be sometime in July, but I don't know when. It may fall during our trip." At that point, I had plane tickets & hotel/apartments booked, but no tickets or tours. We just had to wait patiently to find out when the test would be scheduled for & see what we could do. I held off on buying tickets to sights or tours as long as I could not knowing whether to purchase 3 or 4 tickets. About mid-May we found out the test would be on July 5th. The new plan was that our daughter would fly out immediately after the test & meet us at the London apartment on July 6th. That meant that she only had 1 day in London, but would not miss the entire trip.

Departure Day 6/30:

2:55 pm - Jet Blue flight from Buffalo to JFK. We arrived right on time at 4:20 pm in Terminal 5, but needed to make our way to Terminal 7 to check-in for our 8:40 IcelandAir flight. We did not check luggage, but each had 1 carry-on (Rick Steves roller backpacks for husband & son, RS roller bag for me) + 1 personal item. I booked the Jet Blue flight separate from the IcelandAir flight, so we would have had to collect any checked bags before checking in w/IcelandAir. The IcelandAir desk was not open for check-in when we got there, so we just got in line with many others to wait for the desks to open up. I think we waited about an hour for the check-in lines to open up, got thru there pretty quickly, then on thru security, which was pretty fast too. We found our gate, grabbed some seats, then we just rested, played on phones, read Kindle while we waited. Knowing there was no complimentary food on IcelandAir, I had purchased some muffins before leaving home for breakfast the next morning. Not too long before boarding, we purchased sandwiches, fruit & snacks for our dinner.

We found that there is no real organized boarding process for IcelandAir. When they start calling sections, everyone just stands by the entrance waiting, then rushes into the line when their section is called.

My husband & son found the seats uncomfortable, but I didn't notice a difference from any other flight. They sat together, while I sat with a stranger since we did not fly out with our daughter. I missed not being able to spread out a little bit like you can do when you know your seatmate vs. a stranger! The inflight entertainment was fine. I found lots of choices between the movies & TV shows.

Uneventful flight, we all managed to get a little sleep. Landed in Reykjavik around 6:15 am. Supposed to have about an hour & 1/2 layover, but was about 2 hours. Besides using the restrooms, we just got in line at our gate since we now knew the way the boarding process would work! I think we all got more sleep on the flight to London. We just passed out as soon as the flight got underway.

Arrival in London - 7/1

It was nice not having checked any bags, so we made our way right to customs. It was a long walk & my husband & son kept stopping to look out the windows at the various large planes. One bad thing about sleeping on the plane was that we missed when they passed out the customs forms you need to have completed & ready to go. I never even thought about them until we were standing in line & noticed everyone had them. Sent my husband to the start of the line to grab some, then filled them out while moving along in the line. Not the neatest handwriting! Customs seemed to take forever. When we finally got to the front & were called, I had filled in 1 part of the form wrong (where we were coming from). I put the U.S., but since we changed planes in Iceland, that's what I should have put. Customs person would not let me change the form at the window, but made us go off to the side. Luckily the person directing the people to the windows got us right back to a window & we were thru in no time.

We had booked an apartment thru London Connection & also booked their driver for transport from the airport to the apartment. We found our driver right away after customs holding a sign w/our name. I was worried as our plane had been delayed + the long customs line, but he was waiting right were they said he would be. He quickly got us to the apartment. We didn't run into any traffic issues.

We stayed in the Knightsbridge section, not too far from Harrods. The apartment was on a nice quiet side street. Lovely neighborhood! Someone from London Connection was at the apartment when we arrived to give us the keys & show us around. After he left, we collapsed & just rested for a while (no sleeping though!). We got ourselves together & took a walk to the market for supplies. We bought something quick to heat up for dinner. Too tired to think about heading out to eat.

Arrival Day 7/1 continued

Our son stayed at the apartment while my husband & I headed out for a London Walks tour - The Old Knightsbridge Village Pub Walk. I wanted to do this as it started not far from the apartment & focused on our neighborhood. The meeting point was the South Kensington Tube stop, which was less than a 10 min. walk from our apartment. There were 8-10 people on the Walk, which took us all around, stopping at 2 pubs (I think). We're not much for beer, so we did not care for the drinks (which you can purchase yourself or not). We did try two different kinds though. The Walk ended at 9:00 pm right across the street from Harrods. We had a quick walk back to the apartment & got ready for bed. We should sleep well tonight!

London Day 2 - 7/2

Tower of London - I had planned for us to be up & out early, arriving at the Tower prior to the opening time of 9:00 am. This did not happen. We all slept straight thru the night, not waking up until 8:30 am. I think we actually left the apartment around 10:00 am. This would be our 1st time using the Tube, so I was a little nervous! I hoped not to get us lost! We walked to S. Kensington Tube station & purchased 3 Oyster cards. There was an attendant helping people (tourists!) to purchase tickets & Oyster cards, so we took advantage of that. Oyster cards purchased, we headed down & easily found where to catch our train. I'm happy to report that taking the Tube was so easy. We never got lost once & always quickly made it to where we needed to be! I was very proud of myself!

I had pre-purchased tickets online for the Tower. They needed to be used within 1 week of purchase. I thought I needed to turn in my email voucher at the ticket window for tickets, but found out that we just turned them in at the gate. No need to wait in the ticket line.

We had just missed a Yeoman Warder tour, so we wandered around the beginning area of the Tower while we waited for the next tour to start. I highly recommend the Yeoman Warder tour. We all enjoyed it. After the tour, we walked the walls for a little while & went up in the White Tower. We did not line up to see the Crown Jewels as we would be coming back here later in the week with our daughter & would see them then. The line for the Crown Jewels was huge, so pay attention to the advice to make that your 1st stop at the Tower.

London Day 2 - 7/2 continued

After leaving the Tower, our plan was to walk over Tower Bridge to the Borough Market & have lunch there. We were all very hungry by this point, especially 15 yr old son! So as we were walking towards Tower Bridge, we saw a small area near the river with food stands & food trucks. We decided to stop there instead. So many choices! Son ended up with southern fried chicken fingers & fries. Husband & I had seafood paella. All the food was good & we continued across Tower Bridge.

We saw what we think was a marriage proposal on the bridge. We were walking across when suddenly a small car with an open convertible top stopped in the middle of traffic. The driver jumped out with a camera & went in front of the car. One person in the car said something to the other (not close enough to hear), they kissed, then everyone started to clap & cheer. The driver jumped back in the car & off they went.

We continued walking & made our way to Borough Market. We were too full from our lunch to eat here, which was a shame. Everything looked & smelled so good. We made our way to the Cannon Tube Station (I think) & back to the apartment.

Dinner that night was at a crepe restaurant near the S. Kensington Station. The crepes were good. Another busy day planned for tomorrow.

Enjoying your trip report very much.. cant wait for next installment !

enjoying your trip report very much! we're hoping for London for DD's spring break in March, appreciate this!

Thanks! It’s fun re-living the trip.

I just wanted to mention the maps that made this trip so much easier. I purchased Streetwise maps for London, Paris & Amsterdam and the London Mapguide and the Paris Mapguide by Michael Middleditch. I found these maps so helpful & small/thin enough to carry without taking up too much space in my bag.

London Day 3 - 7/3

Our plan for this day was to visit the British Museum and the Literary Treasures Room at the British Library. I had a little scare on our walk to the Tube station. My husband & son were a little ahead of me & crossed the busy street while I was more cautious and held back. When I felt it was safe to cross, I hurried & got to the halfway point in the street . As I went to step up the curb on the middle crosswalk, my foot only made it part way on the curb, my ankle twisted & I heard a snap! My 1st thought was %#*@!!, I've broken my ankle! I stayed there for a second or two & limped the rest of the way across the street. I've never broken a bone, but after testing my foot out, it hurt, but didn't feel like what I thought a broken bone would feel like. We kept going to the Tube, taking it slowly.

We easily found the British Museum, walking through Russell Square on the way. What a pretty park! The Museum was amazing! I had taken my RS guidebooks apart before leaving home, so we followed his British Museum tour chapter (somewhat) while we walked around. We spent a lot of time in the Egyptian rooms. We were also interested to see the items from the Acropolis as we'd see copies when in Athens. I tried to find the Sutton Hoo treasure, but even with the map couldn't find it. We spent several hours here & our son had had about enough at that point, so we decided to leave. Son was hungry (of course) & couldn't wait until we found a restaurant outside the museum, so we decided to eat food before leaving. Big mistake! I think a sandwich, drink & dessert each ended up costing almost 60 pounds!

London Day 3 - 7/3 continued

I had taken Advil after twisting my ankle & while it looked quite swollen, it didn't hurt too bad. We decided to press on to the British Library. We took the Tube, getting off at St. Pancras station & walking the short distance to the Library. The Library was something I was looking forward to, my husband wasn't sure what to expect & son did not really want to go. Once inside the Treasures room, my son briefly looked around, then sat on a bench the rest of the time. There were quite a few places to sit in the Treasures room, so we told him to stay put while we looked around. My husband & I went our separate ways to look around, but I believe we each saw everything in the room. He was still looking around when I'd had enough & was resting on the bench w/our son. To his surprise, my husband really enjoyed this stop!

Tube back to the apartment to put ice on my ankle & we all napped for a while. Dinner that night was at the pub around the corner. Husband & son had fish & chips (I ate the mushy peas!). I had steak & Guinness pie, very good!

Early to bed as we had another busy day planned for tomorrow.