Farewell London!

Tomorrow, we fly back to the US to start the next chapter of our lives in Wisconsin.  It is bittersweet saying goodbye to London, the city we have called home for two years. Although the transition of moving here was difficult, we have had a wonderful two years in this city.  We have made some amazing new friends, had many unforgettable travel experiences, and enjoyed all London has to offer.  I am not sure whether I will return to London in 5, 10, 15 or even 20 years but know I will be back here someday.  Farewell for now London!  We will miss you!  Cheers!

London Bucket List

When we moved to London, I started a list of all the things I wanted to make sure we did in the two years we lived here.  I figured if I didn't have it down on paper, it would be easy to not make the most of our time here.  The list below shows we had a busy two years of exploring London and nearby areas.  Here is my "London Bucket List" and some of my favorite London photos.

Sights and Activities
Big Ben
Westmister Abbey
Houses of Parliament
St. Paul's Cathedral
Buckingham Palace
London Eye
Millenium Bridge
Trafalgar Square
Kensington Palace
London Zoo
Tower of London
Tower Bridge
Royal Observatory & Planetarium
Cutty Sark Tea Ship
Sea Life London Aquarium
Camden Market
Hampton Court Palace
Thames Boat Ride
Cable Car over the Thames
Somerset House Ice Skating
The Shard
Battersea Park Children's Zoo
Double Decker Bus Tour
Harrod's
Hamley's
Madame Tussaud's
Serpentine Lido
Harry Potter Tour
Somerset House Fountains
Hyde Park Winterwonderland
HMS Belfast

Museums
National Gallery
National History Museum
Tate Modern
British Museum
Museum of London
Science Museum
Museum of the Docklands
London Transport Museum
National Army Museum
National Maritime Museum
Churchill War Rooms
Victoria and Albert Museum

Parks
Hyde Park
Regent's Park
Saint James's Park
Green Park
Victoria Park
Greenwich Park
Primrose Hill
Kew Gardens

Sports
Olympic Event
Paralympic Event
British Open
NFL Game at Wembley Stadium
Premier League Football Game (Arsenal)
Wimbledon

Food & Drink
Afternoon Tea at the Ritz
Afternoon Tea at the Orangery
Borough Market
Greenwich Market
Eating London Tour
Brick Lane
Chinatown
Duck and Waffle
Monmouth Coffee

Day Trips
Stonehenge
Windsor Castle
Bath

Oxford
Brighton
Warwick Castle
Cambridge
Canterbury
York
Leeds Castle
Cotswolds

St. Paul's Cathedral (July 2012)

Stonehenge (October 2012)

Tower Bridge (April 2013)

Somerset House Fountains (August 2013)

Buckingham Palace (October 2013)

Duck and Waffle (March 2014)

Riding the Tube (May 2014)

Big Ben (June 2014)

London Eye (June 2014)

London Theatre

Last night, I attended one final West End show before our move, The Commitments. The West End is London's equivalent of New York's Broadway.  I have made the most of the outstanding theatre productions here and have seen a total of 23 different shows during our time in London.  I have convinced David to attend some shows with me, tagged along with our various visitors to see shows, and even attended quite a few shows by myself.  London has a great half-price ticket stand where I have been able to take advantage of buying quite a few discounted tickets on the day of the show.  The theatre will definitely be one of the things I miss most about London.  Here is the final list of shows I have attended during our two years in London:

Musicals
Billy Elliot
Book of Mormon
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Commitments
Jersey Boys
Les Miserables
Mamma Mia
Matilda
Miss Saigon
Once (I actually saw this one twice!)
Phantom of the Opera
Rock of Ages
Singin' in the Rain
Spamelot
We Will Rock You
Wicked

Other Shows
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
Let it Be (Beatles' Music)
Midsummer Night's Dream at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre
The Nutcracker at Royal Opera House
One Man, Two Guvnors
Pixar in Concert at Royal Albert Hall
Thriller Live (Michael Jackson Tribute)

Singin' in the Rain with the Konkols

Tenerife, Canary Islands: Our Final European Vacation

For our final European vacation, we wanted a trip that was all about sun, relaxation, and cocktails (virgin for me!) so we booked five nights at an all-inclusive resort in Tenerife.  Tenerife is the largest and most populous of the Canary Islands.  The Canary Islands consist of seven Spanish Islands located off the northwest coast of Africa.

Unfortunately, our plans for a relaxing vacation did not go exactly as anticipated.  A couple of days prior to our trip, Colin started running a high fever of between 103 and 105 degrees.  We were able to keep the fever controlled with medicine, and he didn't have any other symptoms so we figured we would go forward with the trip.  The 4.5 hour plane ride to Tenerife ended up being a complete disaster.  Colin's fever increased to over 106 degrees, and he threw up the medicine we tried to give him.  He also had a bad bloody nose on the taxi ride to the airport.  By the next morning, he was still unable to keep any medicine down and his fever was still around 105 degrees so we had a doctor visit our hotel.  The doctor couldn't determine what was wrong so suggested we go to the emergency room.

Once we got to the ER, only one parent could accompany Colin so David had to wait in the waiting room for multiple hours while I was with Colin through blood work, getting an IV put in for fluids and medicine, chest X-rays, and doctor examinations.  Colin's blood work came back with areas of concern.  All discussions with doctors had to be done through interpreters who at first explained that he had a blood infection making us extremely worried.  We later found out that was an incorrect translation and that the counts were just abnormal.  Due to the results of his blood work and his high fever, he was admitted to the hospital.

Once we were checked into the hospital, we were told that the pediatrician couldn't even see Colin until the next day.  So, we spent the rest of the day trying to keep his fever down with medicine, fluids, and cool towels.  Only one parent was allowed to stay with Colin overnight so David went back to the hotel while I stayed.  It was a long, scary night.  Fortunately, the next morning additional blood work was run, and Colin's results were greatly improved over the previous day.  The pediatrician who saw him in the morning determined he just had a bad case of the flu, and we were discharged early afternoon.

Colin continued to run a low fever for another couple of days and was extremely exhausted, but between sleep, we were able to finally enjoy the amenities of the resort. Colin loved swimming in the pools and playing at the playground.  Even though the vacation wasn't exactly the relaxing holiday we had planned, we still managed to get some sun and rest in before the craziness of packing and moving over the next couple of weeks begins.  Here are some pictures from our final European vacation.

Poor sick boy

Trying to lower Colin's fever with cold wash clothes

Starting to feel better

Feeling better and able to enjoy some time swimming

Colin and Dad swimming in the big pool

Checking out the view of the playground from our balcony

Family photo

Fun at the playground

Relaxing poolside

The "beach" at our resort

The next flight we take will be back to the US on July 1st.  It has been an amazing two years filled with a lot of wonderful travel.  While we are sad that our last European vacation is over, we are looking forward to new adventures in Wisconsin.  Now, time to focus on packing up our apartment.  Our movers come one week from today!

Disneyland Paris: Finally a Vacation for Colin!

Disneyland Paris was on the list of trips we wanted to make sure we took during our time in London, but we wanted to wait until Colin was as old as possible before going. We planned our trip for early June during our last month living in Europe.  The Eurostar offers daily direct trains from London to Disneyland Paris.  Three hours after getting on the train at Saint Pancras Station in London, we arrived at Disneyland Paris.  We were staying at a Disney hotel (with a "Cars" theme - Colin LOVED that!) so were able to quickly check our bags and head to the park.

Disneyland Paris is much smaller than Florida's Disney World.  It is closer to the size of California's Disneyland.  It consists of two parks, the traditional Disneyland Park (like Disney World's Magic Kingdom) and Walt Disney Studios (like Disney World's MGM Studios).  We had park tickets for three days and were able to go back and forth between the parks as often as we wanted.  We probably ended up spending about 75% of the time at Disneyland Park with the remainder at Walt Disney Studios.

Colin loved our time at Disneyland Paris.  He is at the right age where everything seemed magical.  He was a bit shy around most of the characters but loved meeting Mickey Mouse.  He gave him a big high five and touched his nose and said it was cold. He was able to go on most of the rides other than the roller coasters.  Being pregnant, there were very few rides that I could go on so I spent a lot of the trip watching David and Colin go on rides.

All three of us were exhausted by the time we got back to London on Sunday night but agreed it was a great trip.  Here are some pictures of us at Disneyland Paris.

We made it to Disneyland Paris!

Colin slept through all the fireworks on the first night

The spinning teacups were Colin's favorite ride

Even with all the exciting rides, Colin loved the pirate ship playground the best

Buzz Lightyear at Toy Story Playland in Walt Disney Studios

Colin loved Rex

Popsicle break!

Colin was so exhausted that he slept in his clothes both nights

A highlight of the trip was meeting Mickey Mouse

Finally, a good family photo!

Holiday Weekend in the Lake District

One place in England that we have repeatedly been told we needed to visit during our time here is the Lake District National Park.  The Lake District, located in North West England, is a popular holiday destination famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (known as fells).  We took advantage of the three day spring bank holiday weekend to travel to the Lake District.

With all of our travels over the past two years, we have been lucky to only have had a few major snags in our plans.  Unfortunately, the trip to the Lake District was one of the trips that didn't go so smoothly, at least at the start.  We were booked to travel to the Lake District via Virgin Trains.  We got on the train at Euston Station in London, and it was absolutely packed.  Fortunately, we had reserved seats but people were hovered over the top of us during the first three hours of the ride as the train was standing room only.  It was pretty miserable.  We made it to a small town called Preston about two hours away from where we were staying in Keswick when the train stopped at the station and an announcement came on that we would be waiting at the station until signals were fixed in Penrith (the station we were trying to get to).  After about a half hour of waiting, there was another announcement that the train was cancelled and everyone was to get off the train.  No direction was given on how to re-book tickets or get to our final destination.

After finally being able to talk to a worker at the Preston station, we were told that all trains going north were suspended.  We called the taxi company that was supposed to pick us up in Penrith, and they agreed to drive the two hours to Preston to get us.  So, after waiting for the taxi for two hours and then driving an additional two hours to our hotel, we finally made it to Keswick.  The taxi cost around the equivalent of $200, which I guess isn't terrible considering how far they had to drive.  The rest of the day, it poured rain so we were pretty much ready to head home at this point.  We had dinner and went to bed and hoped the rest of the weekend would improve.

Although rain was predicted for the rest of the weekend, the travel gods must have felt sorry for us after the first day of our trip and the rain held off for the most part during our last two days in the Lake District.  We spent the next two days hiking, boating, feeding ducks, and enjoying the cute town of Keswick that we were staying in.  It was a nice low key weekend without a ton of sights to see unlike many of our travels.  It felt great to get out of the city and spend time outdoors.  Pictures are best to share the fun we had in the Lake District.

Two of Colin's favorite things - boats and water!

Colin and David spent a lot of time feeding birds on the trip.

Admiring the beautiful view.

Boat ride around Derwentwater 

Hawse End, a stop on our boat ride.

Climbing the Catbells - I think Colin did better than David and I!

View from the top of the Catbells.

Hiking around Derwentwater.

Posing with a swan.

Fortunately, no problems were had on the train ride back to London...thank goodness! Only two more trips to go now before we move back to the States.

Mom Visits London!

My mom recently visited us in London for a fun-filled 10 days.  After a LONG delay in Green Bay, she finally made it here early afternoon on Friday, May 9th.  The first day of her trip was spent relaxing, taking Colin to the park, and trying to adjust to the new time zone.  After Day 1, we were extremely busy for the rest of her trip trying to cram in as many activities as possible.   Pictures are the best way to share all the fun we had during her visit.

Day 2:  We started the day by taking a long walk from our flat to Regent's Park.  Mom admired the flowers and how green everything was, and Colin enjoyed stops at two playgrounds.

Day 2:  After Regent's Park, we walked to Camden and spent some time at the Camden Market.  We got caught in a major downpour and had to hover under umbrellas to eat our lunch (a quesadilla and a Turkish wrap).  Mom was excited to find this donut cart although we ended up eating ice cream frozen by liquid nitrogen at Chin Chin Laboratories for dessert instead. 

Day 3:  On the third day of Mom's visit, which also happened to be Mother's Day, the two of us took a day trip to the Cotswolds. 

Day 3:  Burford, one of the four stops on our Cotswolds day trip.  Mom is modeling the new scarves we bought since it was so cold.

Day 3:  We enjoyed a lunch of trout at the Swan restaurant in Bibury during our Cotswolds day trip.

Day 3:  Bourton-on-the-Water, Cotswolds day trip.

Day 4:  Colin wasn't feeling well this day so we spent a relaxing morning at home.  He stayed home from school due to his fever and joined us on a trip to the Borough Market in the afternoon.  I don't think we will ever get sick of the Borough Market, which will be one of the things I miss most about London when we move back to the States.  

Day 4:  At night, we went to see Mamma Mia.  The tickets were my Mother's Day gift for Mom.

Day 5:  After spending the morning at the US Embassy getting extra pages added to my passport while Mom stayed home with Colin, we headed to the Shard for lunch.  The Shard is currently the tallest building in the EU.  The view wasn't the greatest on this day though due to the rain.

Day 5:  Mom at lunch at the Oblix Lounge in the Shard.

Day 5:  Enjoying a mother/daughter lunch at the Shard.

Day 6:  The weather finally started to improve by the sixth day of Mom's Visit.  We decided to get outside and enjoy a picnic in the morning with lunch from Pret.

Day 6:  After dropping Colin off at school, Mom and I walked through Chinatown and did some shopping on Oxford Street. 

Day 6:  We found out that John Lewis has a newly opened rooftop garden at their Oxford Street flagship store.  A great place to enjoy some sun on a beautiful day.

Day 6:  We went to our second show of the trip, "Once".  It was my second time seeing it, and I think I will be seeing it a third time someday!  

Day 7:  We climbed 528 steps to get to the top of the dome at St. Paul's Cathedral.  It was worth it for the great view on a beautiful day! 

Day 7:  We rewarded ourselves following the climb with tea at Bea's of Bloomsbury.

Day 8:  We started the day by heading to the London Eye.  We figured Mom should go on the London Eye on this trip since we didn't get around to it during her visit in October with Dad.

Day 8:  Mom on the London Eye.

Day 8:  Colin's fourth time and my fifth time on the London Eye.   After the London Eye, we enjoyed a sushi lunch and then enjoyed the beautiful weather by taking a long walk and a trip to the playground for Colin.

Day 9:  We started the final full day of Mom's trip with a food tour in the East End.  I had heard great things about the Eating London tour, and it didn't disappoint.  The tour made eight stops: bacon sandwich, bread pudding, cheese shop, fish & chips, salted beef bagel sandwich, beer (virgin cocktail for me), curry, and caramel torte...yum!

Day 9:  Mom finally got to spend some time with David who was busy with work most of her trip.  No trip to London is complete without a pitcher of Pimm's & Lemonade!

The following morning, we said farewell to Mom.  We had such a good visit exploring London, checking items off of my London bucket list, and eating way too much food.  I can't wait until July when we move to Wisconsin and get to see a lot more of my family.

Thanks for visiting Mom!