UK Christmas: December 25, London

On Christmas Day we roused later than we’d really intended to, or had thought we would be able to be honest, but the late night after Midnight Mass at Westminster Abbey took its toll.  After opening some presents and English Christmas crackers that Santa had delivered and grabbing a midday bite from the Executive Lounge, we headed out to explore the city a bit.  We had Hop-On Hop-Off bus tickets for the day as there would be no public transportation on Christmas Day, so the thought was that we’d use it to actually get on and get off buses wherever we wanted to explore.  However, once we got on at the Marble Arch stop (at the corner of Hyde Park) it was apparent that it was not a quiet Christmas Day in London, other tourists were out in force.  With all of the museums and tourist attractions closed for the day, I guess the tourists had no where else to be but outside on the streets of London.  We sat outside on the second level of the double-decker bus as soon as we could snag seats up there and decided quickly to just stay there for the entire loop, not wanting to battle the hoards in Trafalgar Square, near Westminster or, most of all, in the Tower Bridge area.  Honestly, it suited us just fine, staying on the bus for a couple of hours enjoying the views of London.

The double decker bus—which provided earbuds to listen to information on the sights on our drive—took us from the Marble Arch at Hyde Park by Buckingham Palace, the Churchill War Rooms, Whitehall, 10 Downing Street, the Horse Guards stables, and then by Westminster Abbey.  We continued on to Trafalgar Square, getting our first look at the lions and Nelson’s Column in daylight.   We then headed down Strand on to Fleet Street, passing cool pubs, such as The Wellington and The Old Bank of England, and also seeing the Australian Embassy (which was used at Gringott’s bank in the Harry Potter movies), the Royal Courts of Justice, and Temple Bar Monument (griffin statue).  The bus then took us by St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Duke of Wellington statue, the Bank of England, and the Monument to the Great Fire of London (1666) before crossing the Thames on London Bridge (the first of four times we would cross the river on our tour). 

On the south side of the Thames, we drove by the Shard and then over the Tower Bridge to the Tower of London.  On the Lower Thames Street for just a few blocks, we headed back across the Thames (third bridge, in case you were counting) towards the South Bank via Southwark Bridge.  We passed Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Waterloo Station, and the London Eye before making our last trip over the Thames River, this time via Westminster Bridge.  We retraced our steps a bit by Westminster Abbey, Parliament Square, and St. James’s Park, but then took a detour to Piccadilly Circus, allowing us a peek at the beautifully-decorated Christmas windows of shops such as Fortnum & Mason and Alexander McQueen (plus a look at The Ritz where we would enjoy a Christmas Afternoon Tea later that afternoon). 

The last leg of our ride took us to Knightsbridge and South Kensington, where we got a look at the Wellington Arch, Harrods, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Natural History Museum, and a quick peek at Kensington Palace (you really can’t see much looking through the gardens). 

Our bus tour was a great way to really feel like we got to see a ton of London.  As we were going on a day trip out of London the next day, Christmas Day really was our last opportunity to see London in daylight. I am definitely satisfied that we made the most of it.

We donned our Christmas finest and walked to The Ritz for our 5pm Afternoon Tea (a little late for afternoon tea, but we didn’t want to waste any of the daylight for touring).  As if flying first class to London and basically having the run of the Executive Lounge at a fancy London hotel weren’t enough to make this trip feel lux, Christmas Afternoon Tea at The Ritz definitely put us over the top.  This was a special experience and we were treated like royalty—a great Christmas present to ourselves.  And, honestly, I was surprised how much Jack was in to the whole thing.  We each ordered our own pots of tea and Jack loved his ‘Moroccan Mint’, finishing off his entire pot.  We were served finger sandwiches, scones, and tea cakes and pastries to our heart’s delight.  Jonathan and I enjoyed some champagne, too, while the kids received gifts from Santa.  ‘Christmas Cake’ was offered at the end, but we were all too stuffed on mostly finger sandwiches and scones by then to partake.  It was a lovely ending to a very extraordinary Christmas.         

UK Christmas: December 24, London

On Christmas Eve, with a limited number of London sights open, we had morning reservations on the London Eye and then an afternoon Thames River cruise.  We also had Christmas Eve tickets to Midnight Mass at Westminster Abbey (free tickets, but I had to wake up in the middle of the night to snag 4 online several weeks earlier).  No public transportation would be running after about 6pm on the 24^th and we were told that the only way to get a taxi to take us to and/or from Westminster Abbey for Midnight Mass would be to pay the taxi driver for the entire time he waits for us during the service.  That didn’t really seem reasonable so we made the decision that we were going to make the walk from Westminster Abbey back to our hotel in the early morning hours of Christmas Day after the service.  Our walk would take us by Buckingham Palace and then through an upscale residential part of London, all areas that felt pretty safe.  Regardless, making the walk in the daylight to get the lay of the land seemed like a good idea and Westminster Abbey was on the way to the London Eye anyways.

Our morning walk took us through beautifully festive and fancy Mayfair (see Instagram photos of the Bentley, Annabel’s storefront covered by a Christmas tree, and garland-framed doorways), on the paths through a muddy (from the previous day’s rains) Green Park, and right up to Buckingham Palace.  After two days in London, this was our first glimpse of Buckingham Palace (and later Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and the London Eye).  The Queen wasn’t in residence, spending Christmas with her family at the Sandringham Estate (“the much-loved country retreat of her Majesty the Queen”, about 2 ½ hours northeast of London), but we didn’t miss her and enjoyed exploring the grounds.  From Buckingham Palace, we walked along St. James’s Park on the Birdcage Walk and on to Westminster Abbey (about a 35-minute walk in total from the hotel…it was going to be a late night). 

From Westminster Abbey, we turned the corner past Winston Churchill’s statue at Parliament Square and there was Big Ben!  And it was anticlimactic—although, we knew Elizabeth Tower and the Houses of Parliament were in the midst of a multi-year renovation project—because it was a bummer that this icon of London was completely covered in scaffolding during our visit.  We’ll just have to come back to London when it looks shiny and new again.

Recently, when I asked Ella and Jack apart from each other what their favorite activity in London was, they both, without hesitation, said the London Eye.  We did have quite the view for our 30-minute ride and the sky had really cleared by the end of it, but I think Jonathan and I were happy to have our feet on solid ground again at the end.  We had some time to kill before our River Thames cruise so we made our way back to St. Paul’s Cathedral.  We decided against taking the time for an inside tour as the cloudy and gray morning had turned into a glorious clear and crisp blue-skied midday.  From St. Paul’s we crossed the Thames via the Millennium Bridge to the Southbank and walked along the Queen’s Walk back to the London Eye.  Before our river cruise, we stopped for a delicious ramen noodle bowl lunch at Wagamama.  Our Thames river cruise provided some terrific views of the House of Parliament, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, the HMS Belfast, and Tower Bridge.  Unfortunately we didn’t get seats up top outside, so all of my pictures from the cruise have the glare of the window.

After a few hours rest back at our hotel, we dressed up for our Christmas Eve service and headed back out for a dinner at Jamie’s Italian (Jamie Oliver’s restaurant—love him, but the meal was just okay).  We were among the first group in line for the Midnight Mass service and therefore got seats just to the side of the priest at the pulpit.  While we waited for the service to begin, we used the excuse of trips to the bathroom to explore a little bit and take in our surroundings a bit—see Poet’s Corner, the Cloisters, and the Christmas Crib nativity display.  As Episcopalians, we felt very at home with the traditions of the Anglican service, but the immensity of attending a service within Westminster Abbey did not escape us.  Christmas Eve Midnight Mass, with communion, in Westminster Abbey is not an experience we will soon forget.  I think I’d have to say that was my favorite experience in London, one of those once-in-a-lifetime encounters that is truly special.  It was 1:30am by the time we made it back to our hotel after the service.  Merry Christmas!  And time for bed…

UK Christmas: December 23, London

We wanted to see a show while in London and, when tickets to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child became available, we could not pass up the opportunity to see it (it was only showing in London and New York at the time).  The show was a big time commitment and cut into the meat of the day (and opening hours of the museums), shown in two 2 ½-3 hour parts—with a 2-hour break in between the shows—and starting at 1pm.  With the late opening of museums on Sundays, that meant we could only fit in one more London museum on our trip.  The British Library was at the top of our list and, as it is up in the King’s Cross neighborhood of London, it also gave us the opportunity to get in a Harry Potter mood and see some filming sites of the movies in the area—St. Pancras International Station and St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel London (shown as the outside of King’s Cross Station in the movies) and Platform 9 ¾ inside the real King’s Cross Station where there’s a luggage trolley ‘stuck’ between Platforms 9 and 10 (and now a full-blown tourist attraction with a managed queue (when in London 😉) and professional photographer, so we didn’t get too close).

In the British Library we enjoyed seeing Mozart’s musical diary, handwritten notes by Lewis Carroll and Jane Austen, early printed works by Shakespeare, the Gutenberg Bible, the Magna Carta, handwritten song lyrics by members of The Beatles, Leonardo DaVinci’s notebook, letters from Michelangelo…the remarkable list goes on and on.  Before we had our fill, though, we were back on the tube headed for Palace Theatre to see Part One of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, stopping near Piccadilly Circus for a fancy donut for a  snack before the show (and no, although it felt appropriate for the day, we did not have the Bellatwix Lestrange donut, opting for something a little more simple).   

  

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth story in the Harry Potter series, 19 years after the end of the seventh.  I’m usually a die-hard believer in reading the book before seeing the movie—a rule we mostly followed with our kids with regards to Harry Potter (Jonathan and I had originally read the books as they were released), making our kids listen to the audiobooks and/or read the books before they could see the movies, which worked through about book 5.  Anyways, in this instance I would definitely say to see the play before reading the “book” which is really just the playscript so it wouldn’t give you any additional insight into the story which I find the point of reading the book before the movie/play in the first place.  The play, as a production, was awesome.  It was truly a show filled with magic, drama, amazing effects, surprises, and a huge cliffhanger between Parts One and Two.  I won’t say more than that because, you know, #KEEPTHESECRETS and all that, but we enjoyed it and felt it was a definite highlight of our trip.  It also happened to be the only day that we saw rain, so it was a good day to be indoors for most of it.  And, of our entire time spent in London, this felt like the only time we were actually amongst locals instead of tourists.  We were surrounded by British families (for once) who had probably given themselves the gift for Christmas of finally catching the show.

Between the two shows, we had reservation at Dishoom, an amazing Indian restaurant, in Covent Garden, taking in the Christmas lights in the Seven Dials neighborhood on the way there.  We ordered a variety of dishes from the menu to share and we all voted our dinner at Dishoom one of our favorites (if not THE favorite) of our trip. 

After Dishoom we headed back to the theatre for a very exciting Part Two of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, glad that we had seen both shows in the same day (some purchase options are to see Part Two several nights after seeing One).  

No "professional" cameras were allowed inside the theatre, so I left my DSLR back at the hotel all day and all we have are iPhone pics.  

UK Christmas: December 22, London

As I mentioned, after enjoying a lovely and restful Christmas at home last year, we were recharged for a big holiday adventure to close out 2018.  With work and school schedules, the winter holiday break really is the easiest time for us to find a long enough span of days available for a big trip (Spain in 2014, New Mexico in 2015, and Canada in 2016) and, with the kids’ passports expiring in 2019, it was time for another trip to out of the country.  Ella and Jack had mentioned an interest in London—and I’m ALWAYS up for Europe—and so the planning began…I was so excited that I probably had everything booked by February.  Holiday trips always take quite a bit of intricate planning and London was a particular challenge as museums and many sights are not only closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but also on December 26^th, Boxing Day. 

     

So, when we landed on Saturday, December 22^nd we hit the ground running.  As we made our way by car to our hotel, we caught our first real glimpse of London, passing by Kensington Palace, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and ice skaters outside of the Natural History Museum.  We drove along Hyde Park and were even lucky enough to get a good look at the procession of the Horse Guard Parade after the changing of the guard.  We dropped our luggage off at the hotel and took the tube straight to the Tower of London.  After grabbing a quick bite at a fish and chips window shop outside the Tower, we were able to join the 1:30pm Beefeater tour.  Christmastime is a very busy tourist season in London, but surprisingly we didn’t battle any crowds at the Tower of London.  No lines to visit the crown jewels, a spot in front for the Beefeater tour, and plenty of open spaces.  I wish I’d known at the time that this would be one of my favorite sights while in London.  The levels of history—the White Tower built more than 900 years ago by William the Conqueror, Traitors’ Gate through which Elizabeth I entered from the Thames, the Bloody Tower where King Edward V and his brother were brought in 1483 by Richard III and never seen again, Chapel Royal of St. Peter and Vincula (my favorite stop on our Beefeater’s tour, we got to sit in the pews and really contemplate the space) built by Henry VIII and where he buried some of his wives, and the nearby Tower Bridge, the drawbridge of which was built in Queen Victoria’s time—were mind-boggling and kicked our trip off with the reminder of London’s historical significance as opposed to being simply just glamoured by the big city and bright lights.

We walked from the Tower of London to St. Paul’s Cathedral, getting peeks at the Shard framed by 17^th century bank buildings, popping in nearly every telephone booth we passed (even a black one, as we spotted it before we came upon red ones), trying to remember to ‘LOOK RIGHT’ whenever we crossed the street, and finally getting a view of the famous dome of St. Paul’s.  We unfortunately didn’t have time to wait in line to explore the inside as, if we wanted to fit in the British Museum during our trip (which, like all of the museums, would be closed December 24^th through 26^th), we had to continue on our way. 

I’m sure we barely scratched the surface in the two or so hours we had to explore the British Museum before it closed, but we saw our fill of remarkable artifacts from ancient civilizations in that time.  The Rosetta Stone, King Ramesses II, Head of Amenhotep III, and many mummies from Egypt; three-thousand-year-old human headed winged lions that once guarded a palace in ancient Assyria; a reconstruction of a temple (Nereid Monument) and many pediment sculptures and friezes once adorning the Parthenon in Greece…the list of wonders goes on. 

We must’ve been running on pure adrenaline at this point, determined to see as much as we could before sights started limiting hours—our four remaining days in London included a Sunday which always had shorter hours for most museums, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day.  We walked through the Soho theatre district, picked up our tickets for the next day’s show of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Palace Theatre (so excited!), and made our way to Trafalgar Square.  We were too late to explore the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery, but we of course had to take time to climb the lions and admire the Norwegian Christmas tree.  We had an okay dinner in a very cool setting, a very British buffet in the ancient crypt under St. Martin-in-the-Fields church, their Café in the Crypt, off of Trafalgar Square. 

The closest tube station to our hotel (which was off of Grosvenor Square, between Oxford and Mayfair) was Bond Street Station along Oxford Street.  Oxford Street is decked out at Christmastime with light displays hanging over the street and festive window displays in all of the shops.  Selfridges was about a block from our hotel, the London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square, and Selfridges was our brightly lit beacon letting us know to make our turn back to our hotel each night.  Before calling it a night, we explored the many floors of Selfridges—which was bedazzled for Christmas and actually had a DJ blasting tunes—and, much like Harrods, which was a destination a few days later, we found the food market and toy sections to be the most interesting. 

Our hotel (and this was one of the reasons we selected it amongst the slew of Marriotts in London) had a wonderful Executive Lounge which provided access to snacks and drinks around the clock, but also served breakfast, afternoon tea, evening hors d'oeuvres, nighttime desserts and draft beer and wine.  We learned this when we went to Santa Fe over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, that it’s really nice to have a place outside of your room to grab a quick bite and relax on Christmas Day because most places are closed and if they aren’t closed they cost a small fortune and take a lot of time for a meal.  Anyways, it’s a nice perk of all of Jonathan’s work travel to have access to the Executive Lounge, and we took full advantage on our hotel’s on this trip.  We definitely visited 2-3 times a day while in London and saved the expense of, at the very least, breakfast in the morning and drinks at night.  So, after a few drinks in the lounge, and a very full day of travel and exploring London, we had no problem getting to sleep that night and getting ourselves on U.K. time.    

Instagrammin' in December

After a year off of our big holiday trips (Spain in 2014, New Mexico in 2015, and Canada in 2016), we were ready to book another big family vacation over Christmas.  We spent December 21st through 29th in the United Kingdom, exploring London, Windsor, Stonehenge, Bath, and Edinburgh while there.  You'll see a lot of similar pictures from our trip that were taken on my big camera, but there are some in here that were only on my iPhone.  We got first class sleeper chairs on the overnight flight there (heaven!).  The day we went to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child I did not have my camera because you can't bring them in to the show.  We went to the British Library before the show and between the two shows (it was 5 hours split over two shows) we had a beautiful Indian dinner at Dishoom (not photographed, but worth mentioning).  We went to Midnight Mass at Westminster Abbey--no photographs allowed during the service, but I did sneak a photo of the ceiling with my phone before it began.  Christmas Day we had Afternoon Tea at the Ritz Carlton.  The blog will be bombarded with collages of our full trip soon.  This is just a teaser!

Also, leading up to our trip, December was pretty busy.  We fit in the Potted Potter show, a funny 90-minute recap of the entire Harry Potter series (a refresher I figured before we were to see Cursed Child while in London).  We also saw Agatha Christie's Mousetrap for a little research for our trip (it's the longest continually-running show in London).  Jack was so bored at that one, though, he spent the entire time pulling out a loose molar that somehow ended up under the seat of the person in front of him... And Ella had some artwork on display and entered into a competition through her Visual Arts class at school.  We unfortunately didn't do a lot of our traditions for Christmas at home (we did decorate, for the record), but fortunately it was Christmas overload in London.  Everything was beautifully decorated and festive.