{"id":1696,"date":"2013-10-29T07:37:18","date_gmt":"2013-10-29T11:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/?p=1696"},"modified":"2013-11-19T17:02:48","modified_gmt":"2013-11-19T22:02:48","slug":"london-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2013\/10\/29\/london-england\/","title":{"rendered":"London, England"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"london<\/a>London was a very special trip for many reasons.\u00a0 We went just after Honeybun’s 2nd<\/sup> birthday and met hubby\u2019s parents there making it our first trip with family.\u00a0 It was also our \u201cbabymoon\u201d before welcoming Sugarplum: I was 36 weeks pregnant and we hit London before Honeybun and I headed back to the states to await Sugarplum’s arrival.<\/p>\n

We flew into London\u2019s Stansted airport and took the Stansted Express into the city and then hopped in a Black Cab to our hotel.\u00a0 Since we were returning home after our visit in London we had Honeybun’s car seat with us which I installed in the cab (much to the annoyance of the driver who wanted to get moving as soon as possible).\u00a0 It was easy enough other than the fact that we arrived later in the evening and were all exhausted.<\/p>\n

After our not-so-wise hotel choices in\u00a0Paris<\/a>\u00a0and Belgium and due to my exhausted pregnant body I insisted we pay a premium and stay in central London to be close to public transport and avoid unnecessary walking.\u00a0 We chose one of the many hotels along Belgrave Road which is lined with many small hotels located in historic terraced (row) homes.\u00a0 The location was great, about 10 minutes from one of the main train\/bus stations and less than 5 minutes from the closest tube station.\u00a0 The only mistake I made in choosing a hotel was not realizing how hot it gets during the summer in London and not realizing our hotel didn\u2019t have air conditioning!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"london<\/a>\u00a0We spent the first morning at the London Zoo per Grandma and Grandpa\u2019s request.\u00a0 While the zoo is not something we would usually put on the schedule during one of our short visits to a new city, we had a great time seeing all the animals and got quite a few souvenirs we still have and use including a stuffed elephant Honeybun picked out to give the \u201cnew baby\u201d (Sugarplum) when she was born.<\/p>\n

That afternoon hubby, Honeybun\u00a0and I hopped on the tube and Grandma and Grandpa grabbed a cab and we met at the Tower of London (we did not have Honeybun’s\u00a0car seat so could not go in the cab with them).\u00a0 We spent the rest of the day wandering around the old palace\/jail\/fort.\u00a0 We visited the crowned jewels exhibit and explored many of the buildings and exhibits chronicling the tower\u2019s history. \u00a0Honeybun\u00a0really enjoyed the sparkly jewels and spent a good amount of time chasing the birds while the adults took turns visiting different exhibits which she wasn\u2019t interested in but was not at all interested in trying to get the guard to smile!<\/p>\n

\"London<\/a> \"London<\/a><\/p>\n

\"London<\/a>\u00a0The next day we went to Madam Tussaud\u2019s Wax Museum and had a great time seeing all the celebrity figures, posing with them and trying to avoid the mass chaos of tourists. \u00a0Honeybun\u00a0and I skipped the \u201cChamber of Horrors\u201d since it is not suitable for children under 12 or pregnant women.\u00a0 I was disappointed to find at the end of the tour, though, where we had to wait for hubby there were only a few folding chairs. \u00a0Honeybun\u00a0was about ready for nap (and hungry as we had surpassed lunch time) so I took a seat on the floor and held her curled up around my belly until a staff person made me move to a chair where there was no room for Honeybun\u00a0to sit on my Sugarplum-filled lap.<\/p>\n

After a nice and inexpensive lunch at the Metropolitan Bar next to Madame Tussaud\u2019s, we headed toward the Wallace Collection which hubby\u2019s parents had done and really enjoyed. The Wallace Collection is the residence and personal art collection of a prominent London family.\u00a0 The collection is small and there is no entrance fee.\u00a0 Hubby and I aren\u2019t much into art museums (unless it\u2019s the Louvre or Hermitage) so this wasn\u2019t one of our favorite places but it was cool and Honeybun\u00a0napped so we took our\u00a0time.<\/p>\n

\"London<\/p>\n

I did, however, find the original painting of a Marie-Anne Cupis de Camargo (she started the tutu revolution!) which is featured in many ballet history books as well as china that has the same painted flowers as the china my Gran\u2019ma handed down to hubby and me as a wedding present.<\/p>\n

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the shops including Harrods which is the biggest department store in London.\u00a0 It is possible to spend hours in Harrods and we got lost more than once!\u00a0 We didn\u2019t buy anything as everything is very pricey but really enjoyed wandering and experiencing the 1 million square feet.<\/p>\n

The next day we did a tour of the British Parliament per hubby\u2019s insistent requests.\u00a0 We had a few hours to wait between buying our tickets and our tour time so also visited Westminster Abbey which wasn\u2019t on our original itinerary.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad we went, though, it was cool to see the final resting places of so many British Royals including many of the Henrys, Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I.\u00a0 The tour of Parliament was interesting and they gave a great overview of the political system in the UK. \u00a0Honeybun\u00a0was great on the tour and everyone thought she was the cutest.\u00a0 In the Commons Chamber (where lawmakers meet and debate), we were instructed no one should sit down with the exception of me and my huge belly (I was basically told I HAD to sit down!)<\/p>\n

\"London<\/a>\u00a0That afternoon we went to the Imperial War Museum which has a large collection of artillery and historic war aircraft (hubby\u2019s favorite!).\u00a0 We then wandered by Buckingham Palace on our way back to the hotel to pack for our 8 week visit back to the states.<\/p>\n

We really enjoyed London though did not have a long list of things we wanted to do.\u00a0 Getting around was very easy as we each got an Oyster card which you added money onto and could use on the tube and city buses.\u00a0 The only transit problem we encountered was a lack of elevators at the tube stations.\u00a0 There were many times hubby had to carry Honeybun\u00a0in the buggy up and down many, many, many stairs!\u00a0 I also found the people polite bus less than helpful.\u00a0 On one train I waited almost 10 minutes before someone offered me (hugely pregnant) a seat and only once was hubby offered help carrying Honeybun-buggy up or down the tube stairs (the very nice gentleman gave me his briefcase to carry before helping hubby get Honeybun\u00a0up to street level!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

London was a very special trip for many reasons.\u00a0 We went just after Honeybun’s 2nd birthday and met hubby\u2019s parents there making it our first trip with family.\u00a0 It was also our \u201cbabymoon\u201d before welcoming Sugarplum: I was 36 weeks pregnant and we hit London before Honeybun and I headed back to the states to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tiny-travellers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1696"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1715,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1696\/revisions\/1715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}