Wooohooooo! We are finally off on our European Vacation! (or, as the British call it, "on holiday") After a last minute flurry of purchases, packing angst, raking and getting the house ready to be abandoned for 3 weeks, we finally had to acquiesce to time's inexorable march and pick the kids up from school and head to Grandma's (she's giving us a ride to the airport).
We bundle Grandma into the loaded mini-van (remember, this is before we even buy our first gift or souvenir) and head to Dulles.
Expecting the mad Thanksgiving rush to be layered on top of the normal mid-afternoon crazy business rush at the airport, we arrive nearly 4 hours before the flight is scheduled to leave. After a 10 minute check-in, we head to security, where there is NO LINE. After breezing through security, we head to the shuttle to D concourse. The shuttle driver actually holds the door for us as we nearly miss the shuttle and have to wait 15 to 20 minutes for the next shuttle to depart. We get to the gate area about 3 hours ahead of time . . . great on the one hand, but disaster from the bored kid perspective. Fortunately, we got invites to the Red Carpet Club right near our gate, so we head in, grab some snacks and a seat by the window and chill. The boys ask, and I try to answer, about a million questions about the airport, planes, baggage handling, tail numbering schemes, etc. Matthew also pulls out Pepper, a little stuffed black toy dog classroom mascot from his preschool, about whom Matthew will be keeping a journal (mainly pictorial).
Heather and the boys loved Business Class (I've got to burn through those frequent flier miles before they get devalued, again). I've spoiled them all forever on coach. Matthew loved the fact that he could stretch out flat on the seat. Erich's knees hurt him much of the night, so he spent most of the night watching TV and movies.
After we landed, we took the Heathrow Express train into Paddington Station, and from there cabbed it to our flat in Notting Hill. I had assumed that the boys would have crashed by this point, and would need to nap for a couple of hours before we did anything. I was completely wrong; the boys were pumped and ready to go. Some quick checking online revealed that there were tickets available for the 2:00 pm matinee of the Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre down in the the theatre district. After buying the tickets online (technology rules!), we jumped on the Tube to Covent Garden.
It was getting on toward lunchtime, so we stopped into a nice little cafe in Covent Garden Square and had a quick bite to eat. Not only did the boys order from the menu without whining and eat what they ordered, they were so well behaved that two different ladies dining separately near our table complemented me as we left on how well behaved the boys were. We then headed to the show. The seats were great and the show was amazing (I highly commend it to you with your children). The boys were on the edges of their seats, and clapping and cheering at appropriate points in the show. I think they'll remember their first real show for a long long time.
After the show, we headed back up to Covent Garden so Heather could stop into a couple of shops that had been highly recommended to her. The boys were holding hands with each other and skipping around the square.
Unfortunately, on the way home, the Tube stop, King's Cross/St. Pancras, where we were literally about to get on the train back to our flat, was evacuated for an undisclosed reason. Matthew had just succumbed to the heat and boredom of waiting for the train and fallen asleep in my arms. After hiking to the next Tube stop and realizing that it didn't connect at all reasonably with the line we needed, we hailed a black cab back to the flat.
All in all, it was a great trip over, and an unbelievable first day. A few highlights are in the slideshow below. Enjoy.
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