London Trip Day 5: There's No Place Like Home

 Morning came way too early after that late night! But we got up and gathered our stuff, bracing ourselves for the underground with all our luggage in tow again. Then we realized that...it was New Year's Day! It was not busy at all and wasn't near as difficult as when we arrived! BONUS! 

We navigated through Heathrow and found where we needed to be (Chris and I were very grateful that we'd experienced LHR before, this made it much easier this time around). As we reminisced about our adventures, we realized that it hadn't rained much while we were there. The weather reports we had looked up and called for rain everyday. We count ourselves very blessed over this! The flight back was uneventful, thankfully, as was the drive home! None of our luggage was lost and turbulence was pretty low, as well! Things had warmed up enough to melt the snow and ice so we really had zero troubles! 

We got home and immediately were surrounded by all the kiddos! We were missed, but here's a secret - we missed them too! It is always so fun to travel, but it is so much nicer to come up and sleep in your own bed! There really is no place like home!

London Trip Day 4: Regent Park, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, & Diagon Alley

This morning, we slept in a bit to let Celeste rest up. After her meds had kicked in, we went out and meandered around Regent Park, which was very near our hotel. Celeste tried making friends with the wildlife we came across. A squirrel scampered up to her, eager to see what kind of treats she offered. He left disappointed, however, SHE left elated because she got to touch a squirrel! We also got to smell the roses that were still blooming around the park. While the trees were rather bare and the leaves were very sparse, the roses were few and far between but what was there smelled just lovely!

On our way to Hyde Park, we found the Sherlock Holmes museum and house on Baker Street. We went to the shop, but not on the tour of the house.

Right next door was the Beatles Store! Obviously we had to go in there too! Celeste was loving all the hoodies she was coming across in her travels LOL

Hyde Park was our next stop, but it was a little ways away from where we were, and Celeste was still feeling a bit run down, so we hopped on another double-decker, I mean, why not?! This one, we even got to sit on the front row up top!

Hyde Park was the park to walk or ride through back in the day (think Jane Austen time lol). It still is a good place to go riding in, apparently, since we were finding all sorts of (fresh) evidence of horses there. After seeing yet another pile of manure, Celeste piped up "Forget picking up after your dogs, people! Clean up after your horses!! Clearly that's a bigger issue here!" Haha, she cracks me up! We found an amusement park "Winter Wonderland" going on, but decided to pass on that one. It was a pretty cold day, so we found a vendor and got some hot chocolate. While we waited on that to get prepped, Chris and Celeste squatted next to the pond and tried to make friends with the swans, using crumbs they found on the ground LOL 

We worked our way across the park, following The Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk and across the street where we found a few more monuments dedicated to the regiments in the World Wars. 

Just a short walk down the road, we came to Buckingham Palace! That was kind of fun to see!

We decided to keep the Harry Potter vibe alive from yesterday, and went in search of Diagon Alley. We kept commenting on how we loved the look of the taxis around here, so we grabbed a pic of one. Then we found a phone booth, and couldn't pass up that photo-op! We also came across a memorial monument for the great fire that spread through London a couple centuries ago.

We followed the maps and excitedly rounded the corner where Diagon Alley and found...

We had to back track slightly to an actual alley-way and then...we found what we were looking for!

We enjoyed dinner here and then browsed through multiple book shops and started back to the hotel to rest up before enjoying the fireworks bringing in the new year!

We set alarms just in case we all fell asleep, and then we got up and dressed warm, looked out the window at the Winter Wonderland (from the park) and noticed a few early fireworks going on.

We went to the sidewalk near Regent Park and counted down to bring in 2025! This was what Celeste had been waiting for! Even with feeling yucky she couldn't help but prance down the street!

London Day 3: Platform 9 3/4 & Camden Market

 This morning we got up and headed out a bit earlier than was our norm. Why? HARRY POTTER THAT'S WHY!!! We went to Kings Cross Station and saw platform 9 3/4. We decided not to wait in line for the photo op (I still have mixed feelings about this decision, but that line was so long - it would have taken us at least an hour to get in to the store, if not more). That shop was just such a magical place (I know, I know, it's a wizarding world thing, but that's not the kind of magic I'm speaking of). So many fun trinkets and bobs, candies, ornaments, clothing, and wands!  We loved it there (even if the Slytherin cashier hard-core judged me for wearing my Gryffindor hat haha)!!

After we'd enjoyed perusing the shelves there, we started looking for a couple anime shops that Celeste had wanted to see and explore. Along our way, we got to ride a double-decker bus!

We found one store and then another almost right next door that we weren't planning on seeing,

As we were looking for the second store she wanted to see, we stumbled upon Camden Market. This place is HUGE!! It is several blocks long and wide and has so many different vendors of various kinds, street food galore...oh my goodness, it was the shopper's heaven! This solved our next quest of trying to find a place to go shop the afternoon away! 

We found the shop that Celeste had been looking for an then spent the next 5 hours wandering through the different shops there. We found a shop that custom paints shoes, so Celeste ordered a pair. We enjoyed street food while we waited for them to get done. Cashmere shops, hat shops, leather shops where you can build your own...fill in the blank, alley-ways and tunnels filled with tables and bays - every nook and cranny was filled! 

After our afternoon of shopping, we hopped on the underground and back to the hotel we went to relax and enjoy our finds of the day!

Unfortunately, Celeste started feeling sick. Slight fever and her lungs started to hurt. We found a chemist (pharmacy) and got a few things to help her get through the next couple days until we could get her home. She was still such a good sport through the rest of the trip though!