London 2023 - Day 7

This was the day that Hayden had been waiting for! Our Tottenham Hotspur stadium tour! We were fortunate enough that the train stops we needed could be managed from our local tube station, and so we didn't have to try and navigate any busses on our journey. We made there and found a huge Harry Kane building mural to get some pictures with before going inside.

Getting to go through the stadium was really fun for the boys. They loved seeing the view from the stadium, the locker rooms and the view from down on the ground. They had retracted their pitch field for a Beyonce concert, so no grass this time around. 

It was really cool to hear the acoustics in the stadium with just one yell! It was designed to be echo-y and loud; who knows why since I'm sure it's already plenty loud!

Locker room & Harry Kane's jersey!

The guided tour was pretty cool & the boys got to keep their ear buds as a souvenir. We didn't do very many of those guided tours, but this one was great. James trying out the blow dryer in the locker room, ha!

I loved this kit that he wore & this background wall. Come on You Spurs!!

Family picture on the pitch with no grass! and a little press conference from our four boys.

We were so fortunate as to have our friend Dalton Cowap's sister living in London, and Jane was so very kind that she wanted to come a spend the afternoon with us! She picked us up at the Tottenham Stadium after our tour, and spared me anymore agony deciding what to buy in the gift shop, haha. She helped guide us on the tube back into town so we could go ride the London Eye. That was one thing Calvin had been looking forward to most.

Jane not only was wonderful company, but she bought our tickets and made the reservations for the London Eye herself, without ever having met us before. So very generous. It was really nice to have her knowledge of the town as well, since she could tell us all the things we were seeing from up in the glass box.

Family picture on the London Eye!

The boys asked her all kinds of questions, and even though she was a very fast walker, they kept up with her quite well.

After our ride, we went to the playground right under the Eye to rest. We said goodbye to Jane and thanked her for the lovely time. And then Matt & I started to think about what we hadn't gotten to do yet since it was our last night in town.

So off we set to cross the bridge and go up closer to Buckingham Palace! We didn't really ever get a close look when we were on our walking tour.

We saw this fellow playing his bagpipes on the bridge and James had to stop.

We also realized we hadn't seen Westminster Abbey. We walked by and took a minute to look at the building. I went into the gift shop on the other side, and Matt decided we should try and go for a tour the next morning before our flight.

This was as close as you could get to the guard stations now. No trying to make them laugh or anything like that anymore. Probably for the best!

We walked over to get a closer look at the lion statues, and I just loved the view of my fellas with the Palace in the background.

Well, we decided to head on over to the best toy store in town. The boys were such good sports because it really had been quite the long day. But Mrs. Ann had told us about this toy shop, so we thought maybe we can just make it happen with the last part of our day.

We found the best little pub on the way to Hamley's. The boys had plenty of space to rest on the cushions. We got to have one more lovely authentic meal!

We helped close down this toy store for the night. The boys had their daddy's blessing to pick our some fun things to take home. We brought home two drones which were pretty cool, one special stuffed animal for Calvin that we couldn't even find on Amazon, one teddy bear for no reason but it was $5, and maybe a Lego for James. I don't remember all the things! But it was a great way to end.

Our last night in London was really great. We wore ourselves out with all the things we saw and places we walked! Thank you Lord for a really great day. Bucket list items: London Eye and Tottenham Stadium!

London 2023 - Day 6

This was our day to go to Paris and back! We started our day bright and early down at King's Cross Station for their Eurostar international line. It was exciting for all of us to ride the train under the English Channel and experience what the top speeds of the train would feel like. Hilariously, you'd never know you went under the channel in the tunnel (=chunnel) because it just seems like you go under a bridge when you can't even see the water. It is dark for a while, and it made me laugh to think that in my mind I'd be able to tell that we were underwater. In reality, I think we were in the dirt under the water! And it would be dark so you couldn't tell what was out the window anyway even if the tunnel were clear.

What a gorgeous foggy morning with the beautiful clock tower.

The boys were all set by their sweet daddy, and luckily he and I got to ride facing forwards!

This is us after departing our lovely train. We shortly found out that we should have used the bathroom in the train because the restrooms in Paris were not free - they cost Euros to use! I had brought my Euros to London and then forgotten to pack them for Paris. So we went out to find a restaurant where we could eat and use the bathroom.

Luckily, we found the best food of the day right across from the Gare du Nord Station in Paris, and it shared the name. We were much happier after ordering some escargot and champagne for my birthday! We ended up ordering desserts and a cheese plate because it all sounded so lovely. I think we broke the rules that only allowed us to sit in this section if we were ordering a full meal, but they didn't kick us out! The day went downhill from here.

We bought tickets for the hop on hop off busses while we were on the Eurostar train, but we found out that due to protests in the city over raising the retirement age by 3 years (?), our busses weren't running. We had already gotten on the bus when it dropped us off at the Opera House, and they encouraged us to wait it out. So, we decided we didn't really have any other choices. The Louvre was closed which broke my heart. Apparently, they are closed on Tuesdays, and we didn't know. So into the Opera House we went to wait!

It was really cool inside. We enjoyed our tour of the facilities, and we laughed at all the people taking pictures of themselves.

Family Opera House picture!

After waiting, we decided to try the bus again but had no luck. Still closed for the strikes. Apparently, they had around 4,000 riot police in Paris that day. We made up our minds to walk to the Eiffel Tower instead of giving up. After all, we couldn't take a taxi to that part of town, and we had nothing else to do while we waiting for our return train ride. The boys said the protests looked like a big party, but I didn't think so!

Us walking across from the protests in front of their parliament building on the opposite side of the river Seine. We walked down to the next bridge to cross the river and walk on to the Eiffel Tower. We passed this Christian church which is the one our friend Stephanie Van Dyke went to while living in Paris!

We found the Eiffel Tower!

The boys wanted to recreate the pictures I had taken in our dining room of the Eiffel tower, but I couldn't remember which side of the tower I had taken them from! The trees didn't look the same to me, but it was fun trying to sort that out.

We found out to our great saddness, that the Eiffel Tower was closed because of the protests. We couldn't go up it! Which means I still haven't gotten to go up to the top, and I've seen it twice. Bummer!! I had wanted to go to the middle and eat at the restaurant there. :-(

But thankfully, the hop on hop off busses were running from the Eiffel Tower back to the Opera House, so we decided to give ourselves a break and ride. We took it as far as we could, and then got off and walked the rest of the way back to the Gare du Nord. 

We did get to see the Arc de Triumph! from the bus at least. I climbed to the top of that when I was in Paris during college.

After a disappointing dinner, we were back at the train station. Funnily enough, the boys all thought Paris was terrible. Understandably! We were so happy to be back in London!! It felt like a relief from being somewhere that was a little more scary and less safe.

Thank you Lord for helping us navigate a difficult day in a place that was less friendly. Thank you for protecting us and letting us have the opportunity to see new things and go to new places.