England for the Holidays

So my parents decided Christmas Day that we were going to England the next day to visit family and friends. So we loaded up in the van...which is very small with 7 adults....the next day and were on our way. It took 5 hours to get to the ferry in Calais, and 1 hr 30min ferry ride and another 2 hour drive to London. The hotel we stayed at the first night was ok, but the elevator was scary. We loaded 6 people into this closet elevator with bags and rode up to the 4th floor, on the way it felt like we were going to fall at any time. We decided to take the stairs from then on. The next day the elevator was marked as out of order...kinda creepy.

We saw my aunt and uncle that night, whom we hadn't seen in 6 years and they are the same as ever. My aunt is still as crazy as ever. But we love her. We took the Underground into London the next day and hit as many sites as possible because it was the only day we were going to have there. We went to 21B Baker's Street...a MUST. We are huge Sherlock Holmes fans. We went to the Bunhill Graveyard and Wesley's Chapel & Leysian Mission (that was exciting). We saw the Tower Bridge and London Bridge (which is not the real one). We saw the Globe Theater, but didn't get to go in...sad :( We walked the Millennium bridge and saw St. Paul's Cathedral, and stopped for a nice warm drink at Starbucks. We had to take the traditional picture though of how many people you could fit in a telephone booth....we fit 4 of us. And another must was the 9 3/4 platform at King's Cross, which was a little disappointing because it wasn't the actual stop they use in the movie but it was close enough. We went to Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and Piccadilly Square. These were all in the evening so we got to see all the lights and stuff for christmas.


The Next day we drove 4 hours to the coast to see some very good friends, whom we haven't seen in 6 years. It was so much fun to just relax and spend time with them, having dinner, walking around town (even though it was so cold). My friend Rachael had a baby girl 2 years ago named Gracie and I just got to meet her on this visit. She is so adorable and she has pudgy cheeks. She looks exactly like her mom. We had some of the best fish & chips in a long time......DELICIOUS!! We ate Italian the first night and the garlic bread that we ordered for an appetizer came out looking like a pizza and tasted like one too, but it was really good garlic bread.

Jan, 30th we began our drive back to Germany. Of course we had to stop at an English grocery store before leaving to stock up on delicious British food. We then headed out on our way and hit traffic and detours. We ended up missing the ferry we were meant to be on, but got on the 6 o'clock one. It was then an hour and a half boat ride and a 6 hour drive home. So we didn't end up getting home until around 2 in the morning.

All of us trying to fit into a phone booth...we only managed 4 people

St. Paul's Cathedral with the Sunset hitting it

Tower Bridge....not London Bridge...many people get confused

All-in-all it was a great trip with many, many new memories.