Day 11 (2025) - Homeward Bound

Unfortunately, Sunday was our last day in Europe, although "day" is being generous. On a quick tangent, I am not sure I have shown an outside view of our house, so here it is:

 

Due to our flying rules, which were back in effect, we had multiple flights scheduled - Brian and Debbie were on an 11:20am flight to JFK, Amanda was on a 12:30pm flight to Vienna and Ethan and I were last at 2:20pm to JFK. All flights were on British Airways, with the NY-bound group flying in Premium Economy and Amanda in Business. Honestly, I didn't remember booking her in Business, but it worked out well since she left with Brian and Debbie and got there quite early but had access to the lounge.

We did our family hug, with some tears I might add, and the first group headed out. Ethan and I finished packing and cleaning up and headed over to the gourmet market for some Greek yogurt and, in the spirit of heading back to the US, grabbed Starbucks iced coffees. Meanwhile, at Heathrow Brian and Debbie had their own caffeine fix.

All of our flights were uneventful and we all arrived back in our respective homes, or temporary homes, safe and sound.

And since Debbie arrived home about 3 hours before I did, and I had the laptop with me so she could not start to catch up on More Than Paper work, she just HAD to take a walk to Starbucks for some coffee! Although at $5 a coffee she quickly realized that she would either have to quit the newly formed habit or we would have to buy a coffee maker.

The last blog post of a family trip is always where I get a little sentimental and wistful. This is no different. Our first road trip was in 2010, which was originally billed as Ethan's Bar Mitzvah Trip. But the fun of that trip made us realize that waiting for Brian's Bar Mitzvah Trip was too long and we made a bunch of trips from 2010-2018. Each one had its own set of memories that hopefully we will all cherish.

As you can see from the photo, lots has changed since 2010, and there's a fairly decent chance that this was the last trip with just the 5 of us. And if that's the case that is just fine with Debbie and me, because it simply means we will have new members of the family joining us. And then new memories will be made - and there will be more people to make fun of Debbie and me when we get lost or can't figure out how to use the freakin' Maps app.

CLO out, for now. 

Day 10 (2025) - Busy Final Day

Today (Saturday) was our last full day in London and last full day of the trip (waaaaah). We have been in London for 36 hours and have done zero sightseeing, so today the plan was to see as many London landmarks as possible, then head to Borough Market for lunch.

The first stop, natch, was Buckingham Palace. Actually, the first stop was breakfast. We knew that we could go to the same cafe we went to yesterday, but that place really didn't have anything for Debbie, well, other than her new favorite beverage. So we looked around a little on the street near the house to see if there was someplace else to go to. We had just about given up when I spotted what looked a gourmet market across the street. Brian and Amanda went ahead to the regular cafe and ordered their (and my) breakfasts and also coffees for the group while Ethan, Debbie and I checked out the market.

This was a good find. They had a lot of interesting items and even had a non-dairy yogurt for Debbie. Ethan and Debbie chose their breakfasts and we met Brian and Amanda at the cafe and sat outside for a short, lovely breakfast. Fun was had by all.

 

After breakfast, we headed to the bus for the ride towards Buckingham Palace. We had become very adept at using mass transit, but this route confused Brian and me, as there were two Hyde Park Corner stops shown on the route. While the app told us to take the second one, for whatever reason a little doubt crept in and we decided to jump out at the first stop. Again, we had a mini-Louvre escapade trying to figure out which way to walk (clearly the second stop was correct) but eventually found our bearings and headed to the palace.

Side note. Along the walk to the palace we passed by the London Hard Rock Cafe. Hard Rock Cafes are all over the place in every city at this point and are really nothing special. In fact, our Vienna tour guide mentioned that he just could not understand how anyone would come to Vienna and go to the Hard Rock there. If you are going to a new city, go someplace you can't find anywhere. This led me to recall that when we were in London in 1980 my dad had made a point for us to go to the London Hard Rock. I was only 13 but remember that it was a big deal. When we passed the Hard Rock this time, I noticed that it said "Est. 1971" on the awning. Thus it wasn't brand new in 1980, but I had a hunch so I once again used the trusty "Googler" to find out where the very first Hard Rock was located. Lo and behold (does anyone say that anymore?) my hunch was correct and the London Hard Rock was the first location. I have no idea how many locations they had in 1980 but I am going to guess there were very few and they certainly weren't as ubiquitous as they are now.

Anyway, back to modern times. We walked across the park from the Hard Rock and found the palace - right where it was supposed to be. We got there just before 11am. On most days this would have meant arriving conveniently to watch the changing of the guards. But evidently they don't do that on Saturdays (not sure how they change but I guess not as formally). We snapped the requisite photos and moved on to our next landmark.

 

The next stop was Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. One of Amanda's goals (requirements) was to get a photo with a red phone booth. We had passed many already in our few days in London, but she was holding out for the perfect shot. Well, now was the time. There are a few red phone booths near Big Ben and (stunningly) we were not the only ones with this idea, as there we lines at each one that had clear views of Big Ben. We picked a line that seemed short-ish and waited our turn. Most people in front of us took a few quick photos and moved on so the next group could have a turn. But of course the people right in front of us acted like they were Kardashians or something and took photo after photo with one pose more "Insta-worthy" than the next. I really hope the woman who was in the most photos had more than 27 followers, because she sure acted like there were millions of fans waiting for her photos.

When the wannabe finally left (yes, I was the old man who wanted to shout "get off my lawn" at this point) we took our - quick - turns and Amanda got the shots she wanted. And we all partook. So now I can go viral as well.

Classic

A little off...

After a few photos by Big Ben, we walked over to Westminster Abbey, but it was also closed so most of us took a selfie and moved on. I say "most of us" because Brian really needed to use a bathroom and he eschewed the Westminster Abbey selfie to walk and find someplace that would let him use their facilities. He found a casual restaurant way down the street and we all met him there and availed ourselves of their hospitality.

Brian had other priorities

The next stop was The Tower of London. Before the trip I had looked into buying tickets for the Tower of London for a tour and to see the Crown Jewels. Thankfully I didn't because no one was really interested in anything other than looking at the Tower from afar. So that's all we did, and moved on.

Everyone kept their heads on just fine for this selfie

By this point it was almost lunch and I think the group had already had their fill of sightseeing so we set out to walked to Borough Market. When I had mapped this out earlier I had thought we would walk over Tower Bridge, as that had seemed more interesting, but London Bridge was right there and more direct. So over London Bridge (cue the "thankfully it wasn't falling down" jokes) we went.

The more interesting Tower Bridge is in the background

We arrived at Borough Market to a massive crowd trying to get in. Thankfully, once everyone got into the market a little more there was room to move around and check out the stalls. Amanda's primary mission was to get chocolate strawberries. There was a huge line, but eventually she got her strawberries. I had to sample a couple to make sure they were good, which they were.

At this point it would have been difficult for all 5 of us to walk around together and find one place that would work for all of us, so reluctantly (for the parents anyway) we split up. Debbie and I set out to find something we would both like, and after walking around a while we settled on a sort of grilled cheese sandwich that looked good and didn't have a huge line. We shared one yummy sandwich with the idea of finding more things. At some point we had walked around so much without choosing anything that I was getting a little hangry myself. We bumped into Ethan who was on line for a dessert type thing and he told us where Brian and Amanda were sitting and eating. We went over to where they were for a short time and then headed back out to find something. Now I was really hungry and decided to get a wrap at one of the places that didn't have too long a line. Debbie set out on her own and returned with (more) falafel. 

 

 

After everyone was sufficiently fed, and after meeting Maddy's sister, Estee, who happed to be in London as well, we headed out of the market. Debbie follows someone on Instagram (or Facebook, not sure) from London that she is obsessed with. She's a former model who reinvented herself and in addition to having a cosmetics store she also does these videos of shops in the London area. One of the areas she tends to highlight often is the Kings Road area, so Debbie wanted to check it out. We found our way to a tube stop and made our way there. Upon arriving it was pretty clear that for the most part this area has international chains that you could pretty much see anywhere. We, and by "we" I mean Debbie, looked in a few places, found the cosmetics store and were basically done. 

After stopping into a coffee house, for an afternoon caffeine fix for everyone, the kids had had enough for a while and decided to bolt and headed back to the house.

Ready to go back

Ready to keep going

But the old fogies kept going. We walked down the street some more and eventually decided it was time to head back as well. But unlike the young guns we opted to walk back. The walk was a little longer than expected, but we got home in time to freshen up and head to dinner.

The dinner tonight was pretty much the only reason Brian wanted to come to London. He had told us about an Indian restaurant, Dishoom, that he and his friends loved, and it turns out I had gotten the same advice about going there from my friends. The restaurant has a few locations in London, and one just happened to be a short walk from our place (how conveeeeeen-ient). People wait in line for over an hour to get in, as they only take reservations for 6 or more. But I had gotten a tip to make a reservation for 6 and when we get there just tell them one of our party couldn't make it. So that's what we did, and thankfully so since when we arrived for our 6:30 reservation there was a long line. After a short wait we were seated. 

Debbie, Amanda and I are not huge fans of Indian food, but Brian had insisted we would like it. And he was correct - even Amanda who was least looking forward to this meal found something she liked. 

  

 

 

  

My only problem was that due to my strong hunger back at lunch I had ordered a pretty large lamb wrap. It was delicious,  but I wasn't quite as hungry as I needed to be for this meal. By the end I was basically in some sort of food coma. 

Before

After

We finished up and after my food coma improved we headed to a gelato place to wash down the dinner. We walked back to the house to start to pack up for our various flights home tomorrow (boooooo).