Steenblik Overseas Vacation - Day 1 & 2: Traveling, Kensington Palace, Double Decker Bus, Piccadilly Circus

We started our world wind vacation with my dad picking us up and taking us to the airport in the afternoon.  Since we were flying internationally, we made sure we were there three hours before our flight.  We had no problems checking our one checked bag, or going through security (we're now fancy and have TSA Precheck).  We took our time walking to our gate where we found Tony's parents and Time and Suzanne.

We all waiting, walked around, and chatted before getting onto our flight.  It was a little delayed, but not too bad.  We had pretty good seats at the front of Comfort Plus with extra leg room, but our tv screen were in the arm rest and we had to stow all our stuff above us because we didn't have a seat in front of us to put it under (just a wall), so that was kind of different.  The flight was good.  We were able to spread out after we took off.  We didn't sleep much, but we survived on snacks and movies.  

After we landed in London we went through immigration and it was a smooth and quick process.  We then had to wait about an hour or so for the others to arrive from Texas.  Tim made a sign to hold up to be funny.  It was funny at first, but then they took forever coming so we sat back down.  After we all there with all our stuff we found the public transit and took that to our hotel.

It was quite the site all ten of us with all our luggage going from subway to subway to get to our hotel.  But we did it.  We got to our stop and had to walk about 15 or so minutes to our hotel, Hampton Inn and Suites.  It was a nice hotel, probably the nicest of the trip.

Margie got us three rooms.  One room was just a one king bed room.  We all thought Lloyd and Margie should have that one.  We then shared a room with Tim and Suzanne and then Nate and Amy shared with Derek and Don.  The rooms were suits, so we still had our own bedrooms and then shared a kitchen/living room area.  Our room was very small and we could barely walk around the bed.  But we were very grateful to have our own bedroom and we weren't sharing with another couple.

After we got sort of situated in our rooms, we then decided to check out the area.  We walked towards Kensington Palace and stopped at a cute cafe on our way and had a little snack.  Tony got a yummy pasta and I had a yummy croissant with chocolate.  After we all finished our snack, we walked to the Palace.  We didn't go in, but we were able to walk the grounds.  It was very pretty and had a lovely walking path.

We also went into a really cool church that had the most beautiful fresh flower bouquets.  I thought they were fake until I could smell them.  We also saw the Royal Albert Hall and walked through a park where we saw many swans, geese and ducks.  

After we crossed the street to get on the double decker bus, we heard a bunch of sirens.  Then a police motorcade came by to block the incoming traffic because a car with Queen Camila went right past us.  I totally thought to myself, I should record this but I didn't.  I didn't think it was going to be the queen going by.  I don't really care about the royal family, but that was a pretty cool thing to happen on our first day in England.  

We then took the double decker bus back to the hotel to freshen up before we took the subway to Piccadilly Circus.  We wanted to have dinner there, so we walked around trying to find a place that could accommodate ten people and that everyone wanted.  We were all pretty willing to have anything, so we ended up at Hardrock Cafe.  We didn't have to wait very long to get our seats and they easily fit us all.  We all had a good meal and it was a fun atmosphere.  After eating we walked around a little before going back on the underground and getting back to the hotel.  It was a very long day (really two days) with very little sleep, but it was a super good day with lots of fun.