I couldn't wait for Megan, Autumn, and Sarah to come visit back in April so I could show them around London and we could go explore Paris and Barcelona together. The week didn't disappoint as we spent our time sightseeing, eating fabulous (and not so fabulous) food, getting lost, and giggling. Sarah's purchase of the Queen mask added a bit of extra silliness to the trip (Her Majesty will be guest penning the next blog detailing all of her shenanigans with us). The recap is in pictures below - it was a trip of a lifetime and one that I will cherish forever!!!
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| Day of major sightseeing with the girls! |
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| The girls in front of Tower Bridge |
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| Buckingham Palace on their hop-on, hop off bus tour |
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| We went to the east side of London one day. I hadn't been there before and knew it was supposed to be a bit more edgy and artsy. Brick Lane is the major road there. There are tons of markets and street food options. We felt a little old because the crowd was definitely younger and the clothing at the markets and on the people was called "vintage" and clearly from the 1990s. I guess this is how our parents felt when bell bottoms came back into style. Oh the circle of life! |
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| Interesting street art on Brick Lane |
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| I love this photo! |
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| We went for afternoon tea one day. This was the spread. There were some serious carbs going on. I love sweets but it was even too much for me! |
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| Enjoying our tea |
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| We went on the London Eye at dusk. I had never done it at night before so that was cool to see. |
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| On the eye |
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| At the end of our sightseeing day |
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| The lions at Trafalgar Square (this is the problem with others taking your picture - they cut off the top half of the lion!) |
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| We attempted to see the changing of the guard. I did not know that to get a good spot to actually see the changing of the guard you need to get there at the crack of dawn. We did not, so we really just had the view from the street. |
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| Big T striking a pose near the blooming tulips at Buckingham Palace |
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| We saw the new guards march in.... |
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| We took a couple pictures and then decided to leave since we couldn't see anything |
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| And this little guy had enough so I took him home for a nap |
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| Meg and Sarah at St James Park |
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| We then boarded the Eurostar and took the high speed train to Paris. I rented an Air Bnb property there that was a 1 room loft. It was tight quarters but in a very central location. Our host, Ben, was a student from America that was studying there. He was the nicest person ever and very chatty. It was clear he was really excited to talk with other Americans! He took us for a little neighborhood tour including Luxembourg Gardens, where we are in this photo |
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| We took the night boat tour on the Seine |
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| From the boat tour we had a great view of most of the sights lit up at night and also the very cool bridges on the Seine |
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| Notre Dame at night. |
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| Eiffel Tower (obviously!) |
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| Eiffel Tower selfie! This took a lot of positioning to get right on a moving boat :) |
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| We stopped at one of my favorite places in Paris for a drink: the St. Regis cafe on the Ile St. Louis |
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| The next day we took a bike tour of Paris that I would highly recommend: Fat Tire Bike Tours. Here is Megan cruising the bike path - we had another day of beautiful weather. We had a great bike tour leader, Rachel, who was excellent at weaving in an interesting story about the history of Paris at all the sights we stopped at. |
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| Us in front of the Grand Palais on one of the most beautiful bridges. |
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| Eiffel Tower again |
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| 1,2,3 jump! It was tough to get the timing down for this! |
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| Notre Dame again |
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| Lock Bridge in front of Notre Dame |
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| Crepes, crepes, and more crepes in Paris! This crepe maker seemed to really like Americans |
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| We went to the Moulin Rouge. The atmosphere was really cool. It was awesome to see it all lit up and inside (you couldn't take pictures in there) was really cute. But the show was AWFUL! Cheesy costumes (especially the men's costumes), lots of lip syncing, out of sync dancing, etc. It was all in French but we couldn't really tie a story together that made any sense. The best part was the in-between scenes acts. There was an amazing roller skating duo that did some crazy athletic tricks on a tiny platform and a couple acrobatic/comedy acts that were pretty good. I wouldn't change my decision to go to the show since it will be a memory we will have forever, but the production value wasn't great :) |
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| Then we hopped on a plane and headed to Barcelona. This is the cute street that our place was on in El Born district. The Air Bnb owner here was also the owner of a cake shop and he gave us a whole chocolate-orange cake to take home! |
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| A market near El Born |
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| La Sagrada Familia. We went there during Easter week so the place was super busy. We wanted to go up in the towers but the tickets were sold out for the whole week! After a long wait we finally got inside. It was really cool to see the inside and read more about Gaudi's plans and life |
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| Inside La Sagrada Familia |
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| Also inside La Sagrada Familia |
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| The Cathedral in Barcelona |
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| Our favorite shop in El Born - they had amazing sandwiches, coffee and chocolate. The first day we went there 3 times! |
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| Street art in Barcelona |
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| Megan sat down on a bench next to this Spaniard and they proceeded to have a very broken conversation in Spanglish. God bless! |
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| We took the same bike tour in Barcelona as we did in Paris |
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| Fountain in Parc de la Ciutadella |
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| The beach! |
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| The Arc de Triumph in Barcelona. The girls then left the next day and JJ and Tyler moved in to our place. Tyler kept asking where "The Girls" were |
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| We went back to La Sagrada Familia and the little guy got to play in front of it. We also heard the bells ring which was really cool |
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| We went all the way up to Park Guell and saw an amazing view of the city, but the walk was too far and we had to turn around before we got to any of the Guadi stuff since Tyler was in major need of a nap. Next time! |
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| They had escalators outside going up to Park Guell but you had to take the stairs down. A lot of stairs. Thank goodness the little guy thinks stairs are fun.... |
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| Lollipop on the Barcelona subway. While on the train a drifter looking man walked up to Tyler and gave him a piece of candy. I immediately intercepted it and threw it away the minute we got off the train. It was the first hard conversation we had to have with Tyler about not taking candy from strangers. There were a lot of tears because the candy went in the garbage. |
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| Beach babes! |
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| Dipping his toes in! |
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| Tyler and Mommy cruising the beach |
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| There are some rare moments when Tyler really likes to have his picture taken. I totally take advantage of those moments. We had a little photo session here at the Arc de Triumph |
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| Stretching out near the Arc! What an amazing trip! I would definitely like to go back to Barcelona because we just didn't have enough time to do it all! I'm so glad the girls came to visit and we miss them so much already! |
