London: Mind the Gap

 Today we bid farewell to Amsterdam and took off to London by train.  We had a bright early start to our day with a train to catch at 6:00am. I had hopes of enjoying the countryside, but spent majority of the ride feeling motion sick. 

As I closed my eyes, fought to sleep, and willed myself not to throw up, Mr. Stannix would kindly nudge me if there was something neat to see! "Look, Addie! We're in Belgium!" I'd open my eyes for a few seconds and soak in the scene and then close them again. "Oh! Look at the church! And that castle!" We grabbed a connecting train in Brussels and went through customs super speedy. Our customs officer asked us where we were staying, and then asked us how close we were. We told her we were married and she chuckled and said, "Good! The rooms at that hotel are nice and cozy!" I was so glad when the train finally pulled into London and I could get out for some fresh air. 

From there we purchased tickets for the underground and Mr. Stannix found us the best route to our hotel near St. James Park. We carried our bags up and down stairs at the station, grabbed a connecting train, and finally arrived! We were able to drop our bags, charge Mike's phone, and hang out for a few minutes on some comfy couches before heading out to explore.

We went a few blocks down the street to grab lunch at a little market we had heard about.

There was lots of vendors and street food. We finally settled on steak sandwiches with truffle mayo and ranch sauce. They were pretty yummy, and we were pretty hungry!

We used our tickets to jump on the bus and figure out our way around a little bit. There are more double decker buses than cars here it seems. We lucked into a front row seat on the top of a bus and enjoyed the view as we drove around London.

The London Eye and the River Thames.

In the evening we made our way to the theater and took in part one of "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child". Mike loves all things Harry Potter and was so excited to learn it was playing in London! We have tickets to part two tomorrow night!

The acting was incredible and the special effects were like nothing I'd ever seen before. It was like watching a magic show. The wands actually fired out sparks, chairs and people would float in mid air, and the scene changes were spot on. It was such a neat experience! It was Mike's first play and he was blown away by it all. We both look forward to tomorrow nights performance!