Cheers to London
The story of this trip really started the day before when I took Ryder to the vet for routine vaccines. I am not even sure which ones to be honest, but I knew whatever they gave him in AR before we left for Germany were due to be renewed and the last thing I want is for anything on his puppy passport to be expired. When I made the appointment, I thought to myself, "maybe I shouldn't make this for the day before we leave for London" but then told myself there was nothing to worry about, Ryder has never reacted adversely to a vet visit or any of his shots. Lesson #1: always trust your momma lizard brain. So we went to the vet and got his shot and headed home to attack the ever growing to do list that crops up anytime you are about to go on a trip. A few hours later Ryder threw up. For those of you who know Ryder you know he has a "sensitive stomach". I hate sounding like "that Mom" but there is no avoiding the truth. Anytime he eats something that does not completely agree with his system, up it comes. So I didn't think much of it. Then an hour later he threw up again. At this point I get suspicious and wonder if it was connected to the shot. I promise him (and myself) that if it happens again we will call the vet. An hour later, I was calling the vet. They ask me to come on back in so they can take a look at him. So we hop back in the car and drive the 30 mins back to K-town to go back to the vet. They usher us into a room and the head vet, speaking broken English, (SO thankful for this vet and how gracious they are with their non-German-speaking customers- but when it comes to Ryder's health I really wanted to understand what was going on) says that it's probably a side effect from the vaccine (I also researched it online and this side effect of vomiting apparently happens to 1 in 10,000 dogs for this particular shot- thanks Ryder) and that he will give him an anti-nausea shot and some meds to take at home for it. When I ask when the vomiting should stop he said immediately. If he vomits again we have to bring him right back in for x-rays because something else is wrong (?!?!?!). I am now in 100% freak out mode. We also leave in just over 12 hours for London and are leaving him with our good friends, the Schulte's while we are gone, my only true solace in this situation.
On the way home I call Cody to fill her in and genuinely ask if she is prepared and willing to take this on, since it is way more than we would usually ask of someone sitting Ryder. Of course she is so incredibly gracious and says she is more than happy to give him his meds and if worst comes to worse, take him back to the vet while we are gone. (So SO thankful for our friend family here in Germany- words simply cannot explain.) As soon as I get off the phone Ryder starts dry heaving in the back seat, on top of already acting super lethargic and wanting to snuggle (while I'm driving?!) so we pull over to the side of the road and hop out only for him to get super excited bc he thinks we are going for a walk! Yippee! So back in the car we go to get home as I contemplate his extremely confusing behavior. I freak out and call Michael bc of what the doctor said. He talks me off the ledge saying maybe the meds didn't have time to kick in yet. We finally get home to finish packing, cook dinner, do our finances... all the things we needed to be doing all day instead of running back and forth to the vet! (Also, if you have children or don't have pets I'm sure you are shaking your head and rolling your eyes at how dramatic I am being about my pup, but Ryder is so special to us and the thought of something REALLY being wrong and us leaving for London for the weekend was really overwhelming) In any case we drop him off with Cody late that evening- thanking her and Tom profusely for being willing to take such good care of our Roo Bear. Before we even make it home Cody texts us that Ryder threw up again. At this point I am questioning whether or not we need to take him to a 24 hour vet or cancel our trip or just relax because he will be fine and this is just a little nausea from the shot. If it weren't for what the vet said, we would have been playing it much more cool. In any case, we decide to give him the night to rest and see how the next day goes, knowing he is in wonderful hands.
We awoke at 3am to get ready and head to the airport for our flight. At this point we are carrying ourselves on "no news (from Cody) is good news" and just hope they are all sleeping soundly. We land in London (after a hard but skilled landing in some serious wind) and began our English adventure, still worried about Ryder but determined to have a good time, thankful Cody was keeping us in the loop. He was sick again that morning but after he ate and took another round of the meds he was right as rain! Playing with Luther and getting into the treat tub. These texts from her lit up our day and we were so glad he was feeling better! Lesson #2: don't overreact. Pups are resilient and sometimes just need a little time to recover!
Now- we could finally focus on our London Adventure! After landing at London Stanstead Airport, we had about an hour and half journey on train and the metro to get to our AirBnb in Soho. We met Gavin, the owner and got settled. He still had to clean the place (the last people has just left) so we hopped on down to a café for coffee and a snack. Then we wandered towards Trafalgar Square and ended up sitting there enjoying the sunshine, street musicians, people watching. We wandered back slowly taking in the sights- one thing we didn’t realize was just how many theaters London has! We could have seen anything: Lion King, 42nd Street, Wicked, Harry Potter, Aladdin… so many to choose from! Of course Michael wasn’t crazy about going to a show and we already had soccer tickets for the next night- but next time I am in London I will for sure be booking a show!
We headed back to the Airbnb to meet Paul and Vanessa- it was SO good to see them and catch up! After getting them settled we headed straight for lunch- an Italian place right around the corner from our AirBnB. We each had an entire pizza and some beer- simply splendid. After getting our fill we were off to Trafalgar square again and beyond! We picked up our London passes and decided to take advantage of our only sunny day via a River Cruise! On our way to the pier we walked right by Big Ben. Before the trip Michael said to me “Big Ben really is not that impressive. I thought it would be but it wasn’t”-per his memories of his drunken Europe Trip with his 3 best guy friends right out of high school. As we made our way to the gilded clock tower, Michael took back his words. It IS impressive. And beautiful. And HUGE. And Iconic. And there is something really exciting about seeing a landmark for yourself for the first time that you have seen in movies and pictures and every skyline image you have ever seen of London and now there it is right in front of you! After gazing up at Big Ben among throngs of other tourists (and reveling in how we could not IMAGINE how it could get more crowded in high tourist season) we made our way down to the pier to wait for our River Cruise! We were pleasantly surprised when one of the crew members gave us a live commentary of the buildings we were passing along the way- certainly better than the pre-recorded hum drum that we have come to expect on River Cruises. We took the cruise up to the Tower of London- our decided next stop for the day.
Having little expectations and not even really knowing WHAT the Tower of London was, made for an educational and really enjoyable experience! The tour is nicely set up and you can flow easily from one “exhibit” to the next. They have renovated some of the spaces but kept them as authentic as possible to when they were built and in use hundreds of years ago. The exhibits told the stories of famous people who were held prisoner there, some leaving carvings on the walls that are still there today. We also enjoyed exhibits featuring the Crown Jewels (amazing), torture techniques they used back in the day, their armory and how the towers would have been used as living quarters and a military stronghold. To top it off you get great views of the River Thames and some of the London Skyline. This ended up being a really enjoyable stop, especially considering the weather.
After the London Tower we went back to the AirBnb to freshen up before heading to dinner. We picked out a classic British pub on the other side of Soho and the walk there took us through what Michael called “5th Avenue” for all of its shopping and the CROWDS. One thing we were not expecting from London, especially considering how sprawling the city is AND the fact that it was Thursday- how crowded it was! People were out and about ready to have a GOOD time. People were buzzing everywhere, bars and clubs were either trying to entice people in or had lines around the corner, restaurants overflowed with people. It was as if once work let out until about 8pm everyone went straight into a pub for a drink and a lively time. When we got to Argyle Arms we were not surprised to see people packed on the inside spilling out onto the outdoor patio and beyond. Luckily the downstairs is the pub, and the dining room is upstairs, where we almost had the place to ourselves! Clearly drinking, not eating, was the priority in London. We enjoyed our fish and chips and beer in the calm restaurant upstairs, as the boisterous bustling sounds from downstairs floated upwards. After dinner the ladies were ready to call it a night early (up since 3am/overnight flight = SLEEP PLEASE!) but the boys had other ideas and spent a few more hours joining the throngs of Londoners out on the town.
Saturday was our rainy day- so we packed our Hunter rain boots and made plans to check out the museums. After having a relaxing sleepy morning in our airbnb we enjoyed some coffee and pastries at the Nero coffee shop right near our place. Once we had our caffeine fix, we strolled on to the British Museum. Since we had recently visited Greece and heard all about how they snagged sculptures and pieces of the Parthenon back in the 1800's and refuse to return them to Greece, we were excited to check it out for ourselves. The museum has artifacts from ancient Egypt, Africa, Greece and of course England. Some really beautiful and interesting pieces! But seeing the rest of the Parthenon and the missing 6th lady from one of the Acropolis Temples was by far the most fascinating to us. You can tell by the way the British museum is set up as opposed to the Parthenon museum that the Greeks really treasure and adore their Parthenon artifacts, while the BM was set up much differently. We also found it humorous to compare what our Greek tour guide, Effi, had to say about the items being in England in comparison to how the museum explained their current ownership. According to Greece they were basically stolen by some greedy English man and held in the museum against Greece's strong wishes. According to England they were rescued from certain destruction and wear and tear and adored by the eyes of millions by being featured in their pristine museum. (See below). Very interesting.
After the museum we were thrilled to find that the rain on the forecast was holding off! We hopped on top of the hop on/off bus to make our way to the Borough Market for some serious grub. A famous market that has been around for hundred of years, it is now home to everything from pop up stalls selling all sorts of international street food to established stalls selling meats, breads, cheeses, jams and more. We enjoyed everything from gyros, veggie burgers, spinach pie and salted beef sandwiches to sausage, Indian food, goat-milk ice cream, sangria and beer. (Yeah… there were only 4 of us consuming all that food… Ceci’s and Bell’s can EAT) Overall I would say lunch there was a success. Back on the hop on/off bus all the way to the Buckingham Palace! One thing we have learned is that the hop on hop off buses are way cooler than they seem. I always thought they were so stupid and touristy but you get amazing views of all the sights and get from point A to point B while doing so. The palace was a little underwhelming but I am sure in the summer it's a lot more exciting with the grounds bursting with flowers and greenery. We wandered around for a bit and then meandered through Green Park making our way to the Longchamp store so Vanessa could get her bag she wanted :) That store literally had one of the coolest walls I have ever seen. So simple but so colorful and it spanned all 3 floors. I couldn't get over it!
We made our way through one nicest and most expensive shopping districts in London and ended up back in our rowdy Soho street. After a quick freshening up we were back out and about for dinner! That night we were all craving Sushi! We found this great little Sushi restaurant, Oka, tucked in this amazing courtyard complex busting with good food and drink options. It reminded me of Ponce City Market in Atlanta with extra tables and chairs in a center courtyard, twinkle lights strung about. We barely got a table, and even when we did it was with the understanding we would be out by 8:30 because it was reserved after that. After our quick yummy sushi dinner the ladies agreed to a bit of a night on the town! We headed first to a loud British bar Vanessa picked out, and luckily found a quiet (more my scene) basement room where we could kick back over a beer. Our next, and final, stop was a live jazz club- featuring Cuban music! The band, and mojitos, we completely on point. We danced the night away!
Our last day in London we started off with our go-to morning routine of coffee and pastries (and porridge- NOT oatmeal) at our local Nero coffee shop. We decided to head to Westminster Abbey but were bummed to see a long line to get in, wrapping the block. We ultimately decided to just see the outside and head to the Winston Churchill War Rooms- Michael REALLY wanted to see these. Paul and Vanessa were staying a few more days so they could go back to the stunning Cathedral, but in retrospect I should have put my foot down. It is my only regret from the trip. The war rooms were cool, but seeing the inside of such an iconic cathedral would have been worth the wait. Next time!
We had to scoot before long- grabbed an Uber to…. A SOCCER GAME! Or shall I say- football! We bought tickets to see Fulham play Preston North at Craven’s Cottage. They aren’t the “major league” players, but I certainly could not tell a difference! We booked great seats really close to the “pitch” and let me just say: I have never been to a sporting event where literally every single set of eyes is completely glued to the game the ENTIRE time. We got up a few minutes before the end of the half to grab drinks (you cannot drink in your seat- apparently, fans would just get TOO rowdy) and literally got cussed out as we were walking up because we were in the way! Can you imagine that happening at a Braves game? HA! It was amazing though- I was totally captured by the game and was really following it. Another crazy thing- they designate only 2 small sections to the “away” team (sometimes it’s another London team they have so many) and they keep an entire section between them and the home team EMPTY as a BUFFER. They line the whole thing with security to keep the two sides from mauling one another. Is that not crazy?! Overall it was such an exciting experience. I love going to sports games when we travel- you really get a taste for the local culture in a really unique, non-touristy way. Oh, and Fulham won 😉
That night we splurged on a nice dinner. My cocktail was called “Fairy Godmother”- fantastic. And for dinner, we all got different things, but my pasta was one of the best pasta dishes I have ever tasted. #success. I hit the sack early knowing we had to leave the Airbnb at 4am to catch our Metro to our train to the airport. Michael decided to go out anyways, ended up getting about 3 hours of sleep and left me to “adult” for both of us the next morning. Not his most shining moment, but I love the booger anyways. We ended up missing our metro, which made us miss the train we needed, so taking the late train coupled with literally the slowest, most nit-picky security checkpoint I have ever experienced left us racing to the gate, both hungry (me) and hungover (Michael) which does not make a pleasant pair. Needless to say, we had a safe flight home, picked up our HEALTHY Ryder Roo (Thank you Cody!!!), and headed home to relax and regroup before hitting the ground running Monday morning! London was a whirlwind of a trip- but we are SO thankful for that time with Paul and Vanessa and a brand-new city explored! Until next time… CHEERS!
Walking to the Metro at 4am and Londoners are just heading home...
