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London by way of Georgiana, Luverne and Atlanta

12/25/18 & 12/26/18 Tuesday and Wednesday
London by way of Georgiana, Luverne and Atlanta

Here are the details from our 2018/2019 family vacation to Europe. We visited London, Paris, Calais, Dover and Canterbury. It was a truly inspiring, enriching and enjoyable trip. We are all thankful for having been able to have taken it and we are truly thankful to everyone who shared in this journey with us. Happy New Year!

A lot happened on our first day of our trip to Europe for 2018. Christmas Eve was at Kayla's in Luverne. That was a great night although Mark and Kyle did not make it. Troy and I stayed at Momma's house that night and Momma, Troy and I and Tucker rode to Kayla's house the next day to switch all of our luggage over to her Jeep. We had to take Tucker and drop him off with April at the BP station in Highland Home.

Kayla drove us to the Atlanta Airport in her Jeep. Kayla drives very well, but I caused her to miss the International Airport exit. I did the same thing last year. The sign says "International Airport Cargo". The word 'cargo' throws me every time. It just means it is the exit for the "International Airport" as well as for "Cargo". I do not think we will have to worry about this exit problem next year as Troy and I both agree that the extra money to fly in and out of Montgomery is worth it. Returning to Atlanta and then having to drive over two hours to get everyone home is pretty tiresome, especially after a nine hour flight.

We had appetizers at our favorite International Concourse restaurant. Its the one on the second floor with the "outdoor patio" next to Starbucks. Troy bought coffees at Starbucks after we ate because of the new Juniper coffee, of which none of us knew what Juniper tasted or even smelled like, sounded interesting. He did not like it.

The four of us filled the middle section of row 47 on our Virgin Atlantic flight from Atlanta (ATL) to London Heathrow (LHR). We left Atlanta at 5:40pm Christmas afternoon and flew overnight. None of us got much sleep. I watched two movies: 'Tag' and 'Mission Impossible - Fallout'. For the rest of the flight, I dreamed of ways to incorporate 'Tag' into my life but the ideas always had near fatal problems.

Landing at Heathrow, we were early but got a gate at a remote location where we had to get buses to customs. We also had to get stairs to deplane, no jet bridge. That delayed us a good bit. Then, we went on to wait almost four hours inline in customs. They were short staffed and maybe just new people working. It was exhausting.

Took a taxi to the hotel - Marriott Marble Arch. I remember there was a fair in the park as we drove to the hotel.

Got checked in. I gave the bellman 20 euros to take our luggage from the taxi to the registration desk. I had thought 20 euros would get the bags all the way to our room, but I was mistaken.

Troy went to get a 20 euros haircut next door. We all met in the lobby bar - The Pickled Hen - for drinks. Surely, everything does not cost 20 euros in England.

We were going to walk to a nearby pub for dinner but we had trouble finding it and it was just opening when we did find it so the kitchen was not ready. Instead, we took a taxi across the Tower Bridge to go to a restaurant with a view of the bridge, The Ivy Tower Bridge. Howard was going to meet us but had to cancel. Reservations took too long so we walked around the corner to a pub (The Draft House, Tower Bridge) - all the while before we got to The Draft House, Kayla and Troy were starving to death and were really vocal about it.

After a really good dinner where Momma had the best meal of us all, we walked across Tower Bridge and around the Tower of London on the river side. We had coffee at Paul Three Quays and were going to ride a double-decker bus, but we did not have tickets and did not feel strongly enough to get tickets so we walked back towards the river and got a taxi which took us by the London Eye and Big Ben before on to our hotel. Big Ben was covered in scaffolding so Kayla did not get to see a good view of it and it's clock. With this being Kayla's first trip to London, I feel bad that she did not get to see more of the city; but I am glad she got to see Tower Bridge which is probably one of London's most iconic landmarks. I'm pretty confident she will come back to London again one day.

Here are pictures of us driving from Georgiana to Luverne in my car with Momma, Troy, Tucker and me and then Kayla driving us to Atlanta.





It is about a 9 hour flight from Atlanta to London.

After getting through the horrendous line at UK Customs, we took a taxi to our hotel at Marble Arch.

That's Troy walking across the street to get a haircut.


Tower Bridge on the right. Tower of London across the river.




Top of the Shard is the distance and City Hall on the right.


One of the few times Troy ever asks for a photo.


Pretty sure this was near our hotel.


Kayla had Pepsi and lemon in London and again in Paris. She said she liked it pretty well by the time we left Paris.




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