Jolly Ole' London ...

One of Brad's Bucket List items in life has always been to see a Broadway Musical in London. Well, considering that we were on this little trip without a little K-man and we were dubbing this trip as our "Anniversary Trip" (1 year ... already! Crazy, right?) we thought we would just go for it! YOLO! Right? (That's 'You Only Live Once' in young people language ... I am probably WAY too old to be using acronyms like that). 

Okay, anyway ... so Tuesday morning we took the Eurostar train over to London. We had a few hours of sightseeing time and then we went and saw Phantom of the Opera Tuesday night. I pretty much hate all of these pictures but, what are ya gonna do, right? It was pouring rain the entire time we were out wandering the city and the pictures are just "blah" ... oh well. 

Try to ignore my mess of a hair-do ... humidity isn't kind to me. I ran out from under the umbrella, posed for a split second and ran back. This is as good as it gets in London. 

Last time I was in London (on my layover, moving to Germany) we didn't find Buckingham Palace and we didn't go up to the Tower Bridge so, it was kinda neat to get to see them this time around. Funny though, it was pouring rain LAST time I was in London, too!

This picture just makes me laugh. He kinda looks like a circus act with the umbrella and balancing the hot chocolate cups. Note: it was raining so hard that the guards weren't even out front, they were taking cover under the arches in the palace. I don't blame them one bit! 

After getting lost a time or two, in the extremely confusing (at first. to us.), Underground, we made our way back to the area where our hotel was to eat some of the top rated Fish 'N Chips in London at Poppies! This restaurant was adorable and the food was really yummy. I don't like fish, so I got chicken. But, Brad really enjoyed his fish.

Then we got all dolled up and headed towards the Theater district! 

Let us pose for a really awkward Prom photo really quick in front of the theater...

 (that's totally what this reminds me of ... awkward!)

Her Majesty's Theater:

Funny (to me) fact about this picture that I totally want to remember forever ... we were running a little late (note: late to Brad but totally on time in Jami land) and Brad was annoyed that I wanted a picture at a time like that! Can you see it in his face? I on the other hand was glad I grabbed this picture beforehand because afterwards, all the signs were being mauled by the show-goers. 

Oh, and we were still totally on time to the show. 

And in the theater. We were the front row of the balcony which made for some really fun seats, until you take into consideration the really obnoxious 8 or 9 year old sitting behind us who was fidgety and noisy but, other then that, they were great seats!

I sound so negative. Phantom really was AMAZING. It was one of the few Broadway shows I have yet to see so, it was pretty neat to see it in London. Phantom is Brad's favorite show so, he was on cloud 9. All in all it was a fun day, just wet and cold. 

Wednesday morning we headed home. Well, sort of. We got to the Underground station assuming that the tube lines were all running that early and we would be able to get to the airport in time ... wrong.

 Big. Fat. Negative. 

After wandering the station for a little bit, we realized one line was open but, it was under construction so we had to walk a couple blocks (in the rain. of course) to the next "Circle Line" to get to Liverpool Station. We got to Liverpool station seriously like 2 minutes too late to catch the train up to the airport. So ... we caught the next train 20 minutes later. When we got to the airport we hurried to the check in counter where the RyanAir lady told us "Your check in time was 10 minutes ago" Um ... yeah, we know. Then she told us our checked luggage was too late to be checked and we would have to take it through security with us. So, we go to security, wait in line for probably 15 minutes ... getting closer and closer to when our flight was leaving. When we got to the security gate first, they tell us we can't take our big luggage through with us and we have to go through a "special gate" (I am SO glad somebody told us about that!) so while they were searching through my luggage and revealing my underwear to all of London, Brad was having to stand in ANOTHER security line to get our luggage checked. At one point one of the workers asked me what flight we were taking and I snapped at her, "It doesn't even matter!!! We're going to miss our flight anyways!" Yep. Confession, I was NOT a kind soul that morning. When Brad got through the gate we went to find our gate and I kid you not, it was the farthest gate away possible. We had to take a shuttle all the way to the farthest terminal, go up two huge escalators and run to the end of the terminal only to hear the words ...

"Oh, I'm sorry, they JUST closed the door!" 

Well, can't you just UNclose the door!?!

I was so frustrated! We missed everything by about 2 minutes that morning, even though we left the hotel 15 minutes early. 

So, we made the long trek back to the RyanAir desk to see about catching another flight. At first the lady told us there wasn't another flight to Nuremberg until the next morning but, I really didn't want to wait that long so I asked if there was anything else into anywhere in Germany that same day. There was a flight flying into Frankfurt later that night, that would get us home early Wednesday morning. We took it. We had to pay 216GBP (that's like $333 people!!) for a "rebooking fee" which is apparently cheaper than booking a new flight. Whatever. So, thankfully our good friend Charee was able to take our babysitter home and grabbed Kason from the bus stop after school so I knew he was taken care of. And then we figured out how we would get home ... rent a car? Ride the train? But, then I was looking at the departure screen and noticed there was a flight that was flying into Memmingen (by Munich) about 7 hours earlier than the Frankfurt flight. We went BACK to the RyanAir desk and asked if they could switch us to that flight and, bless her heart, she did it for free. So, we were set to get back to Germany that same day!! It was a HUGE tender mercy that I saw that Memmingen flight! 

Once in Memmingen I was SO done with public transportation so, we just rented a car and drove home. And about $500 extra and 10 hours later ... we were home again. London travels are never fun for me, every single time something goes wrong! But, I was super grateful we had Charee to take Kason for us, and thankful that we were able to get home Tuesday instead of sometime Wednesday. 

What a trip. 

In all honesty though, it was a huge blessing to spend these days with Brad before he deploys. I know we will cherish this time and be grateful that we had it while we are apart for so many months. But, it was so nice to get home, see Kason and sleep in our own bed!!