I was beyond excited to start our trip
to Europe. After all the planning and preparing it was finally here. I had
Matthew’s medical supplies packed in advance but started packing my own bags a
couple days before we left. My Mom was waiting slightly impatiently to see if
we would have room for a couple of her items… which we did. On July 25th,
Matthew took my parents to the airport in the morning and then I spent the day doing
last minute details. Finally, Dan arrived to drive us to the airport. We said
our goodbyes to Cooper and headed off for the trip of a lifetime.
We arrived three hours before our
flight… since I don’t like being late… and went through security super-fast. That
is the blessing of Matthew utilizing a wheelchair. Unfortunately, when we arrived
at the airport, he realized he had left his cane at home. We stopped by a variety
of stores at the airport but unfortunately, none of them had any canes.
We ended up going to eat dinner before
our flight arrived after finding out that it was going to be delayed. It was
going to be a long night, and we were both hungry. We enjoyed a meal and then
headed over to our gate to wait for our flight to arrive. As we were waiting,
the guy who helped Matthew through security came back and brought him a cane
that was left in lost and found beyond the time allotted to pick it up. Matthew
was so grateful for him going through effort to find him a cane, so we didn’t
have to find one in London.
Finally, our plane arrived, and Matthew and I were able to get on and settle into our seats for the night. Matthew was pleasantly surprised to see that I upgraded us to comfort plus and chose seats in the front row with the most room. While that meant the screen had to be pulled up, he had plenty of leg room and I couldn’t even reach. All of our belongings had to go up top, so it was a good thing we were the first to board.
Thankfully, I was able to sleep some
of the flight. It was about 9 ½ hours. We then met up with the rest of the
group, most of which were flying in from Texas. Matthew and I were the last
ones to arrive in London so once our flight got in, we flew through
immigrations with our luggage and headed to the spot where we were able to get
Ubers. It was my first experience with reserving an uber, so they had to help me
with the process, but it didn’t take long for them to arrive.
Once we got to the hotel we started
the process of checking into our rooms. Matthew of course needed to rest for
the evening. The rest of us settled into our rooms and then headed out to find
dinner. We didn’t go too far the first night, but we were able to find an Italian
restaurant and ice cream for dessert. Of course, I brought Matthew some left
over pizza home and ice cream.
Afterwards, I did some unexpected
laundry in the hotel. I was surprised to find out that it was free. While the
clothes were washing and drying, I was able to get my walking in. I wanted to
stay in my routine and was off to a good start.
The next day we had a full day of
tourist activities scheduled. Matthew and I started the day off right and found
a local restaurant for breakfast. The food was absolutely delicious but of
course it was, I ordered crepes. Matthew enjoyed his food as well.
Afterwards, Matthew headed back to the
hotel to rest for the morning portion while the rest of us started our walking
tour. We saw so many things as we walked to Buckingham Palace. We had time to
stop and take pictures along the way. When we arrived at the Palace it was
packed with people ready for the Changing of the Guards ceremony to start. It
was quite the experience to watch the ceremony (what we could see of it) and
the parade of the guards as they left their shift.
Buckingham Palace
Posing with the Palace
After the ceremony, we continued on
our walking tour and headed towards Big Ben. There were so many things to see
in that area. We took a shortcut through the park which was a lot of fun and allowed
for some beautiful views. Just looking through all my pictures reminds me of
the beauty of what we saw when we were there.
After getting all our pictures we
headed back towards the hotel. The original plan was to have lunch together,
but we could not find a place big enough for all of us, so we ended up splitting
up into smaller groups and finding food on our own. We then had a little time
to rest before heading back out for the evening.
We met back up and most of the group
walked to our next destination, which was the Riverboat Tour and then The London
Eye. Matthew joined us for these activities, but the walk was too long, so he
joined Heather and got an Uber to get over to the attractions. I walked with Mom,
Dad, Aunt Sandi, and Carrie. We talked as we walked and enjoyed the sites.
After the London Eye, we booked a
reservation at The Hard Rock Café. It was a couple of hour wait so Matthew and
I got pictures in the photo booth, and everyone bought souvenirs before we
started our trek to the Hard Rock. Matthew and Heather headed over to book an
Uber with a handful of her girls… they ended up renting a couple of the
bicycles… unfortunately, they ended up taking them to the wrong Hard Rock Café,
charging them double or threatening to call the cops on them. It was quite the
experience… an expensive one… especially since they had to then book an uber to
get to the correct Hard Rock Café. The rest of us walked a couple of miles to
get to the restaurant. We arrived before the others, so we got our souvenirs first.
We then found out Heather accidentally reserved her table for the following
day. They were super accommodating but we had to wait a bit longer to get
tables. Everyone enjoyed their food and the experience. A crew of us walked but
the majority took Ubers back to the hotel afterwards.
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