Several months ago Chris and I discussed what we should do for our 15th wedding anniversary. I said immediately that we had to go AWAY somewhere. No dinner and a movie baloney. That was fine for other anniversaries, but this was a biggie, and I wanted it truly celebrated. So we started discussing where we would go. It needed to be somewhere that we both wanted to go. That was kind of the theme of the whole trip. We both had to want to do whatever it was we did. It was OUR anniversary, not Chris’ or mine.
So we decided on London. It was close enough that we get there quickly, maximizing the time we had available, but far enough away that it would be special and unusual. After that, Chris took over the detail work. He bought the plane tickets, arranged the hotel and ordered a London tour guide. We would spend time in the evenings, after the kids were in bed, flipping through it and making a tentative list of things to see and do. I am not sure which is more fun, going on the trip or planning it beforehand!
Finally, the big day arrived. We rode the bus and train to the airport, so that the couple watching the kids could have the car. Our home teacher and his wife, Nathan and Meg, stayed with the kids. They are a young married couple with no kids and did a fantastic job taking care of them. We called every night at bedtime and they were always happy and content. That was nice to be gone and not worry about what was happening to them.
The trip was awesome! Seriously, such a nice trip. Chris did such a great job planning it.
We stayed in the Marriott County Hall, right on the Thames, with a view of Big Ben and Parliament, and the London Eye from our hotel room window. 
I told him I was now officially spoiled and it would be hard going back to our economy hotels when we travel with the kids. (Although we haven’t been slumming it too bad for the last couple of years. Chris is more spoiled than I am. Ha!) Also, we definitely need to go away at least once a year now that the kids are old enough.
We walked across the bridge every time we left the hotel to go anywhere. It was the way to the closest tube station. And we never got tired of gazing at Big Ben the whole way. So beautiful. We were talking about all the history that clock tower has seen. Amazing. It was also pretty cold. Windy and cold. But if we were in a building, or even protected by a group of buildings, it was alright. I was glad I had brought thick tights to wear under my pants, though.
The first night, well really, it was only 3:30 in the afternoon when I took that picture of Chris, but it was so dark already it felt like night, we just walked around town a bit. Here are some of the fun things we saw and did;
War memorials, which I always find very inspiring. Britain was undefeatable in WWII. Them against all of Europe, and they never gave an inch. Gives me goosebumps and tears every time I see them.
A Knight Bus! Well, close enough for the kids. 🙂
Trafalgar Square. I loved this giant ship in a bottle. We listened to some carolers here, and then we went inside both the National Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. Right in front of the museum buildings was this beautiful Christmas tree. 
Every year the country of Sweden gifts England with one of their trees as a way of saying “thank you” for all the help they were given during World War II. Isn’t that lovely?
I was feeling a bit “peckish” after that, so we went to get some fish and chips. It was one of the things I wanted to eat while we were there. We went to a real authentic where-the-local-Londoners-hang-out-pub and ordered them.
The green stuff is “mushy peas” which I had never had before, but were actually kind of tasty. Kind of like mashed potatoes, only using peas, but runnier, and they leave big chunks of whole pea as well. And I even tried vinegar on my chips, but have to admit I stopped after a few, and put ketchup on the rest. 🙂 The vinegar was good, but I was raised with good ole ketchup, so that’s what my tongue likes best.
We rounded out the night by heading to a giant bookstore and buying a suitcase full of presents for the kids. Some for right when we got home, some for Christmas. 🙂
The next day we did even more sightseeing;
The Tower of London complete with ice rink in the old moat. We thought about joining in, but decided we would rather spend that time seeing other things.
The gorgeous, Disneyland-like Tower Bridge. But as soon as I said that to the guy in the gift shop, I realized it was backwards. The Tower Bridge came first, so actually Disneyland is Tower Bridge-like. 🙂 We saved going across for the next day, we had other things planned for today.
Like seeing the set location for Diagon Alley! Of course they changed the storefronts for the movie, but even as is, it is very charming.
St. Paul’s Cathedral was beautiful from the outside, but we decided against paying the astronomical fee to see the inside. Well, we walked in as far as the ticket office, craned our necks around to see as much as possible, then walked back out again. The highlight for me, were the eerily tame squirrels. 
This one took a bit of shortbread right out of my hand, but then decided he didn’t like it after a few bites. Unfortunately I didn’t have any nuts on me, or I so would have given him one.
Happened on this candy store, and would have liked to stop in, but decided it would be better in the long run if I didn’t. 🙂
We wanted to go to the Templar Knights church, but somehow got a bit turned around, so ended up at Temple Church. 
That was okay, it became one of the highlights of the trip. We were standing just outside the doors, trying to decide if this was the right place and should we go in, when a man at the door waved us in with a friendly smile. “Come in, come in! They’ve only just started!” We had no idea what that meant, but couldn’t resist his kind invitation. We were shone to our seats in a beautiful chapel, and for the next 30 minutes were treated to a fantastic Christmas Carol church service.
The singers were all very talented, and they read short passages of scripture having to do with the Nativity in between. We even got to join in on a few of the songs. That was fun! The pastor gave a really, really, really good sermon at the end about the Wise Men, the true meaning of Christmas, and how we can use that example in our lives. He said absolutely nothing that we couldn’t have heard in our own church, didn’t knock down other religions to build up his own, it was so uplifting. And then, when it was over and we were filing out, they handed each of us a paper bag containing a mandarin orange, some Quality Street chocolates, and a mince pie, along with a postcard to fill out if we would like to explore Christianity and our own spirituality more.
In reading through the enclosed material we learned that this church regularly holds services during the lunch hour on workdays, so that all the professionals in the area can come get a spiritual pick-me-up if they wish. Chris couldn’t imagine anyone showing up if they did that in downtown Zurich, and it made his esteem of the British even higher.
Then we were off to try and find the set location for Number 12 Grimmauld Place. Can you sense a theme here? In order to get to it, we had to go through a couple of small alleyways. One of these led us to happen upon this shop. 
I was super excited, as I have always been slightly fascinated by those wigs. They are so crazy looking, yet they still wear them as per tradition. They can’t be very comfortable either, at least not in the summer. I just wish I knew WHY they started it in the first place.
After a bit of wandering around, near the right place, but not actually at it, we eventually found what we were looking for.
We called the kids from here and told Sarah where we were. She was VERY excited. We will definitely need to come back as a whole family sometime and take a whole Harry Potter tour. Maybe they’ll even be old enough then for a dungeon tour….
Chris did an amazing job navigating the Underground and finding all the sights we wanted to see above ground as well. He had printed out little maps to all the sights, and had figured out which tube stops we needed and everything before we ever left Switzerland. We never got truly lost, just a bit turned around a time or two. But we always found everything in the end. And saw some wonderful unexpected sights along the way. Like this!
The city of Dorks! So that’s where they all came from! haha
Because of the season, there were also gorgeous Christmas decorations everywhere. Here were my favorites that we saw while walking around town.
These last ones were repeated all the way down the whole street. Just gorgeous!
These were the decorations inside our hotel.
And right at the reception desk there was always this bowl of mandarin oranges. They were so good, I grabbed one every time we went in, or out, of the building. 🙂
This is Chris officially checking out, but we still had most of the day wander around before our plane took off. We headed over to Tower Bridge for the tour.
It was raining that day, so we borrowed an umbrella from the hotel.
But most of the tour was indoors, so the weather didn’t matter. There were two movies we watched about the history of the bridge, how it came to be, changes that were made before it was even built, that sort of thing. The part I liked the best was that where we were sitting looked like nothing had been done to it, except clean it, since it was originally built.
Maybe they did restore parts of it, but they did such a great job, I couldn’t tell. The upper part we were allowed to walk on is closed to regular pedestrian traffic now, but was used for a long time as a way for people to continue to cross the bridge when the lower part was raised for bigger ships.
We took our time, reading every sign, and looking out more than window, to see the ever changing view of the Thames. If it had been better weather I would have loved a little boat tour, but not in freezing cold wind! We also toured the old steam engine room, which is what they used to raise the two halves of the bridge up until the 70’s. Those Victorians knew how to build!
Finally, it was time to say goodbye to London and head off to Heathrow for our flight home. We stopped one last time at Krispy Kreme and bought 2 dozen to take home for the children. It only seemed fair after we had been eating 2-3 a day ourselves. 🙂 Unfortunately, the flight home wasn’t as smooth as the rest of the trip had been.
Delay after delay after delay, but we were just thankful the plane actually made it off the ground and was, eventually, able to land! All of the later flights to Zurich were cancelled, and we were very worried ours would be next. After 3 hours in the airport, we were finally given a gate number for boarding. Then it was another 45 minutes before we were allowed on the plane. Then we sat for a while, waiting for a free runway. Then, because we had sat so long, we had ice on the wings, and we had to wait for one of only three de-icers at the whole airport. Finally we taxied to the runway, where we had to wait for another bit, because of course, now the runways weren’t free anymore. We were the last flight allowed to land in Zurich, not because of weather, but because of the late hour!
Then we had to catch the train, which was also late! (I know! We were shocked too. Swiss trains are NEVER late.) Fortunately the last bus up the hill to our house waited for the train, and we were home, only 5 hours later than originally scheduled! All’s well that ends well, right? At least we didn’t go into diabetic shock and lose consciousness, like one of our fellow plane passengers. It definitely could have been worse! Chris figured out that driving would have only taken us 2 hours more than our “quick” flight. Crazy! Of course, the next few days, no planes at all were flying out of England, so we were very lucky in that respect.