Ireland/UK Trip 2022: Part 3 – The Finale!

It’s been fun pretending to be someone who has their stuff together this week, but it wraps up today with the last recap from our trip.  So here goes!

The train from Liverpool to London is about 3 hours, so there was much reading to be done on this trip.  The train pulled into Euston station around 1130-ish, and we got a cab to the hotel.  Again, super lucky that the room was ready so early.  I was just happy to be done lugging that suitcase around everywhere.  We were finally at a place longer than 24 hours, so we were able to get settled in.  It was Friday by now, and it was the day we had dogeared as our touristy day.  We were less than half a mile from the Tube station, so it was very easy for us to get around everywhere we needed to go.  Our first stop took us over to Buckingham Palace, where we had just missed the changing of the guard, but it was still really fun to see.  After that we walked over toward Big Ben and Westminster Abbey.  By this time, we were super hungry, so we walked around trying to find a place that wasn’t super crowded.  We ended up finding a really amazing pub that was so homey and so good.  B got the biggest piece of fish in the world, and I got a burger that was delicious.  And since we were so close, we walked on over to Trafalgar Square.

Being sufficiently happy, we took the Tube over to Tower Bridge.  You know, the bridge.  We spent a good amount of time in that area snapping photos, and we even got to have a glass of wine by the river.  After that, B found a bookstore for me so I could look for a copy of a book I was wanting – but wanted the UK’s cover of the book.  I found it, and then we headed for the Tube back to the hotel . By this time in the day, we had walked over ten miles, and we were exhausted.  We ordered pizza from a pub nearby and watched Derry Girls in bed.  We were both really happy to slow down for a minute.

The next morning, we slept in until about 830, which is completely unheard of for both of us, but we woke up feeling completely refreshed.  We got dressed and hopped on the Tube to head toward Kensington Palace.  We popped into a little local coffee shop and had a chai and split an almond croissant.  That thing was so delicious.  Then we headed over to Kensington Palace for our reservation for tea at the Pavilion.  This was one of the things that I really wanted to do, and it was incredible.  All of the food was sooo good, and the tea was amazing.  I was absolutely in heaven, and it was worth every pretty penny.

After tea, we rushed back to the hotel to get changed for the Chelsea soccer match.  It took us quite a bit of time to get there, and there were a ton of people.  That stadium was packed full, but it was really cool to see a soccer game played where soccer is a huge deal.  Chelsea ended up winning 3-0, so that was also super cool.  After we finally made our way to a Tube station, we headed back into the city and found a Packers bar.  We had a few drinks with alllll of the other Packers fan, and then went in search of dinner.  We found a really delicious taco place that had bomb ass margaritas, and we were pretty happy with it.  After making our way back toward the hotel, we made a pit stop at the pub we got the pizza from for a night cap.

The next morning was Packers game day!!  I was so glad that we decided to get up early and head down that way.  There was a ton of fun stuff to do close to the stadium, so we took it all in.  We went into the pro-shop to get some London Packers game souvenirs and gifts.  Then we got a beer at a nearby pub that was completely full of mostly Packer fans.  There were sporadic “Go Pack Go” cheers almost everywhere we went.  Bennett had made a lunch reservation at a cute little pub called The Antwerp Arms.  It was about three blocks from Tottenham stadium nestled into a cute little neighborhood.  We didn’t want to get into the stadium super early, so we got some lunch and enjoyed a few beers.  Once we got into the stadium, it was already really close to game time, so it ended up being perfectly timed.  There were a lot of Packer fans in that stadium, and it was really cool to see how many were not American – they were from all over.  Unfortunately the Pack couldn’t pull out the win, but it was still a super cool experience.

It took a long time to get back to our hotel area, and we walked down the main street and found an amazing little restaurant that served just what we needed for dinner.  It had definitely been a super long day, and was going to be another long day on Monday getting home, so we opted for an early bedtime. We got up pretty early to get to the airport – the whole trip from our hotel took about an hour.  It didn’t take very long to get through security even though the line was super long.  We found some food and beverages, boarded the plane, and nine hours later we landed in Atlanta.  I have to say that as someone who is not the biggest fan of flying, that both flights were pretty enjoyable, and they both got in early at the destination.  It took us a minute to get through customs, and to board the shuttle back to domestic terminals, and then of course our two hour drive back to Birmingham.  We were so excited to see our spoot, so the trip didn’t seem so long.  It was sooooo good to get to hug him and love on him.  It was a long week not getting to kiss that little face.

Again, we are very thankful for grandparents (two sets!) that took on the task of watching Sheffield for a week.  Without them, that trip definitely wouldn’t have been able to happen.  We had a really awesome week filled with a ton of memory making.  I can’t wait to be able to take Sheff when he’s older.

We have a pretty busy weekend ahead of us, filled with football, baseball and Halloweeny things.  I hope y’all have had a great week and a great weekend as well!