What do you think of when you these words: Double Decker Bus, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace?

Well those words describe my new travel destination. My family and I went on a trip to London, England!! It was so far the best and coolest family trip ever!

On our vacation, we decided to do an Adventures by Disney trip. On that certain trip we went with a group of about 16 people including me and my family. It is "itinerary planned", which means throughout the day we would always have something scheduled. But don't worry, we were given few hours to go shopping, look at some museums that weren’t included, or eat lunch or dinner away from the group.

On all of the Adventure by Disney trips they have two tour guides called Adventure Guides. They are with you all the time to tell you history of the place, great shopping areas, do some translating, and take billions of photos!!

On our trip, our Adventure Guides were Alex and Roni. They were so cool.

When my family told me we were going to London, I was so shocked but happy! I was bouncing off the walls because I have always wanted to go there. At that time it was about six or seven months from the day we flew over there. It seemed time went by so slow, but eventually that day came!

Amazing Hotel
We flew from Orlando to Washington D.C and from there to London, England. We met our drivers and they took us right to our hotel, The Renaissance Chancery Court London, which was so amazing! The staircase itself was insured for over one million dollars and was made of marble.

Once we got settled into our room, we went to the Welcome Reception. There, we got to meet all of our fellow adventurers.

After the reception, we had traditional English food including fish and chips and Shepherds pie. Dessert was my favorite. We had something called Eaton Mashed. It’s basically strawberries and whip cream. They call it Eaton Mashed because that is the name of an all boys boarding school, and is a typical dessert there.

On day two of our great vacation, we started with a very delicious breakfast at the hotel restaurant. Our transportation for the day was a fifty year old, private Double Decker bus. It was cool because it was just our Adventure Group of 16 people, and we could sit where ever we wanted. So of course, I had to sit on the top. It was awesome!

Our first destination was Westminster Abbey. It was quite interesting because we saw lots of burial sights of many famous people such as Isaac Newton and William Shakespeare.

Westminster Abbey is also the place where all the coronations take place. Many people would think the coronation chair is extravagantly decorated, but actually it’s just a plain wooden chair.

Next, we were off to Buckingham Palace to get a good view of the Changing of the Guards tradition. After that, we were off to enjoy a traditional English tea for lunch. It was very good. We had little dainty finger sandwiches, hot tea, and scones. It was great.

Shopping at Harrods
After lunch, we had free time. That meant only one thing - shopping!!

We decided to go to the famed Harrods. It is one store, but bigger than the Mall of America.

One thing that I liked the best of Harrods was the food court. It was huge. So much food, so little time!

Also, in the Kids Department, they had the most amazing thing. Versace! They also had Chanel and Louis Vuitton.

We didn’t buy anything because I’m sure that you could picture the prices. But, they did have little souvenirs that were reasonably priced, so my mom bought a shirt that said London-Harrods.

It took forever for my mom and me to find the exit.

That evening, after taking a short nap and getting freshened up, we were off  for dinner in Soho  and then on to the Prince Edward theatre to see  the musical, "Mary Poppins". It was a great show. We even got to go backstage and learn some hidden secrets. I would love to tell you some of the secrets that we learned, but then they wouldn’t be a secret, now would they?

On Day Three, our first destination was the London Eye, which is a sightseeing Ferris wheel. You can see all over London. We were 443 feet up in the air. Each "capsule" held 16 people. It took about thirty minutes to go all the way around, but it was totally worth it.

After that, we took a River Cruise on the Thames. We got some great views of The London Tower; that was our next destination. Inside the tower, we saw lots of jewels belonging to former  kings and queens. We saw their scepters, crowns, and rings. They say “diamonds are a girls’ best friend”. That was definitely the case when it came to princesses and queens back in the day. They were loaded with all sorts of diamonds and jewels!!

Yes there is a McDonald's
After that, we went to a classic pub for lunch. It was great. After that, we had free time. That went by very quickly. My mom and dad went out for dinner on their own, while my brother and I had the classic Mc Donald’s.

Sadly, the next day was our last. But before we left, we went to Camden Market for one last shopping experience. It was very eclectic with all the different types of clothing and the items they were selling. It was basically much like an American Flea market.

After that, we were off to the Eurostar station for our trip to Paris. The Eurostar is a train that goes underneath the English Channel. There were two great things about it, we still got to stay with our Adventure group because it was included in the trip, and we got to sit in first class! During our trip to Paris, we had a relaxing lunch while enjoying the train ride through the French countryside.

Sorry, but you are going to have to wait until next time to hear about Paris! Hope to see you on my next travel destination!
 

Sarah Howard, 13 is an eight-grade student and the daughter of Leslie and Rick Howard, owners of Kingdom Magic Vacations.