Ever since we met, Curtis and I have talked about traveling internationally. Last fall, we took a 17 day trip to London and Scotland. We were only in London for 48 hours total, 12 hours on the way to Scotland, and 36 on the return journey– with that leg on the weekend of Queen Elizabeth’s funeral. We didn’t know how that would affect our trip since she passed away while we were just four days into our Scotland time, but we understood the historic nature of it so if we had to make changes we were fine out of respect for the people in the countries we were visiting. I’m not going to lie. It was surreal! Never in a million years would I have expected that to happen while we were there.

We flew from Chicago to Edinburgh via London on a Friday night, arriving at Heathrow Airport at 7:00am London time on Saturday. We checked out carryons, and hopped on the tube to Paddington Station and headed into the city. We packed in as much as we could in the time we had there, which was impressive, considering the jetlag; the UK is five hours ahead of us here in the Midwestern United States. We did use this great app called Timeshifter that helps you get your circadian rhythm adjusted slowly to the new time zone before you travel, and it actually worked very well for both of us. It is available on both Google Play and the App Store. You add your flights to it, and about a week before you are set to fly, using prompts and alarms, you start to shift your waking and sleeping times. You can use melatonin and caffeine if you care to as well, which we both did.

Once we arrived, we were a bit tired, mostly because we took the redeye and tried to sleep, but had three babies in our cabin who took turns crying all night long. It was rough on all of the passengers, but probably worse for those poor kids (and their parents). We had noise canceling headphones, but apparently, that doesn’t cancel crying, because we heard them loud and clear.

The weather in the UK is gorgeous in September. I did a lot of research before we decided when we wanted to go and found that September has the lowest number of rainfall days for the year. It was about 75°F while we were in London and it was perfect. Curtis didn’t drink a whole pot of tea at MY&SANNÉ, which was a gorgeous restaurant near Harrod’s. I did, so he was much more tired, and I was so excited to finally have my feet on international soil that I was wide awake. Him, not so much. He decided to find a nice shade spot in the park and take a nap. He can literally sleep anywhere. I went and checked out Kensington Palace, which is where the royals live. It seemed weird to me that you could just walk in that gate and go into the “tourist” entrance, that is connected to the rest of the palace where actual members of the royal family live. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to do the tour, especially with Curtis sleeping in the park!

On our return trip to London from Edinburgh on Saturday morning, after the death of Queen Elizabeth, we didn’t know what to expect. We had booked our AirBnB in Notting Hill before she passed, which was fortunate since so many people from all over went to London for the funeral. Our flight back to Chicago was scheduled for Sunday afternoon, so we had to have a room for the night. The only downside was that our room was on the top floor, with no elevator, or lift as they call it in the UK. I had shopped a lot in Scotland, and I mean a LOT. I had to buy the biggest suitcase you could check, and I could not fit another thing in there. It was packed fuller than full and came in at 2kg heavier than what was allowed. I had to remove things and put them in my carryon so I wouldn’t be charged another £100 to get it home. We checked that at Heathrow, so I didn’t have to lug it around town, but my carryon and backpack were still heavy. We had to drag those up 164 steps. I counted. One Hundred and Sixty-Four. We were really glad that we were only staying one night.

The number of people in London was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. They had the queue for the Queen snaking all through the city, about 10 miles long, and so many people were in town to file past her casket. We had purchased tickets for the London Eye before she passed because you can see most of the major sites from the top, and we didn’t have a lot of time in London, so we headed off via cab ride. The London Eye was really fun. A complete turn on it takes about 45 minutes from getting in to going all the way around and back off. It’s right on the River Thames, so we saw Buckingham Palace, British Parliament, the bridges, and Big Ben.

Also prior to the Queen’s death, we had bought theater tickets to The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre. We weren’t sure if that would be canceled with the funeral just two days from our arrival, but as they said at the theater, The Show Must Go On. Phantom at the theater in London, where it originated, where it was written for that stage, was indescribable; it gave us chills and we didn’t want it to end. We feel like we were lucky to be able to get to see it there, especially with the circumstances as they were that weekend.

While we walked from the London Eye to Her Majesty’s Theatre, we used my phone for maps, and i didn’t take my battery pack- which was a rookie mistake. By the time we got to the theatre, I was at 12% battery life. Our tickets were digital, so once I showed them, I had to turn my phone off because not only were the tickets digital, but our AirBnB key was digital.

On. My. Phone.

We also had to find out way back to said lodgings from across town, walking part way and riding the tube the rest. I suppose we could have hailed a cab, but where’s the fun in that? One thing I can say about Londoners is that they are the friendliest, most helpful people we have ever met. As we were just standing and looking at a train map, people would ask where we were trying to go. Even teenagers were helpful. It was so refreshing. We finally made it back to Notting Hill, and this is where it got tricky. I had to turn my phone on to get us in the main door, run up 164 stairs, and get us in our room, and now my phone was at 2%. I thought I was going to have a heart attack when I finally got in that room, both from the fear and the exertion!

We’ve always been told that British food is not good. We found the exact opposite to be true. Every single meal we had in both London and Scotland was delicious. Well, except for McDonalds. That was just as bad in London as at home. The food standards are much higher than in the U.S., with less dyes, processing, and preservatives. We felt so good the entire trip and think it’s because of the food quality. It’s one of the things we both miss most from that trip.

I hope you enjoyed this post. If you did, please share and subscribe, which will alert you to my future posts via email. Next week I’m going to tell you all about the time we went to Charleston and got caught in a flash flood. In a bar.