Day 7 London (last day)

Roses made us think of our Ruby the rose.

and these purple irises, of Violet.

This was our last day on our amazing and full trip. We started with a traditional English breakfast complimentary with our hotel stay. We wandered through Hyde Park, took the train to the British Library to see Shakespeare, the Beatles and Jane Austen’s original writings, Handel, Elger and Stravinsky’s musical notations, the Magna Carta and the Gutenberg bible (sorry, no pictures allowed). Then we went to the London Transport museum. This was a fun, hands-on very kid-friendly museum, but what I really liked was checking our bags at the entrance. I was feeling my energy diminish and was glad to not heft my bag everywhere. After the museum, we took the train to Trafalgar square and had lunch at the Café in the Crypt. The food was okay, but the atmosphere was cool and lunch was quick, which is just what we needed. By the afternoon, it was rainy and windy. The only other day with rain was our last day in Paris at Disneyland. Overall, the weather was very good for us in February.

We took the train to Victoria station and took an express to Gatwick airport with plenty of time for our 4:20 pm flight back to Boston. They boarded the plane almost an hour early. After we were all boarded there was technical difficulty and we waited on the plane for another hour and a half. They opened the doors to let the outside air cool us down for a little bit. Finally, we took off and I tried to sleep without much success again. After a long, uncomfortable flight, it was so nice to finally get home.

The kids were asleep, except for Sam. We had friends meet the kids when they got home from school and make them dinner. Then Sam was left in charge. We were supposed to be home around 9 pm to say good night, but it was closer to 11 pm. The next morning was packing lunches, breakfast and getting the kids to school per usual. Scott went to work and I took a long hot bath. I thought for sure this was just what I needed to feel like myself again, but I still felt achey and weak. I took my temperature. I had a fever of 102. I was sick for the next five days. I’m just glad I didn’t get sick until the very end of the trip, but in the future I think a full trip like this should include a day at the spa.

We saw four sights on our last day.