Europe--Day 7

Hyde Park was one of my favorite parts of London (it reminded me a lot of Central Park in New York only less busy with way more cool historic stuff).  Our hotel was just a block or two away, so we walked through it many times.

Round Pond was beautiful...filled with so many swans

This statue of Princess Diana and the children was just unveiled in 2021 at Kensington Palace.  I loved this sunken in pond and statue.  It was so serene and beautiful.

Kensington Palace

This statue of Prince Albert was breathtaking...you can't tell by the picture, but it was up on a hill and enormous and all gold.  It was one of the most impressive statues I've ever seen!

The Princess Diana Memorial Fountain was just what our feet needed after walking for 6 days straight!  I wish I had got a picture of the entire thing, but it was a in a circle and flowed like a river.  There were tons of kids playing in it...but our kids refused to even put their feet in it!  But Mike and I enjoyed the icy cold water.

We never did rent these boats, but we walked over the bridge multiple times and saw the dozens of boats floating by.

On our very last day in London, we had the morning to fill before heading to the train station to catch the Eurostar to Paris.  After spending about 5 minutes in Harrods, Tyson, Mike, Summer and I headed to the Natural History Museum while the girls stayed to "window shop"...I was a little hesitant to leave them with my credit card.

Summer LOVED the Natural History Museum, but it was huge, seriously packed with people, and we were in a rush, so we couldn't enjoy it as much as we would have liked to.

I always hesitate squeezing in one more thing when we have to make a train, but since our reservations weren't until 4:30pm (and the email said just to be there 30 min. before departure), we thought it was ridiculous to waste the entire day, especially since it was our last day in London.  Well, it didn't turn out so well for us...but then again, maybe it did.

We arrived at the Eurostar line 2 min. later than planned--after practically running through the train station to find our gate (28min. before departure instead of the 30 min. they recommended).  There was only a line for the 6pm train, so we asked someone who worked there and he told us they closed the line 2 minutes ago and would not re open it for us.  He said we should have arrived 90 min. before departure time--what?!  Anyways, luckily they were able to get us on the later train (all sitting in separate train cars) arriving at about 9:30pm in Paris.  I was stressed about none of us sitting together...then as we were waiting for the train, they announced a larger train was coming so there would be no assigned seats!  Some people were really upset, but it worked out well for our family.    

I felt a little "car" sick on the train, so I was happy to get off and arrive in Paris.  Unfortunately, we would have to take the metro to the hotel...not great when I was already feeling motion sickness, ugh.