Coming Home 🇺🇸

As we spend our last night in England we reflect on all the incredible experiences we’ve had and all the lovely people we’ve meet. This trip has been a non-stop adventure and so grateful we got to do it but we are also looking forward to spending time with our families and getting settled back into our home.

We’ve spent the past seven weeks driving 5,765 miles across fourteen different countries in Europe. Here are a few of our favourites in no particular order!

Favourite cities:

• Prague, Czech Republic 
• Sighisoara, Romania 
• Budapest, Hungary
• Dubrovnik, Croatia 
• Interlaken, Switzerland 

Favourite activities:

• Idar-Oberstein amethyst mine and dig, Germany 
• Drace wine diving, Croatia 
• Oktoberfest, Germany 
• Transfăgărășan drive, Romania 
• Pottery fair in Sibiu, Romania 

Kid’s favourites:

• Seeing olms in Postojna, Slovenia
• Medieval dinner and blacklight show in Prague, Czech Republic
• Games and rides at Oktoberfest, Germany 
• Seeing wild bears in Transylvania, Romania 
• Playground and Baths in Budapest, Hungary
• And ALL the theme parks 

Countries Visited:

• England
• France
• Belgium
• Luxembourg
• Germany
• Czech Republic
• Slovakia
• Austria
• Hungary
• Romania
• Croatia
• Slovenia
• Leichenstein
• Switzerland

Legoland 🇬🇧

We squeezed one last theme park in our finals days in the UK completing our European theme park/fun fair tour. The kids had a blast creating their own custom made lego people and plenty of fun rides (with hardly any lines). Ben enjoyed the fast rollercoasters, while Emma’s favourite was the Lego City Deep Sea Adventure, a submarine that takes you through an aquarium.  We probably could have spent the entire day at the Deep Sea Adventure watching the fish swim around (we did do the ride three times...)!  At the end of the ride were several aquariums with glass bubbles the kids could poke their heads into to feel like they were in the aquarium.  

Harry Potter

We spent the morning laying in bed watching Harry Potter before visiting the Harry Potter studios.  On our way to the studios we decided to have one last afternoon tea at the Kitchen Croxley, so yummy!!  We had two towers of cakes and scones, so much that we had takeaway boxes for a midnight snack.

We enjoyed getting to see the props, costumes, and special effects they used in the movies.  The kids loved the interactive brooms and Doby as well as a mug of butter beer.

  

London 🇬🇧

We boarded the chunnel train back to England for our last couple of days on our European adventure to explore bits of London and shore up final errands before setting back to the States.  We’ve been fortunate to visit London during our last five years overseas but still hadn’t been up Tower Bridge or visited the Natural History Museum.  We also got to see the new and shiny Big Ben without its scaffolding which has been up the past five years.  

Tower Bridge construction began in 1886 in order to improve access to London’s East End after significant commercial expansion.  Located next to London Bridge and Tower of London it crosses 800 feet across the River Thames.  About 40,000 people cross the drawbridge everyday and in 1952 a bus, not minding the gap, ended up jumping across the bridge.  The bridge attendant actually forgot to use the alarm before opening the bridge, however the bus made it across with all 20 passengers onboard. It was interesting to hear about the building process and get some amazing views as well as braving the glass walkway!  

At the Natural History Museum we got to see Dippy the Diplodocus.  Reaching a length of 85ft, this little guy has been touring around UK museums since 2018 so lucky for us we got to see it.  The cast was made from the bones of a diplodocus discovered in 1878 in Wyoming.  Some other highlights were the mastodon, blue whale, and dodo bird.  Unfortunately we didn’t have time to explore it all.

Disneyland Paris 🇫🇷

After a quick trip in Burgundy we made our way to Disneyland Paris for a fun filled couple days.  Ben loved the Finding Nemo’s Crush Rollercoaster and Emma’s favourite was the interactive Spiderman ride. However the most memorable was the Stitch Live show, which we all found hilarious along with Grumpy Bruce from Texas.