“There are two places in the world where men can most effectively disappear – the city of London and the South Seas.” Herman Melville
London…what a city. This beautiful city is where our tour begins. First, let’s address our travel there. I struggle to describe the mixture of joy and excitement we all felt as we did our final packing before we set off for Europe. This was the first trip to Europe for Angelina, Aerie, and myself. Kye was visiting for the second time, as she visited France the summer of 2024 with her French class…lucky.
As one could imagine, we truly did not know what to expect based on our collective experience, but we had a resource that proved to be invaluable. My Uncle David and Aunt Lane are Rick Steves veterans and shared their excellent tips with us leading up to the tour. We were light, comfortable, and ready to roll with the advantage of not having to discover what we didn’t need ourselves, the tough way. One invaluable tip was to arrive a day or two before the tour, which we of course did. I stress this to those considering a Rick Steves tour, plan to arrive early and allow your body adjust to the time zone. You will find that when the tour kicks off that your body will thank you, as each day is packed with activities and being tired will affect those first few days negatively.
We landed at Heathrow on June 1st with our tour beginning June 3rd, giving us over a full day to settle. With this being the longest flight any of us have been on, I can attest that jet lag is very real. As we checked into the hotel (conveniently the hotel the tour begins with), the rest of the family crashed and I enjoyed an experience I’ve always wanted to have, a beer in a traditional English pub.
With a solid nights rest, the family set out the following day to explore the Kensington Neighborhood. We had no specific targets and just planned to get lost, and what a beautiful area of London to get lost in. We enjoyed fish and chips, the beautiful parks surrounding the royal palaces, and tried our best to avoid getting run over with the utterly confounding left drivers lanes. If you have not visited England and are used to driving in the right lane, I cannot overstate how hard wired our brains are to navigate with this assumption in our heads. This is travel…navigating something that your brain struggles to process and throwing yourself into the experience.
Day 1: Introduction to Rick Steves Tours
Our tour kicked off with our introductory meeting, a joy to watch as the random strangers congregated in the meeting area full of nervousness and excitement. We met our wonderful tour guides, Sašo and Janet, two amazing human beings who gracefully broke the ice. During this meeting we identified our buddy, a Rick Steves tour staple to ensure everyone is accounted for as we travel throughout the rest of the tour. This system is amazing, and immediately puts strangers into a comfort level as they get to know their buddy. Excitedly, with logistics and the framework of the tour explained, we set off on our first adventure, a vintage double decker bus tour of London with a view of many landmarks along with a traditional English meal.
I want to take this time to mention how unique our tour was. The standard Rick Steves tour is not a family tour, from what I’ve gathered through discussions with my tour veteran uncle. You can imagine this certainly potentially complicates logistics, and creates challenges that your standard tour may not have. I can say with confidence, this tour was absolutely life changing for all of the children that attended and we could not have asked for a better group. Our guide, Sašo implemented a no phone rule for all meals and one would expect immediate mutiny with this generation of children, but there was no protest to this rule. The kids quickly made friends and this rule strengthened our entire groups bond, absolutely brilliant move by Sašo!
After our dinner and bus tour, we returned to our hotel and rested, ready to begin our first full day of the tour and struggling to sleep as we anticipated all that was ahead of us.
Day 2: The Tower of London & The Thames
The itinerary for our first full day was one that I was extremely excited for. As an American, I’ve always marveled and wondered what it would be like to visit a castle. Something about the history just leaves me in awe, filled with thoughts of the history surrounding a structure that I can physically touch and observe, in our modern times. In this history of humanity, America is just a small blip in our timeline, and a castle is a structure that has withstood countless natural and human events. The White Tower was constructed in 1078, and still stands. This was the day I would step back into history in my mind, walk the stone pathways that Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn once walked. I could go on, but I will spare you, it was a moment I’ve hoped to experience. The pacing was excellent, as we were given freedom to explore as we pleased. Afterwards, the group gathered and we set out to enjoy a boat ride on the river Thames. The ride was excellent, with a wonderful guide pointing out the many sites along our route. We exited the ride to enjoy our free time in the Westminster area. We took this opportunity to visit the Notting Hill area, as a family of three females, site seeing an iconic romcom was something we had to check off. In our journey to and from the iconic Notting Hill Bookstore, we discovered many amazing sites that London had to offer. We wrapped up our day with a traditional English meal in a London Pub and readied for our journey to Paris, France.
