Day 1 - London
- Eric Kraus
- travel
- Europe 2025
- 07 Jun, 2025
Day Summary
- Subway Rides
- Pictures at the Warf
- London Eye
- Shopping on Bond Street
Saturday
Day 1 marks our arrival in Europe (London) and the beginning of a 10-day journey across 4 countries, 4 languages, 2 timezones, 3 currencies, and (hopefully) 1 memorable family vacation.
One of the first things the kids experienced was riding the Elizabeth Line train. We went through Paddington Station, which was supposed to be a highlight, but I think the kids were too tired to care much about it.
Some of us slept on the plane, others did not. Can you tell which? — You’ll soon find out!
We took the train to the Bond Street station and got on the Jubilee Line (Tube) towards Southwark. The kids thought the subway was pretty cool, with multiple layers and escalators. Some of the escalators are themselves multiple stories - this one is relatively small.
After about an hour of travel, we arrived in the Southwark Station / Borough and dropped our bags at the hotel. We chose a ‘nicer’ hotel to settle in for day 1 because we knew everyone would be tired.
Hotel - Bankside Hotel, Autograph Collection
- great location
- wasn’t the “cheap” option
- service and amenities were fantastic
Time for a quick selfie and some food!
Breakfast
Breakfast - The Table Cafe
- Awesome pancakes and waffles
- Good coffee
We found this awesome brunch spot not far from the hotel. Menu looked amazing. Lori and I were both ready for a coffee — the kids were both starving.
The food was fantastic although one of us was hitting a wall!
Max was doing everything possible to stay awake, but it was tough. I mean, it was around 2:00am at home!
Max nodded off several times during breakfast - we decided to head to the hotel for a quick nap.
Photos by the Warf
Tyler and I were feeling fine, so we grabbed our camera gear and wandered down by the warf for some pictures.
A passing thunderstorm. We didn’t have a vehicle or we’d be storm chasing!
Lori texted a picture - Max crashed hard.
London Eye
Since we were only going to be in London for ~ 1 day, we thought the London Eye would be an excellent way to see the city - without much effort walking around.
Shopping
We decided to take the Tube up to Bond Street / New Bond Street and do some shopping. Lori got a little gift - she was ecstatic.
The kids were NOT thrilled to be doing some more walking.
Everyone was pretty exhausted by this point, but we were pushing to adjust to local time.
By this point it was starting to rain heavily. We got a taxi back to the hotel and decided to find an old pub for dinner.
Dinner
Dinner - Old Bell Tavern
- Atmosphere was great - just what we were looking for
- Food was ok (London is not necessarily known for being a “burger town”)
- Yeah yeah, I know it’s tied to a chain
The first place we stopped (Blackfriars) was packed, we couldn’t even get in the door! And by now it was pouring rain, so there wasn’t much for exploring around.
We ended up calling another Uber to check out Option B.
note
I wish we had more pictures from this portion of the trip, but we were so exhausted, we basically just forgot and were so focused on eating and staying awake. Ha!
Back to the hotel for early bed time. Day 2 of the trip is already another big travel day!
Quote of the Day
We spent time at dinner each day reflecting on the activities and then voted on our favorite highlight (and lowlight) of the day, as well as the best quote that someone said.
Today, it was hearing Max say at dinner (6pm):
“I’m excited to get back to the hotel and go to sleep”
— Max is NEVER the first one to go to bed
