London layover

The kids and I traveled home from Vermont on August 19, but ran into trouble in Charlotte, NC, with storms and airplane mechanical delays. We were so delayed, we missed our connection to Nairobi in London. Instead of getting on a second red-eye flight via France (which American Airlines wanted us to do), we chose to overnight in London and take the direct flight to Nairobi the next day.

 

Waiting in the Charlotte airport for hours resulted in lots of games and silliness.

 When we finally arrived in London in the morning, we were very tired and hungry. I used a tourist group in the airport to find a hotel in the Kensington area of London, on the Piccadilly line to make it easy to return to the airport for our morning flight.

On the Tube: Mind the gap!

We really liked our fancy hotel, the Grange Strathmore, in an old Victorian-era mansion. The receptionist was Kenyan and made us feel very welcome.

Immediately, we ordered room service (spaghetti carbonara and hot cocoas/coffee) and tried on the free stuff we were given for overnighting from British Airways' customer service.

Once we refueled our tired bodies, we headed out for a jaunt in London along the Thames. We rode the Tube again, walked along the river, dodged the many commuting bikers of the city, saw the London Eye and Big Ben, and by then the kids were already pooped again.

Showing Puffball and Pepper the Thames River

Walking through Whitehall Gardens

 

Cora was happy to see Big Ben after learning about it in school

Back at the hotel, we went to bed early (and happily in comfortable beds) and were refreshed for our last of three flights home the next day.