Traveling from Izmir to London

We wake up at 5am (of course I’m awake before the call comes

because it’s a travel day) and get Oscar awake to take our bags down and catch our taxi.  John had to go out to an ATM last night to pay for this taxi, but we make it to the airport in plenty of time to get through

 check in, drop off the bags, get through security and have some morning drinks before getting on.  We fly to Istanbul in order to then get off the plane, and go through to international flights to go through passport control.  Landing here was not fun and it’s a nice day, I can see why they’ve had several planes off the end of the runway here.  We get through passport control and

get some food before heading to the gate, not that long to wait before we’re getting on a bus and boarding our next airplane.  The whole 4 hour flight to London, John and I are just talking about how

  happy we are that this is our last plane flight for a month and we only have 4 more for the whole trip.  The airport just drains you.  Oscar does a great job sleeping on the plane and we get into London Standel.  Yep, that’s right.  We are in the middle of fields, 30 + miles from London, but passport control is a breeze….no questions, just a customs officer telling us we’re here at the wrong time because they 

have a new winter storm coming.  We try to explain that having a winter storm in Michigan would mean 2 degrees and a foot of snow, so we’re fine.  He can’t seem to wrap his head around the fact that people live in a place where the weather does that because he doesn’t really  believe us.  But, we get through and get on the National Express bus to London after John gets his requisite bottle of duty free whiskey….All of our 

bags make it and we’re on our way even before our ticket time because they just let us on. Oscar is excited to see everything especially as we get closer to the city and then all he keeps saying is “double decker bus”

 over and over because they’re everywhere.  We get to see some great sites on the way including Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, the London  Eye, Westminster and Big Ben or Elizabeth Tower which is completely covered in 

scaffolding.  We decide on a taxi the few blocks to the Air Bnb because the bus station in Victoria is further away and I don’t want to drag this luggage around anymore.  We get one  of the old fashioned black taxis and Oscar is super excited.  “It’s an experience”

he says, because he has heard us using this phrase in response to things we’re doing.  We get to the place and drop off the luggage to walk around on the one day that we might be here without rain.  We walk down to Westminster and Oscar starts to cry when he realizes that he can’t see Big Ben and it’s not ringing while the tower is under construction.  When a guard tells

him this and sees him crying, he tries to comfort Oscar by telling him that he can hear the bell at Horse Guards, but Oscar is not having it.  He’s probably more tired than that long nap on the plane took care of, but he gets his own back when he gets to see the Horse Guards up close and we walk through St. James park to Buckingham Palace.  We get to see some palace guards marching around and head home from there.  We are all exhausted with the time change, the early wake up and the culture shock.