Family Truckster: Exhaustion almost got the best of me....

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

We flew into London early in the morning, we had a long overnight flight and not much sleep in the night before. Needless to say it was a struggle to keep going throughout the day. We had some minor issues getting off the plane (kids going through the wrong customs and some instrument damage) but they were handled and we were on our way to Windsor.

I have been to London before so many of the things we were going to do I had seen before, like Windsor Castle. I couldn’t remember if I had done the tour, but once I was inside it all came back to me. My group of kids really liked it and took a lot of time to look at everything. They were especially impressed by the Chapel, which is going to seem tiny compared to some of the churches we are going to see in London.

Outside Windsor Castle

Inside the courtyard

We witnessed the changing of the guards at Windsor and got to see the band play some tunes. It was very odd to me, because they like to play arrangements of pop tunes, mostly classic rock, but I found that strange as traditional a ceremony as this was….it was very strange to hear a rock version of Toccata and Fugue.

A guard at Windsor

We had a quick lunch at a sandwich shop and I gave the kids some time to wander around. They ended up sitting by the train station (some sleeping) trying to catch up on rest. We then boarded the bus to head to our hotel. We were supposed to try and keep everyone awake to get everyone adjusted to the time change, but everyone seemed to pass out on the bus ride to our hotel. I was even losing 20 minutes here and there. I found it pretty funny how your body will just shut itself down when you’re that tired!

We checked in, had a quick dinner, and then it was time to take our groups on a walk to get acquainted to London. Our goal was to see St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Globe Theatre. It was a pretty good walk, I think our main mission was to get the kids good and tired so they would go right to bed. We enjoyed wonderful weather and hit the millennium walkway to the Globe Theatre right at dusk, which was beautiful.

After our walk, the kids were very excited to go to bed…as was I. I actually missed hanging out with the staff b/c I fell asleep unknowingly in my room!