The Mallorys in Kyiv: January 2022

Happy New Year! We started our year with a much anticipated trip to London. Omicron threatened to ruin things for us, but in the end, we managed to get the paperwork and tests completed. Peter managed all the admin and the girls and I were so grateful to him for making it happen. Here are the pictures.

We had a long travel day but it started happily with snacks and wifi in the airport lounge.

Like mother, like daughter........this was our train into London from the airport.

We were so excited.

After dropping our bags at the row house we rented, we headed straight to a neighborhood pub for pints and a bite of dinner.

Our row house was in the South Kensington/Chelsea neighborhood and was so quintessential London.

This was our little street. We would definitely stay here again.

Day 1 started with a walk to catch one of the famed double decker buses.

Then a walk through the park to Buckingham Palace

Where we arrived just in time for the changing of the guard.

We felt so lucky to have such small crowds during our stay.

Pub meal number 2 for lunch.

The fish and chips were all that we had anticipated.

After lunch we explored the Harry Potter store,

checked out one of the famous red phone booths,

and headed over to the Victoria Palace Theater for our main event of the trip.

The girls have been obsessed with Hamilton for months and were beside themselves with excitement to see it live.

They wore their Eliza and Peggy dresses they got from Santa.

Mommy and Daddy were pretty pumped to see the show too.

The theater was beautiful.

Day 2 started with a tour of the famous British Museum. The girls are standing in front of the Rosetta Stone.

The Egyptian rooms were full of cool stuff.

In keeping with our Hamilton obsession, we had to take a selfie with King George III.

Susannah was a fan of all of the mythological statues.......like this one of Cupid.

And Sarah Avery liked the ancient Samurai Warrior gear.

We all enjoyed seeing the first board game that was over 1000 years old.

The museum tour worked up our appetites which was fortunate because we had lunch reservations at one of the best Indian Restaurants in London, Dishoom.

One of our favorite meals ever. It was delicious!

After lunch we walked to the famous Trafalgar Square.

The girls met a friendly street performer.

And we climbed on the famous lion statues.

Then we headed toward the Thames and passed the Calvary Museum on the way.

And saw the Prime Minister's Residence.

Then we bought some warm caramel almonds from a vendor and walked across the river to take in some of the most famous London sights.......the London Eye is behind the girls in this pic.

Big Ben and Parliament

For dinner that night, we took the tube out to the suburb of Richmond to have dinner where they filmed one of our favorite shows, Ted Lasso.

It was so cool seeing the square where they film. It is even more adorable in person.

The pub had lots of memorabilia from the show.

They even had AFC Richmond props for a photo. :)

One of the highlights of the trip was meeting all the "dogs of London" as we kept saying. This was Bernie. He was on the tube with us back to Chelsea from Richmond and he was a character.