May 24, 2022

When we planned the trip, we thought one week all together would be a socially acceptable amount of time for “family vacation,” traipsing about in a group of seven. This would justify the second week, where we planned to spread out across the continent in groups. Yeah, well, we deviated from that by Day 2. Just kidding, we did many things all together the first week. But our second day in London turned out to be a great chance to explore the city in pairs and gave everyone the opportunity to see what they wanted to see. To quote Rosamund Pike’s Jane Bennett in Pride and Prejudice (2005), “London is so diverting!” There was so much to do and we barely scratched the surface, and obviously will have to go back many times.

After a charming breakfast on the canal with Jeremy, Sam and Jordan headed to Camden Market for a little shopping and midday Aperol Spritz. The best part of the market was the glass pods, in which you can see Jordan and Sam below, taking refuge from a rain shower. The market has many twisty-turny alleys and goes underground at parts, with tons of clothing, jewelry, and vintage goods booths. An attempt was made to check out the Royal Academy of Arts, however, the main exhibitions were closed for the summer, so they settled for a Vietnamese street food lunch at the St. James Church courtyard in Piccadilly Circus. They also had fun navigating the public bus system over to Notting Hill. They saw the original Notting Hill Book Shop that was used to film Notting Hill with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant!

Avery and Ismael had a similar idea with the canal breakfast – the canal by our Airbnb is an offshoot of the Paddington Basin, but actually originates at the River Thames and loops west around London before ending in Paddington. So there were tons of cute little gondolas and riverboats turned into cafes and coffeeshops. They were arguably the most efficient pairing in terms of sightseeing, seeing Leadenhall Market, All Hallows Church, St. James Park, and even checking in on the Queen at Buckingham Palace. However, reports from locals suggested that the area was being shut down for the Platinum Jubilee, and Ismael, our photojournalist on the scene, was able to confirm this for us. Avery and Ismael also managed to be the first to sneak in a cheeky lunch of fish and chips near Piccadilly Circus.

Mark and Susan took home the trophy for best views, though, electing to have the full London Eye experience and doing us all the favor of sending pictures later. Though perpetually rainy, this city offers some gorgeous sights, and there is a certain charm to sharing air with fifteen strangers (and your honey) in a glass pod above ye olde Londontowne.

The only Peck lucky enough to escape the embarrassment of chumming around with his awkward American family was Jeremy, of course. Why is that? Oh, because he already had friends in England, who came into town to hang out with him. Jeremy and Co. went to the Tate Modern Museum of Art, the Lego Store, got some burritos, and generally had a splendid time on the town, or so he says. We just got a metric ton of penny candy as a souvenir when he came back to the Airbnb :).

As the day came to a close, knowing the troops were spread out across the city, Jordan hoped to gather everyone back together with the promise of good drinks and yummy tapas. She dropped a link and an address for Opera Tavern near Covent Garden in the WhatsApp group chat and instructed everyone to gather at 7:15pm. But, like every great dinner, you have to start with an apertif beforehand! It’s hard to overstate the warm gooey feeling a Peck (specifically Mark) gets when he sits down at a classy bar, and one by one, his homies roll up to have a drink with him. At least, that’s one way to interpret what he said about arriving early to the restaurant. We had a delicious dinner, the benefit of tapas being that they always leave plenty of room for your dessert stomach to voice some concern. The correct response to this was a jolly walk to Udderlicious for quite possibly the best ice cream ever.