it's a jolly holiday with donald

our plan for this trip was to travel slow, so after a short layover in iceland we landed in london with just a few must do items on our list and only a general idea of how we would spend our days. between the time change, extra pregnancy sleep, and donald's internal clock being set to the night shift, we weren't super successful in overcoming our jet lag. this resulted in an overabundance of nap time, but we still had a jolly good time exploring the city and enjoying our week with the british.

the first morning we popped into an ole & steen bakery and donald fell in love with their cinnamon social. he had one for breakfast every day, while i ran into the sainsbury's across the street for two croissants and a pint of skim milk. with the rest of our days we explored some charming old streets on our way to eat handmade pasta, got caught in a rainstorm at the tower bridge and warmed up with bangers and mash at a cozy pub, attended evensong at westminster abbey, ate wafflemeister waffels whenever we got the chance, waved to the queen at the palace, tried a scotched egg, spent sunday evening in a neighborhood pub with nfl redzone, and one of us thoroughly enjoyed our frequent underground rides.

while i found london to be as delightful as ever, our two favorite activities happened to be the ones that took us outside the city. the last time i was in england visiting some friends i talked myself out of a side trip to a miniature village i knew i'd love because i was too cheap, so this time we took the train to beaconsfield to visit the bekonscot model village and it was by far my favorite day. the village itself is tucked away in the midst of a quiet residential area, and our stroll there from the train station was delightfully charming. the miniatures were just as magical as i'd hoped and i was so glad we went on that little adventure.

unsurprisingly, donald's favorite activity [aside from nfl redzone] was the very thing that enticed him to agree to the trip in the first place. our main event was a visit to the making of harry potter at warner brothers studio, where we saw first hand the magical ways the movies brought the world of harry potter to life. we wandered the great hall, saw tons of sets, props, and costumes, and learned some fun trivia about the filming, like how the color of voldemort's robe faded each time a horcrux was destroyed. this was also the same day we happened upon an english chap on the train wearing an iconic kc heart t-shirt, and that was a delightful surprise.