London for New Years Eve

When my parents came to visit us, Courtney and I mapped out the two weeks precisely. We took everyone’s interests in mind when choosing Germany (for my Dad), London (for me), Paris (for my Mom), and Italy (for Courtney). Germany quickly came and gone, and next was the beautiful city of London. We had two days to cover the basics so we woke up early and bought a two-day pass for the hop-on, hop-off bus tour. Within the three routes, this tour covered everything so it was perfect for my parents to do.

After riding the bus for a few hours, we grabbed lunch at Pret and decided to walk briefly around Leicester Square. My dad spotted the M&M store, so we bopped in and bought a few souvenirs. We got back on the bus that took us to Westminster where we decided to go on a boat cruise down the Thames. This gave my parents a better perspective of where things were along the river.

M&M store

From the first time I visited London, we had a tour guide take us to the Tower of London. I knew that I had to take my sister and parents there. It’s full of royal history. My favorite part of the tour is viewing the royal jewels. I seriously get goose bumps every time. Courtney and I joke that perhaps we were royals before this life because we are drawn to those beautiful jewels!

Listening to the history

Once we were done with the Tower of London tour, Courtney and I made reservations at the Dickens Inn restaurant. This was that typical English meal that my parents were looking for. They both had fish and chips, I ordered bangers and mash, and Courtney ordered the meat sampler. 

After dinner, we decided to head towards the London Eye for the firework show at midnight. I knew there would be a lot of people there to watch the big show, but I had no idea they would be queuing before 7:00! I somehow convinced my parents that it would be a good idea to queue at this time in order to get a good spot, so we waited… for 5 hours. I was having flashbacks of queuing for the Breaking Dawn premiere during this time. It was cold, people were pushy, and of course it started to rain. Luckily, we had umbrellas, and we made friends with the people next to us. In order to stay awake and motivated to stay in the crowd, we drank 5-Hours that my parents brought over for us. Time went by surprisingly fast as each hour dwindled down. London was smart by playing great tunes while we waited.

Long night of waiting

Over 200,000

At midnight, we heard Big Ben ring and the Eye flashed fireworks right when it was ringing. Perfect! The firework show was to a great mix of popular songs which lasted about 15 minutes. I remember smiling the entire time. We were dead center of the Eye and I just couldn’t believe what was going on. The entire show was brilliant, it had nothing on even Apple Valley's grand finale.

Once midnight came and gone, we had to find transportation back to our house. The amount of people in the capital was unreal. The police closed off all major roads, so people were walking freely around. It was so weird not to hear or see any cars or buses.  If any of you are aware of London, we walked from Embankment to Victoria to hopefully catch a non-busy train because it was further away. Of course, we weren’t the only ones thinking of that plan. Tons of people were heading south as well, so we ended up not getting on the train home until around 2:30.

The video I wanted to show is taking forever to load, so to give you a better picture of what happened that night click here. 


Showing London to my parents was a lot of fun. They could finally get a visual to all the things we have been talking about these past few months.  Also, the NYE firework show was the perfect ending. Maybe not next year, but sometime in my future, I really want to see Sydney’s NYE show. While waiting, our friends told us that that was just as great of a show. Any takers?

Next leg of the Mulhern European Tour is off to Paris the next day. Courtney will write that entry. xx