Cardiff & London

To actually leave Europe, we caught an overnight train from L’Hospitalet-près-l’Andorre. Despite the name, L’Hospitalet-près-l’Andorre train station is not actually in Andorra but is over the border in France – and there is no public transport to get there (and Uber coverage is patchy at best). People will helpfully tell you “there used to be a bus” but that was obviously no use to us! Instead, Logan dropped Lucas, Zara and me at the train station, drove our rental car back to Andorra, bussed to the border and hitchhiked back to the train station. We were grateful once again that Logan is on our team!

30 hours, 2 trains, 1 metro, 1 underground, 1 bus and 1 Uber after we left our accommodation in Andorra, we arrived at Kirsty, Lewis, Lara and Frankie’s house in Cardiff. Kirsty is a dear school friend who left New Zealand 6.5 years ago, so seeing her again was so very special and felt like being “home”. Cardiff is a pretty city and Welsh people are really lovely – it was a Bank Holiday long weekend so there was a very relaxed vibe.

Our Cardiff highlights were:

Visiting the Cardiff Castle – the castle is right in the middle of town, as is the stadium you can see in the background:

Spending a sunny afternoon at Barry Island:

A boys’ outing to the ‘Wales Strongest Man’ qualifier event:

Meanwhile, Zara and I had a look around the shops and just happened to catch the 21 Gun Salute for the anniversary of the King’s Coronation:

Chilling out in the Wye Valley:

But best of all was spending time with Kirsty, Lew, Lara and Frankie – it was so relaxing and easy and calm and chill. Thank you so much for having us and for all of your love and kindness – it was so wonderful to feel like home so far away from home.

From Cardiff we headed to London. We were so lucky to be able to stay with Julie’s sister-in-law Jessica and her family Peter, Florence and Maeve. We had 5 full days, which is not enough to see even the tiniest bit of what London has to offer, but we filled our days and gave the kids a pretty cool snapshot.

Day 1: Highlights of the city

Day 2: Legoland (one of Lucas’s non-negotiables)

Day 3: Ball drop in Greenwich, bridge lift on the Tower Bridge, AMAZING Wicked musical

Day 4: Park Run for Logan, watching Tottenham Hotspurs beat Burnley 2-1, a lovely bbq with Jessica, Peter, Florence and Maeve

Day 5: Science Museum, Hyde Park playground

A huge thank you to Jessica, Peter, Florence and Maeve – we were so lucky to be able to stay with you and we loved connecting with you again…and we hope your tap is still perfect!

Being in the city showed us how much the kids have grown in their travel-smarts. They’ve been great little travellers from the beginning but we can really rely on them to help get us from place to place on time and in the right direction. We all have our moments but we make a pretty awesome team!

From London, we caught the train to see Logan’s brother Nathan, Michele and Enzo in Hoyland (South Yorkshire). They have super generously lent us their campervan for our next adventure – Shetland!