Day 13 –London
By: Curt Glesmann
Northern Lights Club Director
We woke up to another beautiful sunny day. Temperature about 65 and going to be a high of 77 today. We had our breakfast in the hotel and then met the Schlaak family in the lobby and together we went off to tour London.
We met our guide Justin at Westminster and from there we had a walking tour that went from The Houses of Parliament, to Westminster Abby, to Buckingham Palace, then on a river boat from Westminster to the Tower of London where we toured that. This was the 2nd year in a row I had used this same guide, and he does an excellent job explaining stuff to the team without going into too much detail.
There are too many things to cover in this summary about each of these stops. It was an overwhelming day.
We finished our tour about 3:45 and we went back to the hotel so the girls could change their clothes into something nicer for the theatre tonight. They really did look very nice. We left for dinner and the theatre about 5:15, got to the restaurant at 5:45 and got seated fairly quickly. Unfortunately that was the only part of the dinner that was quick. We ordered at 6:20 and at 7:00pm we still had no food. By this time we had complained to the manager and gave him a 3 minute deadline before we were walking out. The food finally showed up and we inhaled it so we could get to the show by 7:30. The only good part about the meal being so late was that he gave us a 50% discount on it.
We made it to the show (Mama Mia) on time and within 5 minutes the girls were glued to the stage. It was an awesome show with the girls clapping, singing, and at the end dancing with the rest of the audience. It was also interested because in front of us was a school group of kids about age 10-12 and they knew all the words to the songs…amazing considering the ABBA songs are now over 30 years old!
I would venture a guess that this show was probably one of the highlights of their trip. I know for me, I have seen the show now 4 times and I love hearing the music each time.
Overall this has been an excellent trip. We have played 2 Youth National Teams and 1 National team. The volleyball has been awesome. We have visited 3 of the major cities in Europe…Amsterdam, Paris, London. We have had special treats in both Paris (fireworks at Eiffel Tower) and London (Mama Mia show).
The girls have been on time virtually every day. They have been together now for almost 4 weeks and they are holding up nicely and still getting along. We haven’t had any cat fights that Adam, Curt or Marlon have heard about! They’ve been a fun group to travel with.
I couldn’t ask for a better way to end the Northern Lights 6th Summer European Tour. I’m looking forward to a new adventure next summer with our 7th summer tour.