Scrub-a-dub-dub!

Bath and Bristol, we took off for these on Monday while my Mom was here. we had been to Bristol but not too Bath. We took the coach to Bristol and then got an 11 minute train to Bath. Once in Bath we noticed how sleepy and small of a town it was, but beautiful, nonetheless.


Trying to peer into the baths, unsuccessfully before paying.

All of Bath was kind of the same color, strangely. As Lauren described it in her blog, it does sort of resemble an overdue library book and looks genuinely old. We had a really nice lunch of a veggie club sandwich and chips before we began proper sightseeing.
We started at the Bath Abbey which had been built hundreds of years ago.



Stained Glass that is supposedly the 26 scenes of Jesus's life. I think there were 26 or something anwyays. Regardless, there is a panel for each scene.

After the Abbey, we went to the Roman Baths. This is the main attraction of Bath as you may have guessed. The Romans probably occupied Aquae Sulis(or Bath) shortly after their invasion of Britain in AD 43, attracted by the large natural hot spring which had been a shrine of the Celtic Brythons, dedicated to their goddess, Sulis. This spring was a natural mineral spring found in the valley of the Avon River in Southwest England. The name is Latin for "the waters of Sulis."

So basically the spring is still there today, although untouchable and undrinkable as it is not treated. You learn a lot of history about it throughout the museum but the Bath itself is really amazing to imagine that people so long ago stood exactly as it was when we were there and bathed.

Here are our photos:






Inside by the spring that bubbles from the earth.


At the end, we could go inside this dining room on site and taste the Bath water, which has been treated. It is hot and tastes like metal and is relatively gross. None of us finished are glasses. Afterwards, we left the Baths and went to Bristol for a few hours where we tried to go to the Arnolfini museum but it was closed so we settled on getting a much deserved beer and then catching the train back to London.

Edinburgh x2!

While my mom was visiting we also made our way to Edinburgh, Scotland and to Bath, England and Bristol/England. I kept her very busy in case you can;t tell. I had, as you recall, been to Edinburgh for New Years Eve with Ellie and Lauren but loved it so much that I knew I had to take my mom there. She ended up loving it so much that she wanted to move there. She enjoyed the people who were so friendly and the buildings which were so big. Upon first arriving, I ate some vegetarian haggis and my mom had a a nice panini and then we ended up getting distracted by some shopping on Princes Street. Afterwards we walked around and to our hostel which was on the base of the castle.

The view from our hostel. If you see the construction, it is because they are already getting ready for their big Augsut fesitval season.
We ended up eating at David Bann's which is one of my favorite vegetarian restaurants ever and we enjoyed ourselves so much. We turned in early to get ready for our walking tour the next day. We walked around a lot, taking in all the sights the next day and we went to the Scottish Museum where we saw Dolly the first cloned sheep ever. After the tour and the cloned sheep and a veggie burger, we had to catch the long train ride back to London with my Mom wishing hugely to stay.

Mom in front of the castle


Dolly the cloned sheep!

Picture Perfect Edinburgh!

Mom in London and Brighton

After Venice with my mom, we came back to London and took a very excellent walking tour of central London which gave me really interesting insight about the things i generally consider tourist traps like Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square. We attemtped to watch the changing of the guards but it was so intensely overpopulated that we couldn't see anything, but I wasn't that fussed about the situation and neither seemed my Mom. Below are some of our photos from the walking tour:


In front of Buckingham Palace. My mom was so cold the entire time!


Spring time finally



Trying to make the guard smile to no success, even though my Mom threatened to pinch his cute little butt.


The parade that accompanies the changing of the guards. Each one of these hats is made from one Canadian black bear and costs close to 60,000 dollars. Probably not the best idea to have expensive hat in a country that has a constant drizzle.




The next day we took a day trip to Brighton that was a lot of fun and we walked around the lanes for shopping, the beach and pier and of course, the royal pavillion. We had a really yummy English breakfast.





Finally another elusive Banksy conquered!

The weekend was for sightseeing where we took my mom to the borough market and saw Big Ben and the London Eye and Houses of Parliament and St. Paul's Cathedral which I had yet to visit myself.


My mom loved the double decker buses!

St. Paul's Cathedral where Princess Diana was married.



We also went on a Camden canal cruise and got to ride in a canal boat which I had wanted to do from first moving here as they fascinate me.

Mom waiting for the trip to start.

The Jenny Wren! our canal boat for 90 minutes to Little Venice


Authentic Chinese boat on Regents Canal that is a restaurant and the sole reason why Steven Spielberg didn't purchase a 20million pound home as it was blocking his view of Regents Park.
That Saturday we also did Pret-a-portea, an proper and expensive afternoon tea service that is inspired directly by fashion lines. So for example, when we went all of the cookies and cakes were designed to imitate winter fashion lines, such as a red hermes bag, the silver Jimmy Choo boot, etc. Everyone got a choice of their own special pot of tea in fine china. My mom got vanilla, I got berries and blossoms and ellie got some chocolate mint kind. They bring you unlimited finger sandwiches and cookies. The service was amazing and the minute you have only one cookie left they whisk it away and bring more. It was at the Berkeley hotel.


Getting Ready for Tea

Waiting for our treats





The next stop was Harrod's to look for a gift for Joe and to keep up the air of luxury surrounding our day.



After that we went to see Wicked at the Victoria Theatre. I have only ever been to Phantom of the Opera in NYC so this was both El's and I's second show, but our first West End one. My mom had never seem a big show like that. Wicked was amazing! It was smart and funny and very well-written. Everything was covered and surprising. It would love to read the book now. We had so much fun.


Having my mom around London with me was so much fun and we did so many wonderful things, including going to a Gordon Ramsay restaurant where he was unfortunately not in for the time being as he is opening his new restaurant in Paris. I think my mom could have been here for weeks and I still could not have showed her everything.