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.