April was a crazy whirlwind month of traveling and clearing my head of all things academic and serious. It started with Mom's visit from March 31 - April 9. Somewhere in there we went to Paris, but that's another post entirely. This post shall be dedicated to the shenanigans that were involved in Mom and Carol's fabulous visit to London.
I picked them up at the airport on Saturday afternoon and we journeyed back to Roehampton to drop the bags before heading out to a pub in Putney for dinner and beer. It was early to bed for an early rise on Sunday. We headed to Brick Lane market on Sunday morning for delicious food, fun street art, and hipster shopping. After Brick Lane we went to the Tower of London for some castle-exploring fun. Patrick joined us at the castle. We all had a really nice time checking out a major piece of London history. Back to Putney for dinner and a relatively early bed for another early rise on Monday.
Monday we had to catch our train to Paris. Lines got crossed somewhere in a vital communication about what time the train left which lead to us missing our train. Ooops. As it was Easter holiday, no refunds could be given and the following trains were nearly completely booked. Mom sucked it up and bought the last coach ticket and 2 first-class tickets. We were kindly rushed through the security line and hopped on the next train to Paris. But, like I said, that's for another post.
We came home from Paris on Thursday evening, ate some soup and went straight to bed. Friday we headed to the city centre to do that typical touristy stuff. You know- Big Ben, the London Eye, the Changing of the Guard, and Harrods. It was a busy but really good day.
Saturday we hit up Borough Market (one of my favourites) for some more delicious food and culture. We also tried to go to Westminster Abbey but were put off by the steep entry fee and ridiculously long line. We checked out Piccadilly Circus and did our souvenir shopping before dinner at Wagamama and heading home.
Sunday was Easter. We slept in and headed to Richmond park to see the deer and wildlife side of London. Sadly we couldn't spot any deer, I think it was too cold. The swans were swimming in one of the ponds and there were other pretty things to see. We had a scrumptious dinner at Preto (a local Brazilian steak house) with Jess and Patrick and enjoyed each others company. Sunday evening meant packing for Mom and Carol to go home and for me to head to Holland for a week. We stumbled over one other trying to get everything in its place, went to bed early to hit the airport in the morning.
For some reason I didn't take any pictures of our London adventure. I guess that means this blog post is boring. Mom and Carol surely took plenty of pictures, though.
