A Mum in London (and Paris)

Mat's mum, Georgina, came to visit us in London. She arrived on June 19th for a 10 day stay. We did an incredible amount of stuff; so much so that it'll just be alot easier (and prettier) to show it all in pictures, so here is what we did with a Mum in London (and Paris).

At the airport, seeing her son for the first time in almost 10 months.


Like the trouper she is, Mum was fine with getting right into things in London (even after a tiring 8 hour flight without sleep). We visited the Victoria and Albert Museum and had some dress-up fun in the Theatre area.
Nice bloomers lady!

As is necessary in England, we finished the day off in a pub, where mum had her first fish and chips in an English pub, with a bottle of English cider (she still wanted her Coors Light though)

DAY 1: TOUR OF THE CITY

We visited the Admiralty which opens the Mall, the stretch of road that leads to Buckingham Palace.

waiting in front of Buckingham for the changing of the guard

and the Canada Gate

The Changing of the guard

Big Ben

Inside Westminster Abbey

The London Eye

Acrobatic practice at Southbank

and breakdancing

Westminster

After 1 very long day in London we had a much deserved night; front row tickets to Jersey Boys (absolutely amazing!!!) and drinks at a pub. A great end to a great intro to London.

DAY 2: BUS TOUR OF WINDSOR CASTLE, OXFORD, STONEHENGE

WINDSOR CASTLE
It's the official residence of Her Majesty the Queen and the Prince of Wales (that's good ole Chucky). It is the largest working castle in the world!!! Now we didn't see the Queen, but we did see a lot of really great stuff.

The gates at Windsor Castle

Some very royal icecream consumed while waiting in line to see the Queen's Doll House (a mini doll house, built for Queen Mary to showcase her collection of miniatures...it even has working plumbing!)

It looks like a dark and stormy day, but it was actually quite nice.

St. George's Chapel, sadly closed on Sundays, but not so bad for us since we ran out of time to explore. We had to run ourselves to the bus for our journey to Oxford.

OXFORD
Oxford, a small university town, is home to one of the best known universities in all of the world. Made up of 20-some-odd colleges, Oxford has moulded some of the world's greatest minds: Bill Clinton, Anthony Blair (former UK Prime Minister). It also famous for being the first university in England, housing a library that includes a copy of every single book ever published in the England, and for housing the dinning hall that inspired the one at Hogwarts (in the Harry Potter books).

Since it was Sunday, everything was closed, but we did get to see how adorable the campus is.

A door with crests of the colleges of Oxford and the crest of the Duke of Edinburgh, and the crests of England and Scotland.

STONEHENGE

Completely coincidentally, we booked our tour on the solstice weekend, when over 35,000 people came to visit Stonehenge to witness the once a year spectacle. Apparently the circle was designed so that during the solstice the sun is perfectly aligned with a particular point in the circle.

What experts believe Stonehenge looked like upon its creation.

2 DAYS IN PARIS

As if London weren't enough to explore, we surprised mum with a trip to Paris. We did a walking tour, where we saw the wonders that are Paris. We also spent a day exploring the palace of Versaille.

THE FREE CITY WALKING TOUR

St. Michel (St. Michael---the Arch Angel) Fountain, to those who died fighting with Napoleon.

The River Seine



Notre Dame Cathedral, the 12th Century cathedral where the kings of France were corronated. We didn't see the hunchback though.

The Louvre (the former palace of the French Monarchy), it is now the world's most popular Art Museum and houses the Mona Lisa.

with its new pyramid to mark the entrance

France's former meridian...now the world goes by the line at Greenwich in London (see below).

The Opera

The Comedie Francaise, Europe's oldest playhouse, it is also where Moliere (the famouse French playwright) died.

The Arc d'Triumph at the end/beginning of the Champs Elysees. Built by Napoleon to celebrate his triumph over the Austrians.

the most famous street in Paris, it is a high price shopping street.

The Eiffel Tower. Designed by Gustav Eiffel for the World Expo 1888, it was the world's first steel structure and was built simply to prove it could be. Orginally meant as a temporary structure, Eiffel prolonged the life of the tower by putting a radio tower at the top. When built, it was the tallest structure in the world, and surpassed the pyramids of Egypt, which, until that time, held that record.


We're sure the view from the top is wonderful, but the line and the price---not so much. We enjoyed the tower from below and Paris from up close.

The Invalides Hospital, built as a hospital for Napoleon's wounded soldiers. Under the gold dome, is the tomb of Napoleon.

THE PALACE OF VERSAILLES

Built by Louis 14th, to escape Paris (and the palace of the Louvre), Versaille was the home and royal court for French monarchs until the French Revolution in 1789. Oppulent would be an understatment, since this 'palace' has 700 rooms, 67 staircases, and over 51,000 squared meters of floor space. The palace is also not where it ends, since the grounds (former hunting grounds), house hectare upon hectare of gardens and fountains, as well as a small palace for the king to escape to (just a 20 minute walk away) and an entire village built by Marie-Antoinette...and all while the French population spent 80% of their wages on taxes and food. And they wanted a revolution---shocking. It didn't work out so well for the royals...they were all beheaded by the citizens.

The view from the back of Versailles

The portico of the Grand Palais, the getaway for the King

Marie-Antoinette herself (in a painting of course)

One of the cottages in Marie-Antoinette's village

Inside Versaille the grandeur is extreme

and outside, the gold glitters.

BACK IN LONDON

Mat tried unloading a ship at the Maritime Museum

We stood on the Greenwich Meridian. It is 00.00.00 in the land of time. This is where the Eastern and Western hemispheres meet and where all the time of the world is taken from.

Mat also got friendly with the standard measurements

ACDC AT WEMBLEY STADIUM!!!
Another awesome experience was seeing ACDC, Mat's favourite band, perform live in London. Mum didn't come to this, but she enjoyed her time alone at the hotel.

The stadium (normally used for soccer), was packed!!!

They absolutely rocked!!! My favourite part, however, was experiencing my first rock concert, where the average age was over 20. In fact, while there were a lot of young people (and even some hard core children), the majority of the audience could have gone to school with my dad....and they were all playing air guitar (white man dancing) and head banging. Incredible!!!

Even the journey back to the hotel on the tube was great. It was a wonderful night and a memorable experience!!

THE LAST DAY IN LONDON
Sadly, all good things must come to an end...even London. Mum's last day in London was spent exploring the crown jewels at the Tower of London and seeing Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet at the Globe Theatre.

The play was great, the drinks at the pub that followed were as well, but nothing compares to being able to spend time with the people you love and do amazing things with them as well.

We had a wonderful time and we miss you Mummy!

Thanks for coming.

XOXOXO