My mom came to town for a visit during the middle of October. While we had recently seen her while we were in the US over the summer, it had been almost a year since her last visit to London. So she was overdue a trip over. During the week she was here, we packed in a full schedule of sightseeing activities. Here are the big highlights:
Afternoon Tea
Vintage double-decker red bus + afternoon tea. Hard to get more British than this. I had read about BB Bakery's Afternoon Tea Bus Tour on another blog I follow awhile back and had tucked the idea away waiting for the right occasion to pull it out. Well, Mom's visit was the right time! It was certainly a unique and memorable way to see the city. The 90 minute ride took us right by many of London's major attractions - Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Thames River, Harrods, Hyde Park and Piccadily Circus - while we sipped tea and ate dainty pastries. If you're visiting London or live here and need a different afternoon tea or sight seeing experience, I would definitely recommend this. Totally touristy, but really fun.
The food was really good too. My expectations were low given the high dorky tourist factor, so I was pleasantly surprised with the quality and taste. Plus, any food that we didn't finish got sent home with us in a take-away bag.
Since our arrival to the UK two years ago, we had yet to see the coastline of the island that we live on. With Mom is town, I figured it was finally a good time to take a day trip down to Brighton. Well, the day didn't exactly lived up as planned but we managed to salvage it into a decent time out.
Brighton Pier
Typically, it's a fast 50 minutes by train from central London to get to Brighton. However, we picked the day to go when they were doing maintenance work on a portion of the rail line. Therefore, after a 45 minute train ride, we had to hop off the train and onto a bus for another 45 minutes ride in order to reach our destination. Wouldn't you know it, minutes from reaching the bus station in Brighton, Ashton got car (or bus) sick and threw up all over herself and me. UGH! So gross. So Ashton and I had to walk around for the rest of the day smelling like puke. Not off to a great start.
Best part about the beach? Throwing rocks!
While we were walking the boardwalk on our way to find lunch, I realized my phone wasn't in my pocket. After searching my backpack and Ashton's stroller, I realized I didn't have it and it had fallen out somewhere. We retraced my steps and combed the beach area when I last had it out, but to no avail. With a sinking pit in my stomach, I realized it was gone. What an awful feeling. It feels like you don't know how your life could possibly function ever again. Kinda pathetic actually.
After snapping out of my lost phone fog, I was able to call Geoff (who was in Houston) from Mom's phone and he was able to activate the lost phone functionality on my phone from his. Instantly, he had a call from a man who said he had my phone. I couldn't believe it. There are still honest and kind people left in this world! After some back and forth, I finally met up with the man who returned my phone with a "Be more careful next time". Uh, yeah. Got it.
After lunch, we headed to Brighton Pier so Olivia could ride some of the kiddie rides. She was in carnival ride heaven. Ashton on the other hand decided that an afternoon nap was more important than rides. Her loss. She literally fell asleep as I was buying the tickets and woke up right as we were walking off the pier.
While slowly make our way back towards the bus/train station, we walked by this place below. Yes, I promise we were still in Brighton, England. It's so out of place, but so cool! It's called the Royal Pavilion and was built between the late 1700s - mid 1800s for various English princes and kings so they would have somewhere decent to stay at while on their beach holidays. Nowadays, it's a public building you can take tours of, which we didn't.
Now this is more typical British architecture!
Borough Market and Area
If you're a foodie, Borough Market is the place for you. They have everything you could possibly wish for. From grocery stalls pile high with fresh produce to artisanal bakeries, fresh pasta shops and street food stalls. Unfortunately, we picked the wrong day of the week to visit as many of the stalls were closed. Oh well. Guess that means a return visit is required. We still enjoyed exploring what was open and taking in all the various sights and smells.
The Borough Market is near the Tower Bridge so we walked across the bridge to the other side of the river. The Tower Bridge is in a part of the city that I seldom visit. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've actually seen the bridge up close since we moved here, so I always enjoy getting near these iconic London sights.
On the other side of the river is the Tower of London. The Tower currently has an incredible display of red poppies filling the famous moat. Since late summer, the hundreds of thousands (almost 900,000 in total) ceramic poppies have been planted into the grass in remembrance of the 100 anniversary of the beginning of World War 1, with each poppy representing a British military fatality during the war. It's an absolutely beautiful sight that will only be on display for another few days. So glad we were able to see it.
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