So to kick-off the story of our little holiday, firstly we had to organise a house-sitter to look after our ancient buck-tooth lurcher Leo and our two teenage kittens Romulus and Remus, thankfully we have a wonderful friend who was able to simply take our place for 8 days and I have to say that I think the animals were delighted and totally spoilt. The forecasts for the UK were hideous and we really didn't think we would make it at all as we watched all the airports close and rail networks grind to a halt, but somehow we did manage to make it to London, to the only airstrip that was open on a very snowy and very cold Thursday morning. The idea of this trip was for our kids to see more of the UK as they had never visited the capital or travelled much before we moved to Italy. So we made it to London and managed to take in the following sights: The London Eye, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Lots of snow and ice, Christmas lights, Harrods, Kings Road, Westminster Abbey, Eros, Tower of London, The Thames, Speedboats, Open top buses in the snow, Black Cabs - and many more lovely things all from our cosy if somewhat packed bus!!!!
After our mad trip into London, the kids and Gary went to The Natural History Museum which was wonderful and I met them there later (bad mummy working). My mobile broke and I couldn't contact my client to say I was late (not great) and I couldn't contact DH to arrange to meet, all in all I was very stressed charging across London in the snow, heart racing, dry mouthed and heavy hearted wishing I was with my clan. Eventually we managed to find each other under a huge dinosaur skeleton and I slowly calmed down and managed to enjoy some time with my tribe. TT loved the moving dinosaur and Archie kind of just put up with her crazy unflinching enthusiasm. The boy was pretty overwhelmed by London, the tubes, the traffic and the amount of people - he is sensitive and I knew this might prove a challenge, TT however wasn't phased, just became more stubborn.
After a long, long day in London which was stunning, all the historical buildings frosted with snow we hopped on a coach (thank god I booked a coach as the trains were all cancelled) and watched the snow get heavier and heavier as we trundled slowly but surely to the West Country.
We eventually got to Great Grandma's late at night and enjoyed shop bought salad and roast chicken with big glasses of wine. Memories of my night at GG's will be: Tea and Biscuits, The Radio Times, Itchy Wool blankets, Ice, Frost, Children’s TV, Archie's Asthma kicking in, time well spent with my 85 year old Grandma. A good start to our English escapades.
