Hi All
Do you remember my trip to Portugal with Mama bear. We went to meet up with her sister, well my aunt then came to see us!
Having a Mozambican passport its really difficult for my aunt to get out, and to come to the UK requires alot of paperwork and going back and forth. She was approved visa to the UK for 5 days.
My Aunt came with Uncle, and It was their first time in UK, and in all honesty I dont know whether they will be coming back again. My Uncle expressed that in all his life all he has ever wanted to do is listen to ‘the Ding Dong of Big Ben’. So Mama Bear came to the one person she knows loves London. Me!
Although Mama Bear wanted me to just drive past and show them the areas, I thought it would be nice if I could give them a ‘Proper tourist day in London’ and so I went to the one person who could help me arrange this,
So just to warn you readers in advance, this post is a typical post on a very touristy day in London. And apologies for the photos also. I didn’t really know I was going to be a blogger, So didn’t put much thought into them.
We started our journey by breakfasting at ChaiiWala- this is back in Leicester. We generally start all our journeys by breakfasting at Chaiiwala. Theres no journey if it doesnt start with Chaiiwala. All Leicesterians know Chaiiwala. We had our Indian breakfast and headed off.
I wanted my aunt to experience The People, The Manic, The Craziness, The Ethnicities, The General buzz of the London atmosphere, so we drove to Cockfosters tube station in Barnet and left our car there, and the rest of our journey was by tube. Like Londoners. (Parking at Cockfosters is £6 for the day! so saves all the looking for parking and expensive parking within London itself.)
Our first tube was from Cockfoster Tube Station to Westminister Station, this was the longest of our rides at roughly 30 minutes and only one stop at Green Park Station. This took us straight outside the Big Ben.
We got out of the station and right in front of us, there in all of its Grandeur and Glory was ‘The Big Ben’ – with scaffolding, and works going on. (Is it weird to say my heart palpitated? and I breathed in to get it all in. It really is huge when you’re not driving past it). My Uncle like a proper tourist was amazed, he took photos in all angles, evan upside down, anything to get it all in. Then he asked the sandwich shop vendor near by ‘What time does it ding dong? I want to hear ding dong in my ear?’
“eh? that thing?’ he responded ” Ding Dong? 2 years mate- its better to hear it ding dong on youtube’
I saw his face drop, I did tell him that I have never heard it ding dong either, but now I want to aswell (listed in to-do list- ‘the Ding Dong of Big Ben’)
We walked down Parliament Street, saw the buildings of Parliament, and the War Monuments featured on the street, and not to forget the Red Telephone Boxes.
And then we headed towards Downing Street, which is just a walk away.
There wasn’t much activity going on here, and it is pretty gated up, so we took our quick photos and decided to make our way back to the underground to get onto the Millennium wheel/London Eye. Whilst walking down we saw these bike rickshaw (is that what you call them?)
And instead of going on the tube, we jumped on to them and enjoyed the view whilst we made our way to the wheel.
We got dropped off just outside the London Eye and got straight into the queues for the tickets. It was a short 20 minutes wait before we got on. This was a real treat for us all. I think I enjoyed it better this time- its my third time, but this time, I was put on the spot and asked questions even I didn’t know the answer off. So with the help of Google we all learnt along the way.
After the London Eye, we walked towards Westminster Station and did a quick stop at Baker Street Station, just so that we could get the pic below..
And then we got straight back on to the tube to Green Park station, and the walk towards Buckingham Palace.
And here it is….The Buckingham Palace.
And having taken loads of photos, we now needed to fill our bellies, and after a lot of what kind of food we wanted to eat- we decided on Indian Food and ‘Khans’ so we walked back through Green Park and took the tube to Bayswater, and a short 10 minute walk away we got to ‘Khans’
We had Poppadoms and Chutneys, Sheesh Kebabs, Chicken Tikkas, Chicken Karhai, and Nan’s, and it was absolutely divine.
On the way home, we stopped at a few souvenir shops where Babs started picking up loads of fridge magnets, it was really amusing when my aunt asked me ‘Where is Babs from?’ I answered ‘Born and Bred in London.” She looked at me confused: ‘Why is she buying so many souvenirs?’ I laughed out loud. That my fellow readers….Is Babs….and that is why we love her.
With our fridge magnets safely in our bags, we caught our last tube for our trip back to cockfosters and then our two hour drive back home.
Overall, I enjoyed that trip so much, I’ve not ever been to London as a tourist, I usually just go to eat. So this trip was amazing. We all got to be tourists. And enjoyed every moment of it. I guess because we live in the UK we loose the novelty of it all, and this did make me love London more. (Can I possibly love it more? Yup seems like I can)
Hope you enjoyed our tourist trip to London.
I’ve got dentist appointment coming up soon. So I’m getting edgy again.
Catch up with you all soon
Love and regards
M11bna
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