London in A Week's Time

I just got in from lunch at Harrods with my mum.  She has been in England for the past week and we've had a blast.  Last weekend we went to the Cotswolds for some adventuring.  We went to Morten-on-Marsh and Stowe-in-the-Wold.  We took a long walk out to a country pub and had a relaxing day away from Oxford.  She got a whirlwind tour of my town and really enjoyed it.  

London

I still can't get over the coats and boots here, all the rage.  We stayed next to the London Eye (in fact with a view of it right out our window)  We enjoyed many a stroll down the River Walk with incredible views of Parliament and Big Ben.  It's a first visit to London for both of us, so we made sure to take in all of the sights.  

 Exploring London

 We saw Trafalgar square and the National Gallery.  We got to see "Sunflowers" by Van Gogh. We took a backstage tour of the BBC and rode the Big Red Bus to take in all of the sights.  We saw St. Paul's Cathedral, and the Tower of London.  We made it to the Tate Modern.  At the Tate I realized how much I miss painting.  I spent most of my evenings this summer painting .... modern art!  More like canvasses and collages but I can't wait to paint again.  Today we went to the British Museum and I was stoked about seeing the Rosetta Stone.  I'm reading A Little History of the World by E.H. Gombrich and I have just finished the chapter on the history of language so the timing was perfect.  

Food

Turkish:  We had turkish food twice.  Once at Tas and once at Troia, both incredible experiences.  I had better Turkish food in England than I had in Turkey (where we ate a massive tourist trap buffets everyday)  

French:  We went to an incredible french wine bar and shared the fromage platter.  Anyone who knows me knows how much I love cheese!  

Indian:  Always great in London, I got a 14 item sampler at an Indian restaurant for 7 pounds which is a bargain here.  

Of course we enjoyed pub grub fish and chips, mushy peas, meat pies... but after a month of it I was really excited and thankful for some spice, zest, and ethnic flare.  

Theatre

Mousetrap

Wicked

Avenue Q

(I will add more later, I'm about to run out of internet time!)

I will post more soon and add a little more about Oxford!  I'm headed to Paris for a week!  

Cheers!