The Holland Girls Hit London

On Thursday Mum and I got to go see our Mother's Day present to each other, the rather fabulous Fleet Foxes at the Hammersmith Apollo:

I got us seats in the balcony, so mum wouldn't have to stand all that time in the stalls.  It was good to see her get excited, the last concert she attended was Roy Orbison back in her single days.  (She was quite the concert fan in her youth, she got to see The Beatles and the Rolling Stones!)  Fleet Foxes were, of course, fantastic.  My favourite songs of the night were Battery Kinzie, Ragged Wood and Oliver James; which Robin sang with just his guitar.  Beautiful.  My favourite moment of the evening had to be when mum pulled out her binoculars 'To get a closer look at the boys!'

We stayed in a hotel by The Old Vic theatre (and wished we could have seen Richard III).  The next day was all ours so we did things that mum doesn't get to do when she's in London with dad.  We started off the day with a free ride on the London Eye...

...where we got see a pretty good view of my favourite city in the world:

Next up was a stroll to Westminter to see the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben:

Then Westminster Abbey:

Do you see the queue in this next photo?  That was about a fifth of the actual length of it, I guess a royal wedding will make tourists do crazy things like stand in line for hours:

Jay, this one's for you:

Up next was a visit to the V&A.  We didn't have enough time to see it all but we managed to see some wonderful paintings, stained glass, religious statues, jewellery, photography and tapestries.  My favourite sculpture was one of a mother and child:

We had a late lunch at a restaurant near Marble Arch:

Followed by a leisurely stroll barefoot through Hyde Park and a sit under some trees with an ice cream:

The only thing to do on a hot afternoon in London is to find a suitable water feature to dunk those tired feet in, the Princess Diana Memorial is the one for me:

It was fun to spend time with mum and treat her to some time away from being a carer for everyone else.  She's the best: