a crazy touristic week

so from my previous post you can plainly see that i had some family come visit me during the easter break. we had so much fun, and yes, in the small confines of my flat, we drove each other crazy, but in the end it was all good fun.

there were the four uf us for the easter long weekend where we did a whole heck of a lot of walking and eating. aside from buckingham, i took madison to see wicked. it was fun taking her out for lunch and then to the show afterward. it is refreshing to experience london again with a pair of fresh eyes always asking me questions (like why do english people say things wrong - love it). while we did that, gina and mom checked out madame toussaud's and i tell you...i'm never around to witness the place so busy because i'm usually off to work before it opens, but man alive the line up!

gina and mom got some great pics with the usual celebs, but i loved the pic of jose mourinho that gina snagged for me. she knows i love my football, and well, the special one is aging nicely. :) she too thinks he is a hottie boombalottie.

so instead of going through day by day (and in all honesty, i can't remember what we did on what day), i'll just list some of the highlights.

national gallery - aside from it housing amazing works of art that madison and mom both wanted to see (namely the italians, van gough and monet) what was missing was the madonna of the rocks. the one painting madison was dying to see. ha ha, oh well, maybe next time. i think though, the highlight of that day was seeing the ugly betty set at the gallery of which we got to take pics of american ferrera (betty) and eric mabius (daniel). we saw the final scene being shot. sweet. we know how it ends!

the tower of london is always one of my favourite places to go, and if i had only known that madison didn't know anyone (but the queen), i'd of learned her before we got there. she came up to me and said 'so who was anne boelyn'. what are they teaching them in school? how do you now know henry, anne, mary, elizabeth...she didn't even know who william and harry were. i shake my head. i will find a book on the monarchy for her because i think she'll find them fascinating. well, namely the tudors and not so much the stuarts, aside from mary queen of scots.

the natural history museum is always fun, but just imagine if you will, a line up that snaked around the building and was probably about 1000 people deep before we joined the queue. dear lord, not only is spring break the worst time to go there because every kid imaginable is taken there to let off some steam, but it was also the opening day of the new butterfly exhibit. but for madison, i of course sacrificed. luckily my mom is there to keep me sane too. ha ha.

friday, our last full day together, was interesting because we had no plans what so ever. we ended up on a city cruise and went to greenwich where we straddled the prime meridian. geeky, i know, but it made my day.


saturday was tough. i of course was the first one to cry and they're so good to be stronger than me, even though i saw mom go red in the face and her eyes mist a bit, she didn't cry in front of me. when going through security i saw madison wiping her eyes. it absolutely kills me every time...leaves me gutted.

anyhoo, we did have a great time though, and i have photos posted here if you'd like to see them. there are over 100 so be warned!

mom and mad are, what i consider, the opening of the floodgate of visitors coming my way. next is dee, then karen & holly, rick gaby and alejandra, in august i go home, then gailbaxter. so excited.