A Family Reunion in London
(This is a guest post from my friend Greg).
Every few years our family holds a reunion. Normally this is based around a wedding, christening and unfortunately my mother’s funeral. In tribute to her memory we decided to meet up last month and celebrate my parents wedding anniversary. My Mother loved London. She worked and lived there most of her life. Reluctantly she moved away to raise a family but she would drag us kicking to her favorite places when we were kids.
As I actually live in Scotland now it worked out cheaper to fly to London rather than get the train. We found some great flight deals and flew to Gatwick. From there we connected with the Gatwick express train which takes you right into the heart of the underground system.
We looked at several hotels in London and decided to treat my Dad to the five star experience, whilst we stayed in more modest accommodation ourselves. We were more than comfortable in our little B and B’s which, being so close to the underground were never more than fifteen minutes away from each other. London does splendor greater than any city in the world. Our Dad’s hotel looked like a palace covered in marble, crystal and traditional British style.
Since our trip was a celebration of our Mother we decided to do the things she enjoyed most. We went shopping in Harrods and noted (with some satisfaction) that our dad’s hotel was actually nicer. Afterwards we walked to Hyde Park where we took rowing boats across the lake in the glorious summer sun. Unfortunately, I stood up and plunged headfirst into the water. Obviously this was hilarious to watch but not so much fun for me! It was something straight out of a Hugh Grant movie. Luckily London’s shopping is the stuff of legends and I was able to buy new clothes so I didn’t have to go to hotel to change (although I did get some funny looks on the tube).
I come from a very theatrical family and as such we thought it would be fitting to take a trip down to the West End. London theatre tickets may have gone up since my Mother’s day but with so much on offer it was almost impossible not to find something we could afford. We decided that a comedy club would be a great idea. We were in hysterics for the rest of the night retelling jokes and eventually deciding to stay in Grandad’s suite and order room service into the early hours. London is a perfect place to relive old memories but as we discovered, its also perfect to make new ones.
