Judy and Vern Visit London & Day Trip to Hever Castle

Brian's Mom Judy & Vern arrived in London on Wednesday September 10th to visit us for about 5 days before heading on a bus tour of Europe.  We were excited to show them what our life is like over here!  Upon their arrival I went to Heathrow to pick them up while Brian was at work.  Once we returned back to Chiswick we found a snack and some coffee/tea at a shop down the street.  

Later that night when Brian was off work we found some drinks at the wine bar near us and eventually a pub for dinner later that night...

The next morning I took Judy and Vern to see the poppies at the Tower of London and they went in to see the Crown Jewels. 

We were even lucky enough to see Tower Bridge go up for a ship to pass through, first time seeing this for me!

Next Brian met up with us for lunch at the Borough Market.

 Then we headed over for a walk along the
river to see Big Ben!

The next day Judy, Vern and I spent the morning at the British Museum.  This was my first time there as well and I couldn't believe how big it was with so many artifacts from different cultures and time periods around the world.  Many of the things are very very old!

  (Taking a break part way through)

From the museum we were off to "tea time" at the Charing Cross Hotel, complete with champagne!  Brian met us there too and this was his first time trying afternoon tea.  He really enjoyed how much food they bring (we all did and of course were stuffed by the end!)  

 Of all the teas I've been to these were my favorite dishes, loved how colorful they were :)

 We weren't able to finish everything and luckily they were nice enough to let us take our leftovers.  The scones were great for breakfast.

Later that night we went to the musical "Once."  Brian and I had seen it one other time but didn't mind going back since we enjoyed it so much the first time.  Judy and Vern really liked it as well!

The next day was Saturday and we ventured about an hour outside of London by train to see Hever Castle.  This is the castle where Anne Boleyn grew up.  She was the 2nd wife of Henry VIII (who eventually had a total of 6 wives).  Judy has read lots of books about the history of them and the Tudors and thought this would be great castle to visit.  We all really enjoyed it and now I am curious to learn more history of Henry VII and Anne Boleyn who ended up being beheaded.  

When we arrived in the tiny town of Hever the train literally dropped us off in the middle of nowhere and we set out to walk the scenic route to Hever Castle.

 The views were great and it's always nice to get out of the city and into the country where it's quieter once in awhile.

 We had to watch our step because we were walking in huge sheep pasture and sure enough pretty soon the sheep came running.  They were so cute!

                We passed a nice cottage style home and nice pond...

We asked ourselves a few times, "are we sure we are going the right way?" but didn't mind since it was a pretty walk.  We only had to climb over one gate!

Pretty soon there were horses...

and cows!

Eventually though we found Hever Castle!

The outside was so pretty with the red leaves growing on it.

And it was a nice sunny and warm day.

After touring the inside of the castle we took a walk around the rest of the castle grounds...

 We really enjoyed visiting and were glad we went!

Not far from the castle we found a nice pub called Henry VIII to sit outside and have lunch at.

Fish n'Chips!

From Hever we took the train back towards London and went to Greenwich for a tour which we had scheduled at the Meantime Brewery.  

 Turns out we were the only 4 people for the tour at the time slot we had booked so needless to say it turned out to be quite an entertaining time with our guide Alex, aka "Big Al!"  We probably would have stayed on track better with a larger group and actually learned more about the beer and brewing process but instead Alex pretty much gave us a comedy tour.  We didn't mind though because we had lots of laughs with way more beer then we would have gotten on a normal sized tour! None of us will forget that like it or not we ALL got kissed at some point during the tour by "Big Al!"  Certainly was entertaining to say the least!  

The next day was Sunday, September 14th, Brian's Birthday! We celebrated with a traditional Sunday roast and Bloody Mary's along the river at the Old Ship.   

I've mentioned before that I love when visitors come and take pictures of the things that I love about living here but never really take pictures of...Judy captured one of my favorites...The flower stand that is just outside our tube station.  I buy fairly often from here but even when I'm just passing by love seeing what kind of colorful floral variations are there each day! :)

We really enjoyed having Judy & Vern here and spending time showing them our city!