When planning this year we decided that every time the kids had a school holiday, we’d put our stuff in storage and travel. The kids had a particularly long Easter break so we decided to head to London.
Packing up and moving out of the apartment was a bit sad - it was such a great place to start our Italian adventure. At least we got a memorable sunrise on our last day.
We arrived to a London in full spring bloom.
We spent the next couple of days exploring London and catching up on some much-needed playground time.
And some much-needed Ramen.
Having just watched ‘Notting Hill’ the kids insisted on going to the bookstore.
Which also let me reenact a photo from the last time we were in London.
We also spent some time catching up with old friends and seeing some of the sights downtown.
The next morning I went for an early run in Hyde Park.
And then we hit the road to head to Wilmslow (about three hours north of London) to stay with friends.
It was great experiencing the English village lifestyle. Everyone caught up on some sleep
And sampled the produce from the milkman
And the farmer’s market.
After a few days it was time to head back to London.
We spent a week seeing as much as we could, including as many places as possible from Polly’s ‘Amazing Deserts’ Pinterest board. The cookie dough stand was the highlight.
Fortunately we managed to intersperse the sugar highs with a family-and-friends tour at the Globe…
and a trip to the V&A…
and freshly-shucked Blackwater oysters at Burrough market from a family which has been farming them for 100 years…
And tea-tasting in Covent Garden.
We even managed to befriend some of the locals.
I also managed to squeeze in a visit to the Kubrick exhibition at the Design Museum
which had an amazing collection of original props and artwork.
And some famous carpet.
The whole trip had been built around a visit to the Harry Potter Studio Tour, which I had booked to go to with Hayley and Polly on our last night.
We all loved it!
The original plan had been to head back to Pisa, collect our car from long-term parking and drive the 90 minutes back to Siena. However we had received an invitation we couldn’t refuse - to go to Milan to see Gang Of Youths open for Mumford and Sons on their European tour. So, when we got to Pisa, instead of heading South, we went North (over the objections of Polly who officially dubbed ‘Push It To The Limit’ as our family anthem.
We made it to the stadium in Milan, got our tickets and after some debating with the security guards made it inside just in time.
The concert was great. We left a couple of songs into Mumford and Sons’ set, with exhausted kids in tow, promising to go at a slower pace the next day before heading back to Siena and school. We all got up late and walked into town to explore Milan.
We had lunch and wandered around for a few hours but pretty soon everyone had had enough. We headed back to the hotel, had dinner and went to bed early for the long drive home the next day.
We arrived back in Siena without incident and made our way to our new house. After a few hours we were unpacked and enjoying what was going to be our view for the next two months.
