A trip to London....

I have just returned from a week in London visiting with my mum who turned 80 years old on the 10th November.  She had organised a party to celebrate with her friends and family and she worked like a Trojan on the catering and all the things that need to be sorted out for it....I hope I have her energy when I reach her age!

My friend Magdalena came with me on my trip and my hubby Brian stayed home with the dogs....he won't leave them with anyone, although to be honest, he wouldn't want to go back to the UK even if we didn't have the dogs....he's only been back twice in 12 and a half years and both times under sufferance LOL.  So off I went with my friend who'd never been to the UK before, in fact this was actually her first time flying!  Thankfully she loved the journey and wasn't in the least bit nervous about taking to the air for the first time.

Because Magdalena was with me, I thought we would do the 'touristy thing' and go into London for the day, so we go on the tube last Sunday and headed for the centre of town.  We were joined by my son Brendan and his wife, Virginia, and spent the day walking from sight to sight taking in as much as we could in the one day. 

Here are a few of the photos from that day, I hope you enjoy them!  (Please forgive the fact that they are all out of order!!!)

Tower Bridge

The Gherkin

Some very nice sailors!

(that hat was waaay too small for me, looks like a pimple on a mountain!!!!) 

A police launch on the Thames

The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben

The London skyline

The Houses of Parliament again...looks like they've got the builders in!

Thames cruises

Magdalena, Brendan and Virginia in front of the London Eye

The Cenotaph  

We visited on Remembrance Sunday, hence all the beautiful poppies

 

 

The monument below is situated just along from the Cenotaph above, and commemorates the women of World War 2.  

(We were a little saddened that it had so few poppy reefs in comparison :( )

 

 Downing Street

A guard from the Household Cavalry

Brendan, Magdalena and Virgina in front of the Tower of London

And in front of Tower Bridge

And Magdalena gets to meet a Beefeater or Yeoman of the Guard as they are called.

 The Mayor of London's office on the South Bank

Magdalena at Tower Bridge

The London Eye 

(you can see we were lucky with the weather that day!)

Some more Big Ben photos

(most people will know that really Big Ben refers to the clock's bell inside the tower)

 

Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square

I hope you've enjoyed seeing a little bit of London, thanks for visiting.  I hope everyone has a great week ahead!

Looking for Never Never Land.....City of Chocolate...

Yesterday my mum and brother John arrived for Christmas and in the afternoon we took them to one of our local chocolate factories to see the Christmas display.  Each year, this particular factory, La Estepeña, which also houses a small museum, puts on a differently themed display.  This year the theme was London and the world of Peter Pan!

Everything is apparently edible.  They used real plain, milk and white chocolate, and the waterfall and the river Thames are made from honey!  The 'fruits' you see around the display are made from marzipan.

Below, Mum, Brian, John and my friend Magdalena:
 

Entrance to the display and museum was €1 per adult and each entrant is given a little box containing chocolates :)

Here is the display, it was amazing!  You will see that 'poetic licence' has been used here with some of the London landmarks, but they are still beautifully made....and almost everything is made from real chocolate.  The aroma was delicious, I think I put on half a stone just from that!!

Below is supposed to be the house where Wendy lived and in the background the dome of St Paul's Cathedral.....well I did say about poetic licence, didn't I!

Above and below you can see the River Thames made from honey, and the 'mud' around the edges is made from a really tasty chocolate filled with tasty almonds.  

Here you can see the white chocolate swans on the honey river. 

Above and below you can see Captain Hook's pirate ship and Cook himself being eaten by the crocodiles! 

Below a white chocolate lighthouse in front of Tower Bridge!  

Below we see Peter Pan and Tinkerbell perched precariously on Wendy's house.  The children can be seen inside the bedroom window below Peter and Tinkerbell and Mr Darling can be seen outside the front door.

Below is Trafalgar Square!!  And the buildings at the back represent the Houses of Parliament.

Below can be seen the 'flying pirate ship' and the little people coming down on parachutes apparently represent "the lost boys"...

I particularly liked the 'Big Ben' tower. 

Below you can just see Peter Pan peeping through the edible trees.

Here are the details of what does into the display:

2500 hours of work by our Master Chocolate Makers
52 square metres surface area
2000 kg of authentic (or genuine) chocolate
(Big Ben weighs 120 kg), monuments, castles, mountains and figures
10 kg of Marzipan
(Fruits, trunks)
30 kg of almonds
(roads)
2 kg Cinnamon
(roofs)
100 kg Honey
(Lake and waterfall) 

At some point in January, the display will be dismantled and distributed to various groups who will give the chocolate to children from poor families.

Once we'd had our 'fill' of the chocolate, we left via the 'shop' area where there was a lovely Christmas tree on display,

  as well as a couple of growling automated polar bears, a sweet deer and two cute fluffy owls! 

The little deer below would make the perfect prop to have a Sasha riding on it's back, don't you think? ;) 

A close up of a couple of the decorations...

 A mural of how the shop used to look....

 In the shop there are all sorts of chocolates and other tasty 'goodies' for sale...And FREE samples...can't be bad!!!

They have a lovely old fashioned counter area...

This is one of the company's logos which is used on most of their packaging, it reminds us a little bit of the Mabel Lucie Attwell drawings.... 

 

The entrance to another small part of the museum, showing that the company was founded in 1858...

The ceiling is very high and quite attractive with mirrors and carving....

Outside in the carpark there are a several palm trees decorated with fairy lights....catching the last rays of the sun...

And finally, I thought you might like to see this orange tree laden with ripe oranges...

I hope you all have a wonderful chocolate filled Christmas! :)