Fair warning, this is going to be an image rich post. 😛

We set out for London from Düsseldorf airport in pretty much perfect weather. The flight itself was only 55 minutes, but of course we stood in the line at passport control for over an hour and a half. 🙂

I honestly don’t blame the airports for the higher security than usual, with all of the terrorist activity lately. Having said that, waiting in line with an exhausted and irritated toddler is no fun for anyone. Including the people waiting in a radius near said toddler. At least some people made the best of the situation and tried to keep Kayla occupied by playing peek-a-boo with her. Awesome people still exist.

Anyway. We were lucky enough to be able to rent a car for the week. I love public transport, but having wheels for a week was still awesome. It makes me miss having a car at our disposal, not that I would drive it personally. 😀 So, after we got through passport control, we met Willem and picked up the car.

Obviously, there was a lot of wedding stuff happening during the week. This means that our sightseeing time was limited. Not to mention the fact that we were sick. Don’t ask me how these things happen, but I reckon our vacation illness was a pre-runner to our back-home illness (more on that here).

This silly flu made it so that we were forced to stay home on some of our free days and just rest.

Being sick didn’t mean in the least that I didn’t love being back in London. If you’ve been following my blogs for a while, you’ll have read somewhere by now that I’m obsessed with London. Since the first time my feet touched soil there, I’ve felt an affinity with London that I’ve never felt with any other place in the world. Well, OK. Except for Scotland. I feel an incredibly deep connection to Scotland too.

This time in London was no different. The same sights still took my breath away. The diversity and pulse of the city sent tremors into my bones. And I’d be lying if I didn’t admit being able to talk to anyone and be understood was beautiful as well. The locals always laugh at my enthusiasm for London, as well as my giddiness at all of the stuff they hate. They say I look at it through a tourist’s eyes and that’s why I have such a rosy view of it. Maybe that’s what it is, but I still adore going there and I’d sell my teeth to be able to live there.

We got to mingle with a lot of other South Africans, as well as Londoners and people from all over the world. New friendships formed, old ones were picked up again and a generally awesome time was had.

I’ll stop prattling now and share some photos with you.

First, some photos from before we left. The first is a shot of the giraffes at Düsseldorf airport, the middle is an airport selfie and right is a shot of Kayla #excited on the plane.

The next pictures below and right are of our day trip to Cotswold, a picturesque village about two hours’ drive out of London. We literally stopped there and had to turn back because Kayla was sick in the car. O_O

Below are pics of our visit to the National History Museum, where we went to show our little dinosaur enthusiast the dino exhibition.  Totally worth it!

I went to the mehndi function for Preety (my new sister-in-law), with her sisters Nikki and Tasha and snapped some shots of that. I’ve always wanted to get henna done, or just see the process. I’ve even blogged about it in the past. Some of the designs are so amazingly artistic that it’s difficult to believe it’s hand drawn with a henna cone on someone’s skin.

It’s pretty amazing to watch as the henna is applied. The artist didn’t even seem to think about what she was doing while she drew the patterns. It’s a pity mine got smudged during the night. Because yes, you have to sleep in it. Did not like that part! Haha!

Our next destination was Windsor Castle and Maidenhead. We were lucky enough to see the changing of the guard just as we arrived, in what was timing like Indiana Jones couldn’t contest. Unfortunately, I don’t have photos of this, because I was taking a video. No, I’m not sharing the video, because I was talking non-stop in it. Haha. It was pretty cool, with a marching band and all. Kayla loved it and marched on command for the following day or so.

Gosh, the selfie age has changed things. 😛 Last time we were in London, the trend of taking pictures of yourself was not yet a big thing. Look at us now. Anyway. We managed to get a selfie with Queen Victoria.

This place is magnificently beautiful, but then, you should know by now how I feel about castles and old villages. You don’t know how I feel about castles and old villages? Click here, here and here RIGHT NOW!

We went to London on our last day, before the wedding reception. We took the tubes to Westminster and walked all the way past Tower Bridge to take the next tube home. It was awesome. We were also very nearly late for the reception because of our bad timing. I just slapped on makeup over the makeup I was already wearing and got dressed really quickly.

Kayla was not in the mood for photos at first, as you’ll soon be able to tell. Trying to get her to smile made us pull some pretty funny faces. Out of love for my husband, I won’t share some of his weird faces, but please, feel free to laugh at me.

You’re welcome.

Finally, we went home. Cheers, London! As always, you’ve been amazing. And you’ll never see the last of us.

Have a good one, folks!

Yolandie