Bourton-on-the-water

I had a day off work today so I took my mum to bourton-on-the-water, in the Cotswolds. Mum had visited the miniature village that the area is best known for when she was a child, so it was nice to explore and we also saw a new attraction, bird land.

We started at the miniature village which is set in the garden of an old pub. The former landlord commissioned the buildings in the 1930s and it was built to a 1/9 th scale. The attention to detail is incredible, particularly the stained glassed in the large model church. There was a smaller church with windows and you could see the congregation inside singing hymns and there was even a hidden music box playing hymns as if the little models were actually singing!

We then went to a little cafe overlooking the stream and had a cream tea, before heading over to bird land, which we had stumbled upon by chance while we were looking for the nature village. 

The first birds we saw were my favourite - penguins!

It was a lovely walk through the gardens and we saw lots of beautiful birds on the way round, including these pretty flamingoes. 

We could have spent a couple of hours walking round and watching the talks, especially as the sun started to appear but unfortunately our parking ticket ran out so we had to make a move.

August Bank Holiday Weekend in London

Last weekend we went to London for the bank holiday weekend. We stayed at the holiday inn in Kensington which I quite like as it is close to all of the museums and some good shopping spots.

We travelled up to London on Sunday and went shopping in the afternoon, ending up in Harrods. I love going in Harrods, especially at Christmas when it is all festive, but this time I was really keen to visit the Godiva chocolate cafe. There were lots of sweet treats on the menu, crepes, cakes and shakes included, but as we were going out for dinner I opted just for a classic hot chocolate. It was so good!

We also found Christmas World in Harrods! I'm not sure if this is up all year round or if it had just opened but it looked so pretty!

Later that evening we went to St Catherine's dock for dinner. There is a nice ambience with lots of restaurants all around the dock  and the lights add a sweet glow to the night sky.

After dinner we went for a walk along the Thames and then drove back across London to our hotel.

On Sunday morning we went for a lovely breakfast at a cafe around the corner from our hotel. It had good reviews on trip advisor and the hotel breakfast was expensive so went to find it. We had vegetarian breakfasts with fresh orange juice for £6 which we thought was great value for money and all hot drinks came with a free croissant so we were so full by the time we finished!

After breakfast we went to the Victoria and Albert museum which was just one stop away on the tube. We had a look round the exhibitions and then sat out in the garden with fresh lemonade, enjoying the sunshine. It's such a lovey spot to sit down and relax for a little while.

We ended up doing a little window shopping in the afternoon before returning home.