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Mum's Gone To …

Travel tales of an empty nester
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Home  >  Blog  >  Mum’s Gone to London – Martinis and chastity belts

Mum’s Gone to London – Martinis and chastity belts

Trish Burgess Posted on22/02/201007/04/2016 London 14 Comments

‘City view’ it said, when I booked the hotel. Indeed. We could just about see some of the landmark London buildings but only when the eye travelled past the glaringly obvious sight of Waterloo Station. If our son had been six again and fond of choo-choos then this would be kiddie heaven. Pretty cool at night though.

Amazingly the double-glazing was so thick that we couldn’t hear a thing from our room on the 12th floor. The positives of the Park Plaza County Hall hotel definitely outweighed the negatives. Very much a family friendly hotel, most rooms, like ours, had a lounge area with sofa bed and a kitchenette with microwave and coffee machine. Not sure why there were scales in the bathroom. The last thing you want to be doing on holiday is getting hung up about the effect of those extra croissants you managed to secrete into a napkin at breakfast.

Our son, Rory, has a typical boyish fascination for all things gruesome, so was very keen to see Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum. I wasn’t so keen after I’d seen the cost of admission. I managed to find some online deals: a 20% discount voucher from Discount Britain or 10% off if you buy the tickets online from Ripleys itself. I decided, oddly enough, to go for the 10% option to save queuing in the freezing cold. Bad decision. I waved my online ticket at the woman on the door, expecting to be ushered through, only to be told I still had to queue with everyone else. I seethed for the rest of the day at my wasted 10%.
Rory loved the museum and I admit there were some great exhibits – the Swarovski crystal covered Mini, the shrunken heads and an interesting collection of tribal cod-pieces. There was also a photo opportunity with a chastity belt which I declined. As Rory had the camera that day I felt I could hardly ask him to do the honours while his mother straddled a huge pair of metal knickers.
Some of the exhibits, though entertaining, were copies of originals or dummies of people from history with goggly eyes or large appendages like the chap opposite. An upmarket P. T. Barnum’s really. Didn’t he invent the phrase “There’s a sucker born every minute”?
After a relentless search of Regent Street and Oxford Street to look for clothes for a gangly teenage boy (there’s a gap in the market, somebody fill it please!!)  we started back to the hotel but not before spotting Margaret from The Apprentice waiting for a bus.

An hour or two back at the hotel was bliss just watching the Winter Olympics and scoffing complimentary shortbread biscuits (they’re free so I’m eating them).

We found a lovely local Italian for dinner then retired to the bar for a nightcap. Rory wandered back to the room leaving Mum and Dad to order ridiculous cocktails. The speciality was Martini variations. Husband Dougie picked a Vesper which sounded cool and 007-ish but turned out to be like neat meths. Mine, Coco Crumble, was very girly with vanilla vodka, amaretto, cinnamon syrup and apple juice. Dougie thought this sounded vile but he had to admit that it beat his into a cocked hat on the taste front.
Half an hour later we are cloaked in an alcohol-induced warm fuzziness and feeling nicely smoochy.

My mobile beeps. A text from the boy:

 “Where RU? Uv bn gone 4 ages!!!”

Previous Article Mum’s Gone to the Whorehouse again!
Next Article Mum’s Gone to London – Shepherd’s Bush and Avenue Q

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14 Comments

  1. deer baby Reply
    22/02/2010 at 10:22 am

    My son would love that Believe It or Not Museum. Thanks for the heads up as I'd never heard of it. We could have passed each other in the street last week. I was doing the Science Museum. Glad you had a good week. Martinis sound fun!

  2. Diney Reply
    22/02/2010 at 11:12 am

    Just thinking the same thing – we were in Science Museum and Natural History last week too,so may have passed eachother in South Ken.
    There has always been a gap in the market for gangly teenage boys, especially if Rory has large feet,as my son has.

  3. Mummy Bear Reply
    22/02/2010 at 11:16 am

    I can't believe you spotted Margaret WAITING FOR A BUS!!!! I mean I had her down as a black cab sort of lady! Good spot!

  4. Kelloggsville Reply
    22/02/2010 at 12:30 pm

    I made it to the lobby of Ripley's Believe it or Not. Decided I couldn't Believe the price and we left. We hadn't planned to go, we just happened to be walking past and fained interest or like so many tourist traps I would have had to cough up! What an annoyance about your 10% – I'm sure the cocktails soothed the pain!

  5. Eternally Distracted Reply
    22/02/2010 at 12:47 pm

    Posts like this makes me really miss London… then I remember the sun is shining here ;0))

  6. muummmmeeeeee...... Reply
    22/02/2010 at 1:23 pm

    I was in London last week and took Harry to Ripleys then on to a little Italian for dinner – how funny! We also visited the London Dungeon (not Meg's bag so we took advantage with her being away).

    We managed to get free entry for Harry in both attractions after printing vouchers from http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/ although you need to buy the rail ticket – well worth doing if you're travelling into London by train.

    As an aside, I will never visit the Park Plaza hotel – scales in the room…..what are they thinking!!!!!!!!!!

  7. Trish @ Mum's Gone to... Reply
    22/02/2010 at 1:31 pm

    Deer Baby and Diney – it's hard to think of new ideas when they get to 13 but Ripley's, though pricey, was definitely a hit with him. Funny how we were all in LOndon though!

    Mummy Bear – I KNOW! How bizarre. Oxford St and there she was!

    Kellogsville – over £20 for an adult ticket is far too expensive in my book. I gritted my teeth and told myself to enjoy it!

    Eternally Distracted – now just stop it!!! I'm coming over…

    mummeeeeee – we were there last Monday! If we had gone by train I would have used that offer. We did have a 2 for 1 voucher but it was from an old copy of the Ripleys annual so out-of-date! Bum!

  8. Heather Reply
    22/02/2010 at 2:00 pm

    Oh, i want to visit London! *sulks*

  9. Glowstars Reply
    22/02/2010 at 2:08 pm

    We've always found the London Dungeon good for grusome and you can often find 2 for 1 vouchers for the tussauds group attractions.

  10. Trish @ Mum's Gone to... Reply
    22/02/2010 at 2:13 pm

    Glowstars – you're so right. If we hadn't decided on the trip at the last minute I would have traded in my Tesco vouchers and saved loads. We did that a couple of years ago and went "free" to the London Dungeon – so much more enjoyable!
    I bet I'll get lots of 2 for 1 vouchers at the supermarket in the coming weeks and be spitting!

  11. Millennium Housewife Reply
    22/02/2010 at 4:36 pm

    I wanted to see Margaret waiting for a bus. Do you think she'd do it again?
    Over to say a massive thankyou for following my blog, it really made my day to see you up there – cheers!

  12. Footballers Knees Reply
    22/02/2010 at 8:30 pm

    Sounds like you had an excellent time. And did you know that free stuff is free from calories too?
    Am going to give the Ripleys place a try next time we go to the Big Smoke, thanks for the tip!

  13. vegemitevix Reply
    23/02/2010 at 11:02 pm

    Love heading up to London. You paint the picture so well, makes me want to jump on the train and go! I agree with the comment about gangly teenage boys' clothes. Mine is coming up 16 and like a bean pole.

  14. Pingback: Mum's gone to the Park Plaza, Westminster Bridge - Mum's Gone To ...

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