When I was in Venice one of my cousins from New York had emailed me to say that her and her mother were going to be coming to London for a visit. I was pretty excited to have them coming to London for a change (since I’ve been over to New York more times than I can count over the last six years) though I was a bit worried that I’d still be in Europe when they came over. Luckily they timed it just right arriving the day after I got back from Madrid! Unluckily I couldn’t really afford to take any more days off to entertain them!

My aunt works for an airline in the states so sometimes they’re eligible to be on standby for free flights. Even though I couldn’t take the time off to spend the days with them I was all set to pick them up from the airport and drop them off at their hotel at least and also to take them out for evening entertainment. My cousin had picked a hotel which was conveniently about ten minutes walk from my shoebox so it all worked out quite well.

My cousin is fairly laid back so she wasn’t really up for a full London sight-seeing schedule. As my aunt laughingly related to me over dinner on their first day in London – they hopped on the hop on hop off bus but never hopped off! Ha ha!

With only the evenings to spare I took them to a local pub for some English fare and also to a local middle eastern joint for some yummy Persian food. I think my cousin was fairly impressed. But what she really loved about London was night time! We took this gigantic walk from Victoria down to the river, past Big Ben etc., past the London Eye and across to Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus. I’d almost forgotten how tiring that can be for non-walkers! It was good to see both my cousin and aunt though my cousin said that next time she comes she’ll have to leave her mum behind so we can explore properly the London nightlife. 🙂