To celebrate Coco’s ninth birthday I had promised her a trip to London, just her and me, for a little weekend. Considering her birthday was last December and we are now in October, it was high time I made good on my promise and so we jumped on the train and away we went to London, the city she was born in.

It was so much fun, not only to show her the city, but also to appreciate some moments together. The main aim was to go to the Harry Potter studios (we are dealing here with a hard core Harry Potter fan) but we managed to pack so much more into our two-day trip.

Here is what we got up to:

We arrived on a Friday evening and went straight to China Town to my favourite restaurant, to meet up with some friends. By chance there was a lampion festival going on so London’s tiny China town look magical (and I forgot to take photos ooops!).

The next morning, we went straight to the Tower of London, to see the fortress, the crown jewels, the beef eaters and the guards. From there we had the most amazing view of Tower Bridge. Randomly some elderly gentlemen where reenacting a little battle on the lawn in front of the tower, so that got us straight in the mood.

From that we jumped straight onto a public boat and travelled down the Thames to jump onto a tube, a train and a bus straight to the Harry Potter Studios. Now I am not a big fan of entertainment parks to say the least, but the Harry Potter Studios are actually great (even for me)! You can see the making of the films from the tiniest to the hugest set, costumes and maquettes.

At the end of the day we were so tired we practically fell into our beds and started snoring! 😉

On Sunday we headed off to the Science Museum and the V&A, where we had a hot chocolate and scone in the lovely courtyard. We had a walk around Hyde Park and finally headed back to the station on a double decker bus. We actually tried to cram in as much iconic British things as possible from black cabs and red buses to a fry-up and a Flake ice cream!

It was such a wonderful weekend and a such a special treat to have my big girl all to myself (I think she also quite appreciated having her mom to herself too).

Emilie