For a bit of background, my Mum and Aunt came to visit us from the 27th of December to the 3rd of January. In that time we saw lots of London, and also went on a three day trip to Venice, which was excellent. This was all hindered slightly by the fact that my Mum fractured her ankle on the flight over (long story, the short version of which is that she fell in the airplane toilet and in the tiny space her foot got caught behind the toilet and twisted/broke her ankle). So she went straight from the airplane to the hospital where they put her in a plaster cast and gave her some crutches. Luckily, we managed to find a place that rented out wheelchairs and they were able to deliver one to our flat the next day - so we still got to do loads of the fun stuff we had planned. It's amazing - my Mum was in a wheelchair with a broken ankle, the airline lost their luggage, in the confusion I lost my phone, Air Canada said she wasn't allowed to fly anymore, I got an email saying that our flat buying had fallen through, etc etc - it was a VERY bad start to a trip. And yet? and YET - we had an absolutely fantastic time and made the most of every minute! Everything worked itself out in the end - we got a wheelchair, the luggage was delivered to the flat a couple days later, the flight to Venice was low enough that she was allowed to fly with the cast, (we were able to get it removed for the flight home and she got another one put back on in America), we managed to explore most of London and Venice with just a few creative roundabout wheelchair accessible detours, Finn LOVED sitting on my Mum's lap when she was getting pushed around so they got lots of cuddle time, we got in for FREE at a lot of places because we were 'caring' for a person with 'additional needs' (score!), Mum and I got to spend lots of one-on-one chatting time while waiting for doctors... etc.
All in all, it was incredible. It's a lesson to be learnt that even things that look horrible on the surface find a way of being something fantastic if you let them. Keep a good sense of humour and an open mind and everything else sorts itself out.
But enough of my gushing about how much fun it was! Here are some pictures. Since this blog is about Finn, after all, I've tried to restrain myself in sharing loads and loads of general pictures (I have a lot!). So here is a Finn-focused recap.
I don't have many pictures of the London tourism, so I've stolen some of my Aunt's...
These are one from a great day of walking around - Finn seemed to think that Mum in her wheelchair was like a super comfy pushchair and he would settle in and happily ride around. (For anyone who's met Finn recently, you'll realise that this is indeed surprising. He does NOT like to be held by other people...)
This was also nice because we kept Finn in the wrap most of the time. Although it was actually pretty easy to manage a wheelchair, I didn't want to attempt a wheelchair AND a buggy, especially on the buses etc. So whenever we were tired of carrying him we could just plop him on Mum's lap! Brilliant! He even fell asleep like that a few times...
(Mum is covering his ears because the bells of Westminster were ringing very loudly at that moment! Really fun to experience!)
We ended as the sun was going down over Buckingham Palace
We then went to a (very old) cozy pub for a pint and some sticky toffee pudding
Finding a seat...
Ordering...
Relaxin'...
Having a fortune cookie...
What a goof ball!
I have a LOT more pictures of Venice. Basically, it was beautiful.
But as I mentioned, this is about Finn - so no more pictures without Finn in them...
Our flight had been delayed and we had no way of getting a message to the B&B owner to say that we were running late... so when we arrived we were a bit unsure what to do - so we hung out and took pictures of course!
Of course, it all sorted itself out in the end and we had a lovely stay in a lovely place... on the third floor...
So, I lied - this picture doesn't have Finn in it... but it's funny! Mum had to sit her way up and down the steps every time! The B&B owner (Paulo) was horrified when he saw the wheelchair, but we assured him it would all be fine - I think he approved :)
We did lots of walking around and saw many beautiful things...
We got around by water bus (Vaporetto) and even though it was crowded and a BOAT the people were so helpful with the wheelchair and it was no problem at all
Finn did amazingly well considering he never really got a chance to run around or anything. But he was really happy in his carrier and would play silly games with the people around him (sometimes people he knew... sometimes not!) or sleep when he needed to.
We had lots of amazing food, starting with the breakfast in our rooms
(I'm mostly just including this photo to get back at James for posting the unflattering one of me last week... check out his morning hair!)
And lovely restaurants
Even the street food was amazing (and that's saying something because we were eating it OUTSIDE! In DECEMBER!)
But the highlight was the gondola ride.
We all held our breath as Mum was lifted/hopped/dropped down into the boat but once she was in and we were all in, it was a memory to last a lifetime.
Finn wasn't toooooo sure about it at first:
But within 5 minutes he was giggling and smiling and waving at the other boats and all-in-all having as great a time as the rest of us.
It's true - Venice is an amazing city:
I had such a great time and I'm so lucky I got to share it with such great people. It was so said to see them head off back home, but we packed a lot of fun, love, and memories into a few short days.
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