WELCOME TO BRITAIN, MUM!

After seven months in exile, I was finally back in London. So what did I do? I went travelling again, of course!

My mum was coming to visit, and was set to arrive just two days after I landed. Within 48 hours of her landing at Heathrow, mum was grooving with the hippies inside Stonehenge as we waited for the summer solstice to approach. Oh, and my sister and I made her sleep in a car. My mum's pretty awesome.

Anyway, you probably want details. Here we go:

The day after mum arrived, we hired a car and set off to visit the Queen at Windsor Castle with my sister. It was Royal Ascot Weekend, so the Queen was actually there. She didn't pop out and say hello or anything, though, which I thought was quite rude. Although I do like to imagine that she was just on the other side of one of the doors we passed, in her slippers and nightgown, sipping on a nice cup of tea.

Windsor Castle was nice and castle-y and stuffed full of treasures stolen from the colonies. I fell in love with Queen Mary's dollshouse and want my own. It's exquisite. It's also approximately the same size as the average London apartment. Don't let that put you off buying me one, though. Just be sure to budget extra for lots of wrapping paper.

We couldn't hang about in Windsor too long, as we had to get to Stonehenge. It was the Summer Solstice, which is the only night of the year that We The People are allowed anywhere near the stones. The plan was to be sitting up amongst the stones as the sun set on the horizon. It was a lovely plan. The plan forgot that it would need to account for Royal Ascot Weekend traffic and a queue on the A334 leading into Stonehenge that would see us take 2 hours to travel 2km. The plan made us miss sunset. Bad plan.

Still, there was a little light left when we finally made it so we hiked up to the Stone Circle anyway. It was spectacular. There were people everywhere, drumming echoed out from inside the Circle and the famous stones were there - right there!- looming in the twilight. I felt a wave of hippy nature-love and hugged a stone. It felt good.

We sat around soaking up the atmosphere for a while but, being substance-free, we decided to go back to the car for a 3-hour nap to wait until sunrise. There were no tents allowed on site, and though a few others had risked it and pitched in between vehicles, we had foolishly decided to follow the rules. My sis and her friend L slept in sleeping bags outside the car, while Mum and I had the comparative luxury of sleeping under doonas (aka duvets) inside the car. It was cold and uncomfortable, but we really did have it easy compared to the other two. They looked like popsicles when we woke a few hours later in the pre-dawn darkness.

Back at the Circle, the party was still in full swing. In the event, dawn itself was a bit of a letdown. The morning was cloudy, so we couldn't see the rays of the rising sun strike the middle of the Circle or whatever the hell magical stuff is supposed to happen at Stonehenge during the Solstice. Still, it was a brilliant experience and I'd love to get back there again. We grabbed some food and went back to the car, passing hippies, druids and drug-f*cked teenagers on the way. I love this country.

After another wee nap, we pulled ourselves together and drove on to have lunch in the grounds of Salisbury Cathedral (the sun was actually out by then - where were you at dawn, Sun?) then drove on to Avebury. For those who don't know, the village of Avebury was built almost completely inside another prehistoric Stone Circle monument. The Circle is 16 times larger than Stonehenge, though the stones themselves are a little smalller. They're really cool and eerie, and I find the atmosphere there much spookier than Stonehenge. We ended the day with a cream tea and a drive back to London. As my mum seemed to be immune from jetlag (I really wish that was genetic), I organised another full-on adventure for the very next day: Wimbledon!

It was Day One, so we managed to see some decent players on the outer courts, and also bought a refunded pass for Centre Court to watch  Djokovic (world number 4 at the time) beat Brettaneau from France. Surprisingly, the weather was lovely. We ate strawberries and cream and sat on Henman Hill, just to get the full British experience. Lovely.

The next few days were spent on the typical tourist trail in London: a Hop-On Hop-Off bus tour, Thames river cruise (sunny weather again!), the Greenwich Observatory, Tower of London,  Shakespeare's Globe, the London Eye, Westminster Abbey etc etc. We had to take a pause from the tour of British culture and history to take in some Aussie culture and history. It was State of Origin night, so we joined my sister at a typically obnoxious Aussie bar to watch the delayed match surrounded by drunken Aussie yobs. "We" (Queensland) won the game and the series though, so all was right with the world.

The next day mum and I flew off to Egypt (read more about that trip here) and once back we were joined by my little sister and went road tripping across the UK. Stay tuned for more tales of my mum's adventures here in the homeland...