13 July London

Weather Report - it definitely made at least 30C in London today and the humidity was also reasonable (maybe 50-60%). Not as humid as the Territory, nor apparently as bad as in Laos (we met a couple o the train who live there), but still a bit sticky when one considers that most places over here are designed to stop flow-through ventilation, not encourage it - and there is not a fan anywhere around! Humidity and still air - a sticky combination! Hottest place was on the Tube, not on the platforms, but in the train itself, because unless every window between the carriages is open you don't get the lovely cooling breeze as you move - and someone had a window shut somewhere on every train we seemed to ride today!

Apart from the weather, today was a Science geek day of heaven - which, luckily it appears I have spawned two more of THEM - these boys certainly aren't the arty type - you should see the looks on their faces if I suggest going anywhere near any building that holds large numbers of paintings or sculptures! So, after sleeping in and Skype-ing home, we left in search of a cafe or coffee shop for breakfast (we'd missed the one at the hotel), but to no avail in both Ilford and Gant's Hill, places that sold coffee - yes - but places that sold a decent 'breakfast' - no; this type of shop is sadly lacking in this part of London - maybe the locals don't like that sort of thing?? So after purchasing some fresh hot cross buns (I think they make them all year round) at a bakery to tide us over, we continued our journey.

The journey today took us across to South Kensington, which is a lovely looking suburb that is not as hectic or busy as its neighbour Kensington, where we picked up lunch yesterday, although that might have something to do with today being Saturday instead of Friday. However, I can say that the coffee shop culture is alive and well in this part of London, with there being several options in the immediate vicinity around the station and so our first stop was the Cafe Roma for breakfast/morning tea/lunch. From there it was a short walk to the museum.

Freshly painted row of houses on the walk up to the museum

Natural History Museum

Our reason for being at the museum was satisfied the moment we walked in the door - Diplodocus was in the main centre area and Jacob was in heaven! Dinosaurs!! He was like a pig in mud! I won't bore you too much with the long list of viewings, suffice it to say we saw all the Dinosaurs and Mammals, plus a few other things, before our feet and stomachs were not able to be ignored. After consulting the kids guide book however we realised that there was a whole section that we did not even get to - by general consensus, that section is to be left for the next time we visit London!

A type of Stegosaurus - unfortunately it was dimly lit and my camera being one of the first digitals doesn't compensate - so limited by what they had lit.

You know who!

He might talk about him all the time, but talk is cheap, put him near an animated version of his friend T-Rex and he was quaking in his shoes.

I'm looking at you!

Diprotodon

Mammoth in the Mammal Hall

Mammal Hall with the Whale Skeletons and models

Dinosaur faces - main hall of the Museum (looking towards the entrance)

The main hall entrance area

After snacks, drink and foot resting we heading next door to the Science Museum - 5 floors of it! Again, not to bore you with too many lists of what we saw, but this time we also left out one floor, albeit the basement and we didn't really spend as much time there as we could have. We certainly weren't sprinting through not looking at much as many people in the Natural History Museum seemed to be doing, but with one child who doesn't read and the other who mostly couldn't be bothered, the chance to stay and read and look at everything I wanted to was limited.

One section of the Science museum was all about the history of medicine. I found it fascinating and could have spent hours in this display alone - but not so my companions!

One of the first ECG machines

THey were moderately interested in the second set of rooms we saw which had displays set up of medical situations including a full turn of the century (1900) Chemist Shop as well as the Battle Aid Station from the trenches in WW1......

and the set up for performing open heart surgery in 1980.

Ethan was intringued by the history of computers/mathematics section that included Pegasus

and models of polyhedra, platonic solids, conic sections, differentiation and instruments used in drawing/drafting

Another section was about agriculture with tractors and other agriculture machines. The best thing was the interactive nature of it - in this photo by pressing the button jacob is making the engine in the back move

This was a popular hall with my companions

From the Science Museum it was decided by democratic vote, 2-1 (I'll leave you to consider who the '1' was) that we would travel a couple of stops to Buckingham Palace and view that whilst we were in that part of London, as our last day tomorrow will be spent in and around Greenwich. So, despite being very very foot sore we got there, took some photos, sat down and rested our feet, before making our way towards home.

Last stop was a pretty decent meal of Chinese and home for another late night! Maybe we'll take it a little easier tomorrow, being Sunday,......... maybe ;)