We still had four more days in London! We had a little rain, above, which we kind of wanted to see. So after Greenwich, we went to the Natural History Museum but the lines were very long so we went to the Science Museum next door instead. DH took the twins to the other museum later that day and they said the lines were shorter and the museum really was good. We were impressed with all of the London museums and greatful that they do not charge admission. The Science Museum was large and had wonderful exhibits both new and some older diorama type displays. We met our friend there and the older girls and I walked around London with the excellent guide Kip, an American who has lived here for 15 years and an all around righteous traveler and vegan cook aka themessyvegetariancook.com. She took us around Soho, Picadilly Circus, Chinatown, and a great bookstore where we had coffee and scones. That evening, we had an awesome dinner with M and S. And I think that’s the only photo I took that day! It was so nice having dinner with them- such excellent food, company, and conversation in their wonderful home.
The next day we kind of needed some down time and lucked into a free screening of Harry Potter flicks at a London movie theater. The kids had been saying they wanted to see it in the big screen and we were able to get tickets to watch the fifth movie. It was really cool seeing scenes of London since we were in London!! I actually snuck out to walk around on my own a little and enjoyed visiting St. James church, which goes back to the 1600’s. The church welcomes the homeless to rest there and the sound of gentle snoring was a peaceful background in the historic space.
After the movie we got picnic food and went to St. James park. It was so big, full of trees and grass and picnickers. It was hard t believe we are in the middle of a major city. The kids decided to have a three-legged race for some reason and the twins kept their legs tied together for hours afterwards.
We walked around to nearby Buckingham Palace and also to a park with pelicans and a tiny Swiss chalet. A surprising sight was a man feeding a heron by the garden with fish he took out of his pocket!!
At the end of the day, we went to funky Brick Lane for Indian food and to check out the shops. DH was thrilled with the record store there called Rough Trade. It was pretty cool. I was interested to see Jack the Ripper landmarks since I have a somewhat embarrassing interest in true crime and that is kind of the area, but the closest I came was a barber shop called Jack the Clipper! We were all tired so we didn’t get to hang out as long as we could have; it looks like a great neighborhood with a lot of art, food, and offbeat characters. Ok, that’s all for now, more soon…
Tripping Fantastic 2 