London - A Cultural Experience!

London - A Cultural Experience!

Sunday (the 27th May), was a rainy, windy, cold and miserable day (Or so we thought! Keep reading..) We considered for a moment : "What can we do that will keep us warm and cosy? We know...let's go to the Museum of Natural History!" Unfortunately for us, the entire population of London, plus tourists had the same idea. *chuckles* Rugged up and ready to battle the weather, we marched ourselves out of our room and down to the tube station. "Phew, that wasn't too bad...just like Melbourne." We jumped off at Knightsbridge, because our tourist friendly map informed us that there was a HARROD'S there. Expecting to be rejected for our casual appearance were pleasantly surprised when the doorman opened the door and let us in. Very polite the British, they seem to have doormen everywhere you go! We wandered around for a while dreaming about what we would buy if we were rich, independent and royalty. A store definitely designed and stocking brands in mind for those who don't mind slapping down large amounts of pounds at the cash register!

Defrosted and ready to take on the brisk afternoon, we pounded the pavement up to the Museum of Natural History to be greeted by an extremely long line of people waiting for entry. Sometime later, security guards rummaged through my bag and deciding I didn't pose a threat to national security let me into the museum while Steve smirked with amusement. Looking around at the large building we followed a crowd of people past some ancient (and plastic) molded bones of a Sloth made a sharp right turn and headed into the hall entirely dedicated to Creepy Crawlies.

Speaking of Creepy Crawlies, there were SO many little'uns at the museum! I don't know what possessed these parents to bring their kids to a place that required an attention span of more than 5 mins. ;o) Frustrated we weaved our way through this exhibit, then made our way to the hall of , how can I put this STUFFED BIRDS? Admiring the skill of Taxidermy in this part of the museum, was interesting and yet somehow disturbing, but thankfully due to people dedicated to this skill we are able to enjoy exhibits such as this one. Feeling a little knackered, we stopped for a coffee and a snack and then proceeded to the "Changing Earth" display and information. After looking at birds, we found this part of the museum appealed to our Scientific minds and was more interesting. It had a variety of mineral and elemental rocks, as well as descriptions on rock formation, earthquakes and how the surface of the earth is altered due to volcanic activity, water, wind and rain. Our tour of the museum ended at this point as it was closing, and in the knick of time really as the children wandering around the place were getting impatient with their parents. We only managed to get through a small section of the museum, we'll have to get back there on a not so busy day..minus the kiddies!

Monday (28th May) and UK Bank holiday! If we thought Sunday was cold.. Darn.. today was colder! It managed to get to a chilly top of 7C. Planning to stay indoors to complete domestic duties, blogging, reading and postcard writing, a unplanned phone call and invitation (and freebie tickets!) took us back to the London Eye. Braving the wind chill factor, we jumped on the tube again and made our way to our destination. The weather was shocking, wet, windy and really cold, still in a strange fashion we rushed onto the London Eye for the EYE experience. It never stops rotating to let people on board to the numerous capsules, it slowly passes by the LOADING DOCK and traditionally people rush on board quickly in fear of missing the platform. Then they slam the doors shut and you're OFF. It wasn't the best day for this as it made picture taking difficult and the pictures rather hazy, but we did our best. After half and hour of rotating in a slow circle, we jumped off and just like that it was over! We wandered a little further down South bank (with our tour guides Ash and Ali) to a cafe that served luke warm soup and crusty bread. After a small feed, we parted our ways and headed home.

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