UK – Day 4 – Science & shopping

Unfortunately I awoke a little on the early side today – around 3.30am – and couldn’t get back to sleep. Kevin & Amy woke around 4.30am and Christy a while later. Once again I used the time to blog and play on the computer. Just before 8am we went downstairs for breakfast. Today we were greeted with the delicious smell of warm crossiants.

We set off, with Kevin taking our “setting out for the day” photo. As you can tell warm weather of 25deg  is forecast for today. We haven’t even packed jackets (except for Christy) so they’d better be right.

We caught the tube all the way to South Kensington today – 19 stations and a short walk later we were at the Science Museum. We had about a 10min wait till it opened.

Kevin had wanted to come to this museum but he was a little disappointed as a lot of renovation work was going on.

We stopped for some morning tea. I can’t get over the healthy food choices available here and the fact that so much is organic. All the disposable plates were recyclable, the cutlery was bambo and fairtrade tea, yet again. I tried my first flapjack – can I just say YUM!

Probably the best part for the girls was this great interactive area. We probably spent around an hour here, but it was a bit overrun with bad mannnered school kids.

We then walked next door to the Natural History Museum. This was just one of the entrances.

This was another caotic, busy, hard to find your way around museum. We decided to leave lunch till Harrods so had a quick snack. I had organic popcorn! We then set off to explore.

Can’t say I particularly enjoyed my visit here but Amy was in one of her “tween” moods which didn’t help. We paid to go “The Deep” exhibition but it was a bit of a fizzler.

I did like seeing the deep sea fish though – very weird!

We then walked to Harrods, stopping along the way for a photo in a red phone booth.

So many beautiful buildings. Especially set against a lovely blue sky.

And so to Harrods….

First stop…FOOD! Another maze of a shop. We eventually found the kid friendly Wonderland cafe. Try not to faint when you see the prices (just under double for Australian dollars).

We ordered 3 bowls of Sweet Potato Soup, which was made with the amazing care and attention. And was delicious!

And a bowl of fries for Christy. Who had fun watching Tom & Jerry while eating her lunch.

We had a visit here from Evil Tween Amy so it was an expensive but not an especially nice lunch. I was mean Mum and made her buy her own water – I refused to pay 4.50 pounds (around $8AU) for a bottle of water, when we had some in our bag.

I had to laugh when I looked out the door of our cafe (with cartoons  on the TV) and across into the next restuarant with a man playing the piano.

We then did a small amount of shopping. The girls were just amazed by the pet section.

And these pet cupcakes look good enough to eat.

We also watch a Vitamix presentation and were amazed to discover all it can make – including hot raw soup. The samples made were delicious and we’re looking forward to playing with our vitamix some more.

Back on the tube. When we got on there was only one seat which I told Amy to sit in as she’d whinged the most. Immediately the man sitting beside her (complete with tattooed scalp) jumped up to give me his seat. Just goes to show you can’t judge manners based on looks. My feet, and I, thanked him, as did Christy who sat on my lap. Back in Southgate we had dinner once again the Charcoal Grill. I ordered the pita with hummus, which was delicious, but too much. We seemed to have a LOT of leftover food tonight.

We then walked home – it was such a warm night and there seemed to be a lot of people around. Still so light at 7pm.

I washed all our underwear in the bath and hung them around the bathroom. We had planned to do a full wash but found out there in no laundromat in Southgate and we’d have to catch the tube and lug all our laundry. Plus we don’t really have the time. So we’ll need to pay to get everything washed on the cruise :-(. We watched a few episodes of Airline and then everyone gradually went off to sleep. I was the last one standing (or lying in bed as the case may be) at 9.30pm.

We have a big day tomorrow – the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Madam Trussards, dinner with an old school friend and seeing the musical Oliver. Can’t believe it’s already our last day in London.

Goldies spotted today – zero 🙁