Well, we've been here for three days now and here's a summary of the last two - the weather has been perfect so we've been very hot and busy trying to take in all the sights.
On Wednesday, after a large sleep we took the tube to Piccadilly Circus and then made our way to Trafalgar Square. Through some accidental, but fortunate timing we managed to see the changing of the guard or something similar where a bunch of horse mounted guards head down to Buckingham Palace. Apparently, they had opened up the headquarters today for some charity appeal where we could meet some pensioners!! Only just managing to tear ourselves away, we headed through St James's park on the way to the palace. This and another garden we walked through earlier are amazing in the sunny weather. Quite funny though how they have signs with hundreds of bylaws for use of the parks which discuss things such as the 20 points of canine feces removal. A sign by the horse guards warns that the horses may bite or kick you.
And of course please mind the gap.
Buckingham palace was pretty packed, though there wasn't a great deal to see today and the royal family doesn't exactly excite us at the best of times but it's something you have to see. Bit of a shame that there's a huge road running past the attractive square in front though.
Headed back into the centre of town, grabbed some sandwiches from good-old Tesco's and then we browsed the National gallery. It was great to see some of the original works by Van Gogh, Monet, Constable, the impressionists and others. There is plenty there for those that love fire and brimstone, weird babies and violent death orgies but there's a lot to take in and it's best to be selective rather than try to see everything.
After this, we walked past the parliament and Westminster Abbey before heading to the other side of the Thames where we walked past the London eye. This was about enough for our first day! Read up the Lonely Planet city guide when we got back to Hammersmith and tried to fix my bearings which got quite confused during our walking.
Today (Thursday) saw us planning to head to Hyde park and a few museums. We got off one tube stop earlier than planned (my fault), but this actually working out well. Went to the National History museum in Kensington - this is housed in a simply amazing building complete with hundreds of gargoyles and creatures and plants carved into every pillar. The museum is fantastic but was packed with thousands of extremely loud school kids which drove me crazy!!! There must have been some interesting questions for the teachers at the start of the human biology exhibit. Again, there's a lot to take in here and it's easy to lose interest after a while.
Next we went to the Science museum next door and I was a bit like a kid in a candy store here. There have some amazing pieces of history in their collection including the Apollo 10 module, Stephenson's rocket and the Cray supercomputer. Tried to just focus on a few highlights - i.e. aerospace.
Finally made it to Hyde park for which we found really beautiful and relaxing. Clare paddled her feet in the Princess Diana memorial fountain. Checked out the ANZAC memorial then headed for 'home'.
Got the tube back to Hammersmith and had a pint of fosters at one of the pubs in the station - "The Trout". Another great day had by all.
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