London Heatwave

As you can see by the title we are embracing the English obsession with the weather. A few months ago the Sunday papers even came with a 30 page booklet from the Met Office explaining all the weather terms and concepts.

In the last week of the school holidays we went up to London for four days. We caught the train up from Weymouth on the Friday afternoon. The state schools were going back to school on the Monday but our children had an extra week so we thought we could miss some of the crowds associated with the school holidays.

This time we stayed very close to Waterloo station, which is where the train from Weymouth terminates. It was very convenient.

On Saturday we got going early and headed for the Science Museum. Since it was still school holidays there was a queue at 9:30am waiting for it to open at 10AM. We didn't have to wait long. There were lots of interesting things. The kids enjoyed the google web lab, where a computer would take a photo of you and then instruct a robot to draw your face in the sand.

After lunch we went next door to the Natural History Museum. It was also very busy and none of us wanted to wait 45 minutes to check out the dinosaur exhibition.

On Sunday it was 18 degrees in London and we sweltered. We went to National Maritime Museum in Greenwich to check out an Ansel Adams photo exhibition.

 We all had a go driving an RNLI boat in the simulator.

 There was a nice park and everyone enjoyed lying in the sun, My cousin Peter Harris met us for lunch.

After lunch we went to see the Cutty Sark. Ella had been complaining all day of not feeling well. When we were down looking at the bottom decks she said she really wasn't feeling well. After a mad dash through the ship we made it the bathroom just in time.

 Can you spot the boys among the figureheads?

I took Ella back to the hotel after the Cutty Sark, while Sarah took the boys shopping. Ben got another pair of boots. In the evening we had dinner with our friend Angela. Ella was feeling better by then.

Monday was the highlight of the trip for the children -- a visit to the famous toy shop Hamleys. I thought it was overrated but was overruled. Ben bought another teddy bear.

The highlight for me was having lunch at a sushi restaurant where Ella even found something she liked. In the afternoon the boys had a bit culture at the British Museum, while the girls had some retail therapy since Ella was now feeling better.
 
Tuesday was Simon's birthday and we took him to the London Dungeons. I can safely say it was not his best birthday as he really didn't like it. He was fine though when we got to to shop at the end. We had sushi for lunch again, rushed through the aquarium and caught the train home back to sleepy Weymouth.