Chapter iii. The LondonTrip - in which our weary travelers ''cramitin'' and consequently its bit of a rambling account as was the trip..

We really crammed what we could into the few days we had in London, having really 'done' the V&A we decided to have a little flirt with the natural History museum and and the Science museum.

The Natural History museum proved quite enticing - we initially wanted to see the whale bone in the great hall and got sidetracked by all sorts of fab exhibits - another amazing place for inspiration and interesting photographs....... we entered the ball of fire up the escalator into a world of discovery - volcanoes - earthquakes - we found the earthquake simulator and were 'earth quaked' (slightly tame compared to the real one I was in in Peru) we wandered through the building looking for the great hall there was just so much to look at and the building itself is just fantastic.  I got a bit carried away in the stuffed bird section and thought the whale display was fabulous.

By the time we got to the science museum we had a very serious case of museum leg... museum body methinks... we tried to be excited by the space stuff on display but really we could hear a large gin calling so we called in a day on culture and headed across London first to be quite disappointed by how gentrified the Spitalfields market has become but then revitalized by an very good curry on Brick Lane.

We ate an enormous amount and then for some very bizarre reason decided to walk back to the hotel...(3 miles)  we had been on our feet all day but this seemed a good idea and by the time we thought it wasn't we were almost home!  we had a last pint in a London pub and hit he sack.  we had actually walked 12 miles that day!!!!

Refreshed in the morning we checked out and hit the streets again, this ws going to be a slower less busy day ha haha ....

We had a pleasant wander around the quaint and interesting streets of Soho, again so diverse, silk to sex in a matter of yards... and I bought some much long time wanted fabric shears and had a little drool at some of the sumptuous fabrics, ribbons and trimmings on sale in the Cloth House

the cloth house ( for my beautiful shears see my instagram account ha ha)

- and then in a bid to be calm and less frantic we sat and people watched in Trafalgar square.  So many people wandering about filling there days up doing there own thing and we sat and wondered what those own things might be,

Being a tourist on Trafalgar Square

but... Suddenly realizing we were having a culture fix withdrawal we went tot he National Portrait Gallery where there was an excellent portrait exhibition of an annual competition sponsored I believe by BP.  Given that the common theme was portraiture the works on display were very varied and of a wonderful standard.  I love portrait work its like a window into people and I love it when its done well and some these were just amazing.

We had a quick wander around the 20th century - to now stuff on display, all very entertaining but time was running out and we wanted a quick spin around the British museum before we got the train home... yes gluttons for punishment but we were thwarted as they wouldn't let me in as my bag was too big!!!

random art and very grand statues near the British Library

It didn't really matter we had crammed so much in and just wandering around London Town was interesting the odd little statues popping up here and there - the beautiful buildings we often take for granted, the ever changing skyline its all very fascinating - the deal we had found had served us well and we fell ontot he train home feeling we had used our time as fully as we could....