A September weekend in London

We came back last night from a great weekend in London, left Newport on Saturday morning and from there we headed straight to the Musuem of Natural History - what an amazing place, so much to see and do and of course the building is just the place to house it all. The day was really hot so a shame to spend it inside but too much to do. From there we went to the Science Museum, which we felt was not as impressive but still wonderful to see - heaps to do and you can loose yourself for hours in both.

Moving on from there had pre-booked tickets to Madam Tussauds, which is a great idea to do as not only cheaper (and combined with the London Eye) but also you get to bypass the lines and go in. Maddy unfortunately was not feeling great and this being her "must do" thing in London would not admit to being unwell despite looking very white and not even wanting ice cream to try and cool her down, so with her perserverance we went in and after about 20 minutes inside she picked up thankfully and her stomach settled. We had a great time in there and because of the missed bits at the beginning we went through it all a second time, which actually was a great thing to do as it was about 5.30pm by then and the place was relatively quiet from earlier. Maddy and Joseph had a blast and enjoyed it so much. Lots of photos above all of which I am sure you can recognise. Joseph and the amazing pose and sparkles - you know the one is awsome.

From there we headed to the Premier Inn (great places by the way) in Hampstead on the tube after stopping at Kings Cross Station for some dinner - heaps of choices there, great place to stay and not far from the centre. Had a good night and got up early to decide on breakfast, normally we wouldn't bother eating in but they have a great deal where for 7.50 you can eat all you want and what made it worth it was that the kids eat all they want for free, now I don't eat breakfast so it was just How and the kids eating, and it was actually about the best they could have had - everything from cooked, cereals, fruit, yoghurts, muffins and more ... and I got to have my coffee as they said to just go ahead and have coffee only :)

Enough of breakfast, from there we headed straight to the London Eye - after a quick 4D movie which almost put me off getting on (its damn high and they kept talking about it), we headed over to it - queues not too bad this time, well I did get on as did we all and it was actually really fantastic, took heaps of photos and made it around the whole thing quite happily. Maddy was more keen to look down and keep reminding everyone how high we were and "we're right at the top now, wow its high" kind of stuff ... me and Joseph were kind of yeah OK leave us alone we're here aren't we. But it was great I have to say.

We left that (only about 1/2 ride) and walked over to Trafalgar Square where to go to the National Gallery, stopped to watch some of a concert going on then headed into the gallery. This time went to a quite a few rooms we had not seen the first time, including Rembrandt and a few others - still amazing art to see. Next door into the Portrait Gallery, art of everyone from tudors to those still with us, we are now very cultured and nonchalant about the next Picasso or Monet we will see ... look out Italy and Paris - more art.

We then headed onto the tube to Regent Street which had been closed off to traffic for a carnival that was going on, appeared to be just closing the street off and a lot of people and a few carnival things going on - but huge screens placed down the centre of the street playing the concert we had just seen in Trafalgar Square - good atmosphere. Stopped into Hamleys where Maddy chose some clothes from Build-a-Bear she had wanted to get. Had a look around and then headed back to Paddington for the train back to Newport - missed it by about 3 minutes thanks to the lady in M&S food where I was finally getting some lunch and she messed up the change and had to get her supervisor to sort it out. Got the next one an hour later!

The kids went off to school this morning tired but happy, this Friday is a teacher training day or teaching only day, not sure what it is called here so they have the day off - long weekend but probably stay closer to home as we are away the weekend after in Fishguard (Wales) and then Montpellier, then Italy so need some quieter times and to save up the dollars to spend wisely in Europe.

Well going to add the photos now, there are alot and not in any particular order but you will get the idea I am sure :)