London – Wednesday 9th July

After two very busy days we opted for a slow start on Wednesday, and took Ruth’s suggestion to walk to nearby Coram’s Fields (From Wikipedia: a large urban open space in the London borough of Camden in central London. It occupies seven acres in Bloomsbury and includes a children's playground, sand pits, a duck pond, a pets corner, café and nursery).  The kids enjoyed running around and playing in the playground, with the small flying fox being most popular.

Afterwards the next stop was the Underground, to master the oystercard system, and ensure that the kids ‘mind the gap’.

Our destination was the Natural History Museum, which William had identified as one of his top priorities in London, after reading a ‘London for Kids’ book.  As well as housing amazing exhibits, the building housing the Museum is very impressive and looked magnificent on this day of blue skies and puffy white cloud.

Exhibit highlights included the very large dinosaur collection, the human biology section, the R&D cocoon, and the animal section shown around the blue whale panorama below.

Of course, with William being a big dinosaur fan, we had to get his photo with ‘Dippy’ the famous replica skeleton of a Diplodocus in the main foyer.

After the museum we took the Underground again to Marylebone, where Ruth had recommended The Golden Hind as the place to go for good British Fish and Chips.

The first difference noted between this and most Australian fish and chip shops is that it is sit down, which was a very different, and enjoyable, experience.  The food was nice, with very sizable portions of fish, and the kids loved their curly straws and fizzy drinks.

A notable plaque on the wall indicated that the restaurant has only had 5 owners in 100 years.