London – Friday 11th July

First stop on Friday morning was St Pauls Cathedral.  Although planning to take a good look around inside, the place was very busy and it was far more expensive that we imagined, so we decided to restrict ourselves to external views.  The kids had fun playing with some interactive art nearby, a boat sculpture containing tethered musical instruments.

We then walked east between Queen Victoria St and Cheapside and had a nice lunch at the Host Café in St Mary Aldermary church, off Watling St.  After lunch we separated, with Andrew and Xavier heading to Greenwich and Elle, Grace and William heading back to the Museum precinct.

Andrew had been to London several times, but had never made it to Greenwich.  This time, a feature attraction was enough to make it happen.  The National Maritime Museum had a special exhibit called ‘Ships, Clocks & Stars – The quest for longitude’, with a major element being the first time ever that all five of Harrison’s clocks were displayed together.  Andrew had read Dava Sobel’s book called ‘Longitude’ many years ago, and very much enjoyed learning about the Longitude Challenge, and Harrison’s clocks.

The photo below was taken just before we left, and just as Xavier was falling asleep.

The photos below show Harrison’s clocks, with the prize winning fifth clock housed in a separate glass case alongside 1 to 4.

Outside the special exhibit, we visited several other areas of the museum, with memorabilia of Lord Nelson the most interesting.  Xavier is shown here with the uniform he wore at the battle of Trafalgar when he was killed (the bullet hole can still be seen near the shoulder).

Outside the museum we passed the giant ship in a bottle …..

….. on route, up quite a steep hill, to the Royal Observatory, home to the famous Greenwich Meridian Line.  The queue to get a photo taken in front of the stainless steel sculpture over the line was long and slow moving, so Xavier and Andrew passed their camera to a Japanese bystander and opted for a photo at the back.

On the way back to the train station, we walked past the magnificent Old Royal Naval College.

While A&X were at Greenwich, Elle took Grace and William to the Science Museum ....

..... and then to Harrods (watching a street artist along the way).

After our respective visits, we met up at Hamleys toy store.  The kids had a great time in the oldest and largest toy store in the world, with bubble blowing in the foyer being a nice way to start.

William loved bashing up the mobile blow-up Minion, who was wheeling around one of the upper floors, when not being picked up, kicked or punched by children.

We made some small purchases (not enough for Xavier who wanted to buy every second item he saw), and then went back to China Town and had an early dinner at Dumpling Legend again.