Been there, done that and bought the fridge magnet...

Like the Slacker I was in London recently catching up with my school friend the Cryptic Commie. I've known him since we were both 13, studying Physics at St Colman's College, Newry. Beleive it or not I was the better physicist while we were at school but now he gets to call himself Doctor, has letters after his name and lectures on some kind of bio-physics thingy at Imperial College, London, while I'm a phone jockey for the Revenue. It appears that hard work pays off, eventually.

Anyway, I went down on Thursday and spent the evening just plain catching up and then while the Commie added to the sum totality of human knowledge on Friday, I faffed about the British Science Museum before lunch and the Natural History Museum afterwards. NOT ENOUGH TIME! I spent only about four hours in each and only scratched the surface! Those places are huge! I could have spent a week in both and still not have seen everything. The Science Museum's hall of rocketry was the high point of the visit there. I was impressed by the V2 they had there and the engines from other rockets. The history of the Black Arrow rocket was interesting, Britain's satelite launcher and oh so many other things. Draw backs? I couldn't find my way out of the central region. The stairwells aren't all that well marked (although that may be my bad sense of direction).

On to the Natural History Museum after a Thai lunch in a tiny restauraunt literally a stone's throw away. Many, many beasties, but first to the geology exhibits. More stuff than you can throw a rock at! The formation of mountains, volcanoes, earthquakes (including an earthquake simulator you can stand in!) Gemstones and all sorts of other stuff. I couldn't take it all in. Then on to the beasties. Word of advice, the Victorians went in for stuffing a lot of small, cute things. These are still on display, a trifle faded. The museum doesn't go in for this kind of thing any more but refuses to let past exhibits go to waste. DINOSAURS!! They've got lots! This was a major attraction. The skeletons of may dinosaurs were on display and were very impressive. Draw backs? Everyone wants to see the animatronic T-Rex. Don't bother, it's not that great. Look at the real things instead.

Dinner was chinese washed down by several pints of London Pride, the sponsor drink of my tour. The Commie needed persuading to eat stir-fried pigeon in London but I'd advise not to miss it. I'm certain that the pigeon in question has never heard or seen Nelson.

The next day, the piece de resistance, the British Museum itself. What Cthullu or Adventure! player could pass this one up? All points of history covered, cuniform writing, greek writing, hieroglyphs, enigmatic statues and more. It's a one-stop shop for both culties and history buffs. I loved it. Well laid out and beautifully kept, it's only drawback was it was too big (like all the others) to take in in a day. Rats.

That night there was more London Pride and a comedy club. Food was italian. Not great. Also during Saturday I took in Hyde Park, saw the Diana Monument from a distance (She's DEAD! Get over it!, Harrods (the hats were too pricey, but the coffee was good), The Monument and the Palace of Westminster. I'm such a tourist. The Commie and I also made two attempts to get into Vinopolis for a wine tasting afternoon but on the Saturday the place was shut after 4pm to the public due to a wedding and on the Sunday we couldn't get any sense out of their auto bookings system so we missed the last tour by under five minutes. Advice: check in person one day and turn up the next.

Sunday was a day of faff. Not much on. Looked at St Paul's briefly, forgot that it was a Sunday and not everyone is a heathen like us and then went onto the final highlight of the tour, the Globe Theatre. We were lucky, our tourguide was one of those great British institutions, the eccentric old lady. She gave a most wonderful idea of how the Globe would have been in Shakespeare's day and what kind of people went to see it and what the theatre would be like to visit today. It was a shame that the place doesn't put on any perforances in the winter (open to the elements)'coz I would have booked a seat in the next performance like a shot based solely on her presentation. I bought my fridge magnets here. There's also a modern exhibition centre attatched with a gret display on the theatre's history, both original and modern and a magnificent display of costumes and props. Well worth £9 of anybody's money. In fact this was the only exhibition I had to pay into all weekend.

As a final note I must mention London's transport system, both above and underground. When it's good it's very, very good; when it's bad it's horrid. It seems that at the weekends they take certain lines off to do some extra maintenance but don't advertise this until you want to use it. A bit bloody hindering awakward if you're in a rush, but this did give me the chance to explain the rules of Mornington Crescent to the Commie who had never heard of the game despite living there for a year. I don't think I left him any the wiser.

Blogging on and off since January 2004.