A week in London: museums, shows and a running tour!

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We had nearly a week in London - my third home town (Melbourne, Canberra, London, in order of where I have lived). It was at first a little odd being back, lots different but lots the same. But sadly not incredibly familiar anymore.

The train trip down from Edinburgh was quite scenic. Lots of rolling green hills scattered with fields of yellow. Some googling suggests that these yellow fields are in fact Rapeseed or oilseed rape; bright dandelion yellow flowers. Historically this has been used as a 'break crop' to suppress weeds and improve soil quality for cereals such as wheat and barley.

These days though it's being used in anything where vegetable oils are used - so in things like margarine, in salads and mayo etc.

Our Airbnb apartment in London was up north, near Kensington Palace and Hyde Park. So an area I was not familiar at all - couldn't afford to live up that way when I was here the first time.

We were close to a few different tube stations and lines so very convenient. The apartment itself is in a block of serviced apartments, so was a decent sized one bedroom with a teeny tiny kitchen, the smallest we have seen this trip. The negative was the washing machine in the building rather than the room but it was free so couldn't complain and were only intending to wash once while in London to get us through.

The other big negative, which only eventuated much later the first night but more so the next morning, was the crappy crappy (I cannot understate how crappy) shower. It was basically scolding hot or a trickle of cold water. And the water pressure sort of 'pulsed' if you attempted to get water somewhere in between.

Even the cold taps in the basin and the kitchen initially came on cold before turning into a dribble - something seriously wrong with the cold water valve. The first night I showered was my last shower in the place - I resorted to a bath instead on the days that followed, a very English thing anyway! Hate hate hated it because if that. And yes, we did inform the owner and he told us he was going to get someone out to fix it that day - he didn't. So I don't think he will like the review we give him... Oh well. Not my problem.

We spent the next (almost) week touring the main sights in London. Strolled through Kensington Gardens and past the palace and Diana memorial. Through St James Park looking at the swans and ducks, as well as the London city views.

Saw Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus. Went shopping in High Street Kensington, Oxford Street and Shoreditch. Didn't buy a lot though but certainly hit the streets hard.

As per our usual routine with new cities we did another Sandemans free walking tour. Guide almost sprinted us around London, it was certainly the fastest walking tour we have done to date and probably covered the most distance too.

Naturally we saw Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, London eye, Tower Bridge, Downing Street, Buckingham Palace, St James' Palace and St Paul's Cathedral. Even walked past my old office building on Victoria Street! And if course the spinny New Scotland Yard sign too.

I also wanted to make sure that while I was repeating some attractions and sights that there were some new ones added into the mix. One of those was the Churchill War Rooms.

The Churchill War Rooms is a museum and part of the Imperial War Museum - it includes both the Cabinet War Rooms and the Churchill Museum. The Cabinet War Rooms are essentially an historic underground complex, during WWII it housed the British Government Command Centre. The museum then showcased the life of Winston Churchill.

The map room was in use throughout the war and manned around the clock by navy, army and air force staff who produced a daily Intel summary for the king, PM and military COS.

When Churchill was appointed as PM, he visited the Cabinet Room and declared it as the room from which he would lead the war. More than 100 cabinet meetings were subsequently held over five years until the German bombing campaign ended.

We also visited HMS Belfast, another part of the broader Imperial War Museum. It was originally a Royal Navy light cruiser but is now permanently moored on the River Thames. It was constructed in 1936 and commissioned shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War.

It struck a German mine in 1939 and spent two years undergoing extensive repairs. It played an important role assisting in the destruction of German warship in 1943 and supported the Normandy landings.

The ship also saw further combat action during the Korean War before undergoing extensive modernisation in the 1950s before being retired and saved from scrapping in the 1960s when it was decided to save her as a museum. A pretty reasonable audio guide saw us visit the boiler and engine rooms, the bridge, see where sailors slept and ate, the kitchens and equipment rooms. To say there were a lot of steps up and down is an understatement!

We also took the opportunity to visit the British Museum. It was incredibly busy since we visited on a Sunday (and admission is free). We wandered through the Egyptian displays as well as the Ancient Rome and Greece areas.

I also took time out to jump a train for a little day trip to Manchester to visit Soma, who I met at a hostel in Budapest and have travelled with a number of times since. It was great to catch up and reminisce as well as finally meet her man too! And have some yummy cocktails and a tapa style dinner.

While I went to Manchester on my own Stuart took the opportunity to visit both the Air Force Museum as well as check out the Rolling Stones Exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery. Apparently the highlight at the museum was a big bomber and at the exhibition it was the master tapes where he spent some time listening to each of the components of songs individually.

Stuart also went up to Manchester on his own another day (we couldn't time it very well!) to tour the Manchester City Stadium. Apparently the tour was 'ok' but probably not worth the two and a half hour trip each way!

In keeping with the maritime theme of our museum visits we also headed out to Greenwich one morning to check out the National Maritime Museum. The highlight turned out to be the first exhibit we went in - a WW1 battle between English and German warships which resulted in a massive loss of life, the Battle of Jutland.

Stuart also had a chance to sail a Navy frigate through the heads at Sydney Harbour in the ship simulator, plus we learnt a little about Lord Nelson (from Nelson's column in Trafalgar Square) and saw lots of model boats. Well, I guess they are probably considered replica boats rather than models.

We also visited the Imperial War Museum (proper) down south. The museum is very well laid out and has some great displays. The World War I exhibition in particular is very well laid out, lots of text and items on display, plus a good mix of audio visual info. The videos were concise and interesting and while there was a lot to see and do you could easily see the main points and choose what to look at in more detail. While there we also looked at the World War II exhibition, the recent 'war and peace' exhibit, plus the displays on MI15 and MI16 and spying during the war.

I also toured the Museum of Brands, Advertising and Packaging. The museum, while small, has gathered all sorts of marketing material and items since the early 1900s. Unfortunately it mostly focused on UK brands, some of which I was not at all familiar with, but some others I knew well. It was quite interesting seeing how much of an influence brands have/had on everyday culture and a 'social history' style timeline.

There were plenty of toys and games, royal memorabilia (I didn't know that when the Queen married Phillip that Britain was still being rationed so the ingredients for her cake were donated by the Girl Guides of Australia!!), magazines and books, products, plus old radios and televisions and the like. Guinness adverts saying it was good for you and Ovaltine teething rings too.

I spent nearly an hour there as I went close to closing time but probably could have spent a lot longer! The historical displays were of most interest but I did laugh at the extensive One Direction and Frozen displays when it came to the 2000s onwards periods. Another thing I found amusing was the fact that when Great Britain transitioned to decimal currency they launched board games to 'make shopping in decimals fun and easy'. Hmmm.

We also took the opportunity while in London to see a few shows. One of the things we had pre-booked was the Faulty Towers Dining Experience. It was essentially adining experience in the Fawlty Towers restaurant. Manuel, Basil and Cybill run around yelling and screaming at each other - climbing on and under tables and generally acting in a similar way to the TV series of the (not quite) same name. We were seated on a table with seven other English people in two separate groups. So in between antics we chatted to them - one of whom was celebrating a birthday.

At one point Manuel was standing on the table in front of me and then started combing my hair with a fork! That was after he put a serviette on my head. There were lots of the usual style of antics too - Cybill trying to maintain order while Basil gets up to antics and Manuel blunders around.

Thankfully there were also some real waiters around who were the ones who, for the most part, served us our meals. Unfortunately a few people found false teeth in their soup, thankfully that was all part of the act though!

We also got tickets for a comedy performance called The Comedy about a Bank Robbery. It was showing at the Criterion Theatre which is right at Piccadilly Circus. Quite a small theatre. Very entertaining show, although may have tried a little too hard to be funny at times. It has only been showing for about a month or two. Without giving too much away, the show is about some incompetent thieves, a snoozing security guard, some hilarious impersonation antics and an enormous diamond.

We also saw the Book of Mormon again on our final day in London - a matinee performance. We had seen it in New York and found it funny so figured we might as well see it again since we had a 9:30pm flight and wanted to use up a few hours in the afternoon. It too was as funny the second time around so glad we saw it.

Oh and while in London we ate at a pub, had fish and chips, an Indian meal, take out, cakes and sweets and a bit of fast food. Plus rode in a cab when a tube lined got shut down, grabbed an Uber to the airport and generally experienced London life as best as we could.

London - I said this last time but I'll be back one day! For now though, it's a long trip back to Canberra via Dubai and Melbourne and a weekend at home before back to work and reality.

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