Wheel meet again

More London again today - this time all four of us.  We were meeting with good friends up from Devon.

We'd decided to meet in the Science Museum.  Wow, that place is popular - teeming with families.  It's a bit quieter on the higher-up floors, so while the Man and Girl went off exploring the Boy got to catch up with his pal, and I got to catch up with mine, and to be honest the exhibits (aeroplanes) were just a nice but rather irrelevant backdrop.  But we also nosed around the Maths and Computers floor (the friend is a Maths teacher) and had a think about teaching methods and the like.

The Man called up an old school friend who's now a Geology professor at Imperial College, just along the road from the museum.   He invited us to lunch in the faculty cafe, where the chips [fries], let me tell you, are plentiful. We hadn't seen him for more than twelve years, so it was good to find out what he's been up to - major stuff like having kids and finding out how the English Channel was created.

After souvenir shopping back at the museum it was time to accompany our Devon friends to Waterloo and bid them farewell.  Then, although the sky looked threatening, the Man, Girl and Boy bought tickets for the London Eye.  Before boarding they got to enjoy a "4-D Experience" - a 3-D movie which ends with a snow scene when they sprinkle you with actual snow and water, apparently (much to the Boy's irritation). I later got to have my own "4-D experience", watching the family go round in the wheel while it bucketed real rain on me.  In fact, by the time they all disembarked I was soaked.


A little nose around the South Bank to finish off the day - the "Museum of 51" in the basement of the Royal Festival Hall celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Festival of Britain (and featured some genuine state-of-the-Ark hands-on exhibits - a dial phone and a manual typewriter); and a fine vegetable garden by the folks that brought us the Eden Project, on top of Queen Elizabeth Hall.  And finally home, legs well-walked for the day.