Day 116
London is a fantastic city for museum-loving families. With more than more 45 free museums, there’s something to please every curious mind. This is our fifth time visiting the free London museums. When the girls were younger and had shorter attention spans, we could whip into the National Gallery and show them a Van Gogh, then to the Tate to see the crazy glass chandelier, go out for a bite, and then check out the dinosaurs at Natural History. This is a perfect way to prevent museum-fatigue or as we say it to honor the French language, meu-zeh fah-tee-geh.
Now that they have longer attention spans, strides, and brain stamina, we can pack in the museums. I’m usually done before they are. They’re also at the age where we can split up and meet back at a location if people want to spend more time in certain exhibits. Love traveling with older kids. Today we started at the Natural History Museum, then the Science, and ended the day at the British Museum.
First we took the Underground into the Victoria Station.
First on our list, The Natural History Museum. Perhaps the best exhibit here is the dinosaur. The coffee and crisps were also a hit with me.
Then we went to the Science Museum which has an extensive airplane history exhibit, one of Paul’s areas of interest. He thinks it’s one of the best in the world, and he’s been to a few. Cali did the flight simulator, where she could fly upside down and twirl around in loops. I had to look away it made me feel a little queasy just watching.
Finally we went to the British Museum. Madi wanted to see their Egyptian collection, there was also a Japanese exhibit, among many others.
After the museums closed we paused for a Starbucks coffee across the street. Yes, they are everywhere.
Next we went to Covent Gardens, looked through some familiar shops like the toy store. The girls remember watching buskers here when they were younger. Tonight there was an impressive string quartet playing instead of the street performers.
From there we walked down to Trafalgar Square. At dusk we ate at a little Italian restaurant just off square and took the tube home. Packed day, but a good one.
