Our sixth day in London was the last with part of our group, who had to return home to work and school. And we had to move to a smaller Airbnb as a result. Although a lot of the day was taken up by these logistics, we still managed to get in some good sightseeing...and experienced our first [and as it turned out only] major English rain.
First stop was Paddington Station, just, well, because...
Although it's a pretty impressive station, as you can see at the top of the post. And it's located in a very interesting part of London that I hadn't seen before.
We had a very pleasant walk after a yummy food truck lunch at Merchants Square, enjoying these canals and attendant cool buildings...
There was also this fun surprise: a family of ducks in their own special house in a corner of the canal walkway. The kids—and adults—were charmed and watched this family have their lunch for a good while.
There was also this interesting sign which I overlooked in my previous "amusing signs" post:
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| "considerate" meaning no early noise? no dropping pipes on people? |
Our next stop was the Science Museum, and since walking in London is a tourist attraction in itself, we headed that way on foot. Since one of our target areas was Hyde Park, which is on the way, it worked out well. And we were glad to be in the park when the rain came—heavy but not long lasting. The kids were able to find us good shelter under some of the parks lovely trees, and we barely got wet.
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| we opted not to visit Albert any closer than this |
Of course the Kensington neighborhood south of the park is always fun to explore, and nostalgic for me, since it was my old stomping grounds in 2008.
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| statue of a favorite explorer |
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| what a great idea to delineate the bike lane! tulips! |
On to the Science Museum, which was considerably re-organized since my last visit in 2008 (amazing! changes in 15 years?!). It ended up not being a particular favorite of most of the group, although it's possible tired legs had something to do with that opinion. However, at least one in the party is happy whenever something with wheels is on display:
Many thanks to the very gracious hosts at our big Airbnb, for letting us leave our luggage there while we did this touristing, waiting to check into our new place. Using that as our new base of operations (closer to a tube station) we were ready for a full day of adventures on Day 7. Stay tuned!
2 comments:
All that walking must have gotten you in good shape. The bike lanes on our streets are delineated by ugly white plastic bollards. Leave it to the British to do it with style!
I think we probably took a bus or tube somewhere in there, but it wasn't in my notes. However, it's a long way from Paddington to South Kensington.
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