Day 3 in London

We had a great night's sleep last night. 'Wicked' was great (after dinner at our hotel) - fabulous singing (Michelle, you would have loved it) and the lighting and scenery was spectacular too. The first Act was the best, in my opinion, but David missed most of it, but was awake for the second Act. We had great seats, right up close to the stage, and nice and 'cheap'. Great choice, thanks to checking out the reviews online for which were the best seats for various prices.

Today the weather has been a bit grey, with rain threatening. It was because of the weather forecast for these days, that we changed our plans around a bit for what we wanted to do. Today was meant to be wet, so it ended up being a museum day. We headed to the Tube at 9.10 am, and had to let 3 trains go by before finding one we could actually squeeze into! (Check the iPhone photo album). I hate to think what'll happen when Swine Flu hits London, the way everyone travels by tube!

Finally we got to the British Library and followed Rick Steve's guide book again for a brief tour of some key exhibits. What an amazing place with all sorts of historic and authentic documents from through history. We were interested in the Magna Carta and the first Bibles. There were even original music scripts from the likes of Handel, and Beethoven's tuning fork. Also compositions by the Beatles. Some of the first maps of the UK, and actual pages from Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks were fascinating too. The history behind these items was really interesting.

Then we moved on to the British Museum, again with Rick Steves in hand. There we focused on the ancient Egyptians and the Assyrians. The first item you encounter is the Rosetta Stone - amazing. There were lots of Egyptian mummies. I've got some photos to upload for that (check the London album to see if I had time to do so).

Then we caught the bus to Oxford and Regent Streets. We got a bit lost and disoriented, but got sorted out thanks to a kind gentleman who stopped to help when he saw us looking confused with our map. We had lunch at Leon's again, then I found there was a Clark's shoe store and purchased a pair of shoes and a pair of sandals (at last, eh Michelle!). Not far from there was the Apple Store - YEAH! What an amazing place, absolutely PACKED with people (see the iPhone album, and those photos were only of the first floor!). I bought an armband to put my iPhone in. This will be useful for when we're in Italy and listening to the podcasts of the various places we'll be in, such as Pompeii.

By now we were starting to wilt, but caught a bus that dropped us at Hyde Park, where we walked in to see the Diana Memorial and the Serpentine. Then a walk down to the Natural History Museum. By then we could hardly walk, but managed to drag ourselves around the Earth section looking at the displays about earthquakes and volcanoes, and then to the main section that I wanted to see - the Dinosaurs exhibition. Fantastic! Ross, you would have loved this when you were 4 years old!

Next we caught the Tube 'home', realising on the way that we'd forgotten to call into Harrods - drat! Oh well, we called into the local pub for a drink, and have booked our taxi to Paddington Station for in the morning, and our flight to Rome. We'll head back to the pub for dinner very shortly. I'll upload photos when I get back. Then it'll be time to pack for the next leg of our journey. I suspect internet access will be a lot more difficult (these London posts have been from a computer in our hotel room, and wireless on my iPhone).