A Last Look at London

The last two weekends we've spent our Saturdays in London (check out Evan in front of the Paddington Bear statue at Paddington Station). The first time we went because it had been a good solid week of cold and rain and we just had to get out of the house so we checked out the London Science Museum. The London Science Museum is free and it's great! There are all kinds of cool exhibits about materials: the evolution of plastic was a great display (with thousands of the plastic strips you use to block the passage of contaminants/air between rooms), exhibits about space, cars, and best of all a place called Launchpad that is a hands-on activity area for kids where they can look through giant lenses, make giant bubbles, play with light, waves, pulleys, and build their own bridges out of foam blocks. It was a bit chaotic but lots of fun. Then we visited Covent Garden, a market area of London. It is also a place where the street performers congregate (sword swallowers, jugglers, etc..) so it was just an exciting place to be. We did a little shopping and headed home.

This last Saturday we drove to the London Zoo. It's on the outskirts of London so, while you can avoid the city congestion fee zone, you don't avoid the congestion. It was worth it, though. The zoo has a little bit of everything and it's laid out in a nice open plan so you feel a little closer to nature. There's a small aquarium there, the reptile house where they filmed a scene from Harry Potter (for you fans), there are animal shows where ferrets run around and parrots and hawks fly right over your head, and there's a playground, carousel, and butterfly house.