The British Library and the Lego Store

 The British Library Treasures room was a real highlight of our day. They have so many amazing books & manuscripts that trace so much history. We also visited the Lego store on Leicester Square, which was very impressive, which explains why we had to line up to enter. 

An original manuscript by Handel

Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (I loved reading this in High School)

Original Monty Python - Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

The Magna Carta

A Gutenberg bible

Ground breaking research by Florence Nightingale about “Causes of mortality in the East” 1858, which led to dramatic improvements in sanitation and improved survival rates of soldiers.

Shakespeare’s First Folio 1623 (from the King George III Collection)

King George IV donated his father’s library to the British Museum in 1823. It was eventually moved when the new building of the British Library was opened. It is six stories high, in a cube arrangement (this is one side) with 65,000 books. When it was donated it was specified that the collection had to be kept together, and not displayed with anything else, which is probably how this way of displaying the books came about. It is a breath taking display of beautiful books, but it is a shame it is mostly locked away & not used. 

The British Library Bookshop had an amazing collection of feminist books when I was here 7 years ago, which I thought was for a special event, but it turns out they always have a great (& large) collection of feminist books on sale.

It was cold and rainy in Hyde Park, and Skye had it to herself.

The Lego Store has a working Big Ben (it tells the time, but no bells chime). This is half the size, as it takes up two floors.

Harry & Ron in the Ford Anglia

London bus

Lego Shakespeare waiting at the bus stop

Skye meeting a lego dog

The Lego James Bond Aston Martin was very impressive

Hermione & Crookshanks at Diagon Alley

Harry, Harris and Ron

Us with a Goblin at the Gringott’s Bank

I loved this beautiful gate

The underground lift system in some stations is wild (for those stations that have lifts)

The Diana Memorial Fountain & Animals in War Memorial

 Today was another quiet day for us.

We  went for a wander in Hyde Park (which is vast), walked along the Serpentine, visited the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, which was quite large, and the Animals in War Memorial.

Princess Diana Memorial Fountain. There were a lot of people there paying their respects, including some children running around playing, which was lovely to see.

I know this is supposed to be beautiful and respectful and architecturally designed, but this part just reminds me too much of the storm water drains near our old house in Kaleen.

Figuring out what to do next

Daisies in the grass at Hyde Park when the sun came out :)

Skye at the Animals in War Memorial, Hyde Park

Working phone boxes!! One out of five had a phone in it

Eating out in a restaurant for the first time in years

I just loved this sign

Apparently this is how you charge your car in this part of London

Skye likes to be able to touch me when she’s sleeping (at home her bed is raised off the floor and next to me), but here we are sleeping in a double bed and it really isn’t big enough for the three of us! So we are trying Skye’s travel bed on some chairs next to my side of the bed to see if we can all sleep better tonight. 

A New Adventure Begins

We are heading off on a long awaited holiday.

The first stage was flying to Sydney to have lots of vet visits (3 in total) to get Skye’s final paperwork completed (the vets were great, but we had to do some running around to get the right tick and flea treatment so she can come back to Australia). 

The next stage was to fly to London via Singapore. Both flights went really well (the A380 plane is so smooth and quiet, especially after the Dash8 flight up to Sydney). The Qantas staff in the air and on the ground were all amazing, making both flights go really well. 

Skye travelled in the cabin with us, sleeping at Nikki’s feet (she spent most of both flights asleep). Unfortunately in Singapore we only had 45mins to find somewhere for her to pee, but we eventually had success. 

Day 1 in London has been very quiet, just checking out the local neighbourhood, including the massive Hyde Park, which Skye seems committed to sniffing every blade of grass and tree.

Skye ready to go on her first long flight

Farewell Sydney!

Skye snuggling in on the flight

The cabin crew took a selfie for the Qantas staff newsletter (Skye was happy, really, she was just very tired in this photo)

Snuggled up in bed

She didn’t get her own seat, but she did steal N’s seat when she went to the loo

London Baby!

We probably won’t be getting Skye to pee in this park

Getting my creative on

Back in Tokyo

There is a special place in heaven for the person who invented the Japanese Baked Cheese Tart

Hawaiian Garlic Prawns for breakfast - because it was either this or an Australian Meat Pie (I couldn't find a Japanese breakfast anywhere near Disney)

Mmmmmm fresh Tofu for dinner (with gyozas, but I ate them too fast and forgot to take a photo)

Vietnamese Pho for lunch

In our hotel room there are instructions that in the case of a fire we are to fill this plastic bag with air and put it over our head. I've never seen anything like this before.

Our train was 1 minute late!!!

This is an ingenious solution to a drip in the train station

This is how we are currently travelling - not so light