Thursday 31 December

The alarm was back on to wake everyone this morning, so we could be on the tube to South Kensington station and at the Natural History Museum by the opening time of 10am. The museum (referenced in the Night At The Museum 3 movie) was amazing, and requires a lot longer to explore it than we had to spend there! All the museums in London are free to visit, which makes them even more fun! 

   
 We started in the Dinosaur exhibit and, after a coffee and hot chocolate stop at the first floor cafe, moved on to the Earth area, where we experienced an earthquake simulator (of Kobe Japan in 1995) and learnt more about volcanoes. The kids were excited to see information on Mount Vesuvius having just climbed it (although that seems a long time ago now!).

   
 Zac was disappointed we had to leave so early when he had much more to explore, and two and a half hours was nowhere near enough, but we had to be at Covent Garden for MY Christmas present, so reluctantly walked back to the tube station and travelled the six stops to Covent Garden.

At that station, the alternatives are to climb 193 steps (equivalent the signs say to 15 floors) to street level or catch one of four lifts. Sam and Belle voted against the stair climb, so we lined up for the lifts to find two of the four out of service! We were soon out of the station though, and had time to grab a quick and delicious lunch from a boulangerie near the theatre. Sausage rolls for the little three, quiches, frittata for the others, and I chose a roast turkey panini. We ate them on steps at a street corner, then made our way to the Theatre Royal on Drury Lane. 

We watched the Charlie and The Chocolate Factory musical (which was my Christmas present), which was great! Everyone really enjoyed the performance, which has been playing since May 2013 there. 

  
After the theatre, we wandered over to the Covent Garden markets and explored the shops in the area a little more. 

  
It started to rain then, which changed our plans to walk home from the theatre! We ducked into a Garfunkels restaurant for dinner, and were thankful they could take us without a booking on NYE in this weather! The rain had stopped by the time we emerged from the restaurant, so we wandered up to Leicester Square and caught the tube home, stopping at Sainsburys to replace our depleted breakfast supplies.

We did consider exploring again closer to midnight, but viewing along the River Thames is a ticketed event, and the weather is still not great. The tv tells us there is heightened security everywhere around London too 😬 Dad sent me a message to say it was good we did the north and Scotland when we did – the news is calling the floods up there the worst in a generation.

It’s been another big day in old London Town, and we are relaxing on the lounge with a glass of Italian prosecco in our apartment reflecting on 2015 as a whole and the emotions and experiences of this trip as we count down the last week of our holiday.