Yes, I am aware that I’ve missed April. The weather was so wet and cold that we actually couldn’t really be bothered with much and there didn’t seem much point in spending money just for the sake of saying we’d been somewhere! We enjoyed a cosy month at home, I did a bit of sewing so all was well with our world. So we’re down to 11 in 12 but it doesn’t have the same ring to it does it? I’m sure we will make up for it later in the year.
For May though, I had booked a trip to London to see Mrs. Doubtfire the Musical at the Shaftesbury Theatre. We stayed at the Travelodge, Covent Garden as we often have before, it is in a great location just along from our favourite pub, the Craft Beer Bar on High Holborn. It was bank holiday weekend and we had booked to see the matinee show on the Sunday, which we like to do because it gives you the evening free to wander around and have a drink and a meal without clock watching. The show was absolutely brilliant, the guy playing Mrs. Doubtfire was so gifted at accents and the whole cast was just fantastic. A really entertaining show and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys fun musicals.
Afterwards we went into the Craft Beer bar for a couple of drinks before heading off to Bella Italia for a meal and then on our way back to the hotel, it would have been rude not to call into Lowlander for a Belgian beer. I’m really not as drunk as I look on this photo, I promise!
On Monday I had planned to visit the African fabric shops on Middlesex Road to buy some African waxed fabric for dressmaking. What I hadn’t realised was that the shops would be closed for the bank holiday, so that put paid to that plan! We then thought we would instead go to Little Venice where there was to be a canalboat festival which is apparently now in its 40th year, and it seemed like it might be a nice day out, however the weather put a stop to that, it was chucking down…..again! Right, where to go in London on a rainy bank holiday Monday then? The museums of course. We’ve been to a few of them and really fancied the London Transport museum as we’ve never been there, but that was fully booked so we decided on the Science museum as that was new to us too. Whilst waiting for our time slot we popped across the road to the V&A and had a look in the garden at the back, the John Madejski garden. This is the start of the architecture trail at the museum and I’ll be going back for a visit at some point as we didn’t have time to follow the trail. We’ve now been to the V&A three separate times and still not seen it all. It is vast and a great resource for learning and just wandering around enjoying the exhibits.
Back across the road to the Science Museum, which is also enormous! These museums are all free to visit and are incredible. We enjoyed all of the science museum but I was particularly interested in the ‘Who Am I?’ gallery which explores what makes us, DNA and hereditary factors fascinate the genealogist in me. The aircraft gallery was Patrick’s favourite area, with aircraft through the ages and lots of interesting information boards about prominent people, I was pleased to see a focus on women in aviation at a time when it was no easy feat for anyone, let alone a woman, and we found that the original ‘Jason’, Amy Johnson’s bi-plane in which she flew to Australia is on display, so I naturally had to snap a picture.
After looking around the three floors of this fabulous museum we were tired so it was round the corner to the Zetland Arms for a late lunch/early tea before getting the train home again.
Once again London, you were amazing and we can’t wait to go back.