London 2020

We arrived on an overnight flight at Gatwick and traveled on a Thameslink train to St Pancras . We ate lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant and then checked into our AirBnB flat on the top floor of the same building.

We had this one bedroom flat (all in cost of £100/night). The kitchen allowed us to self-cater and the living room was especially useful for the 8 hour time adjustment. We went for a local wander and bought some groceries at Tesco and called it a day.

We took a bus from Russell Square to South Kensington and then wandered around the district.

We were with the first to enter the Natural History Museum that day.

The building is as impressive as the contents.

The Natural History Museum is packed with exhibits.

We then strolled over to the nearby Victoria & Albert Museum.

We started with a much needed coffee at the V&A cafeteria.

We got off to an early start and had a good look around St Pancras station.

The hotel at St Pancras reopened in 2011.

One of the hotel staff suggested that we take a look at the staircase.

It is a single piece of carpet.

Sir John Betjeman was passionate about Victorian archicecture and helped save St Pancras station from demolition.

Although “The Meeting Place” sculpture at St Pancras Station did not receive positive critical acclaim, we liked it.

The frieze on “The Meeting Place” was added later.

Frieze on “The Meeting Place” sculpture.

We took a bus to Goodge Street and walked around Fitzrovia and Great Portland street

We dropped into the “The Attendant” which was an underground toilet in a previous life, but nowadays serves up good coffee.

We were still on the early side when we walked along Regent Street. We visited Hamleys, the toy store.

The Burlington Arcade was one of the first shopping malls, and it was still quiet that morning.

We wandered along Piccadilly, past the Circus over to the Covent Garden area.

We even found Covent Garden itself to be quiet. We fortified ourselves with lunch at an Itsu (Japanese fast food) before heading out for an afternoon of galleries.

First, it was the National Portrait Gallery

We had a brief interlude at Trafalgar Square

Then we entered into the National Gallery

As you would expect, the Van Gogh paintings attracted a crowd

No crowd at Seurat's bathers

This masterpiece was painted by an unknown Flemish artist.

We were overseen at the Grant Museum of Zoology

We began to fade after a full day out and headed back to our flat.

We often walked to Russel Square for buses and saw the morning bike commuters.

We prefer the buses to the tube. They can take a little longer, but journeys are more interesting (bus 59).

We were at the Imperial War Museum before opening.

The Imperial War Museum has undergone an impressive upgrade since we were last there.

We took the C10 bus over to Pimlico and were surprised by how quiet Tate Britain was on a Thursday afternoon.

The Tate features fine art pieces in a beautiful neo-classic setting.

Victoria Palace Theatre was our next destination. I took this photo when we were leaving, by bus.

We had tickets in the stalls to see a Hamilton matinee performance. We enjoyed it immensely.

Many of the obsolete gasholders have been integrated into the modern landscape.

The Camden area was heaving with people even on a winter afternoon.

The Saturday was our Southbank day and we caught a bus into the City and walked across the Millennium Bridge to the Tate Modern museum.

There is quite a nice City view from the Blavatnik Building Viewing Level at the Tate Modern.

Modern art often begs the question; what does it mean?

Giant teeth, well, they mean a great deal.

We went to the Mayflower which is one of the oldest pubs in London

There we met some of Sheila's London family for lunch.

Afterwards, we wandered along the Southbank and took in the Tower Bridge

The architecture on the South Bank has changed so much in recent decades.

We hopped on a bus home and went by iconic St Paul's Cathedral.

We were further into the adjustment to the local time zone and took in an enjoyable Saturday night performance of Tina at the Aldwych.

It was a Sunday and we walked over to the British Museum. At first it was reasonably quiet.

But as the morning advanced, Europeans on week-end city trips began to flow in the ever popular museum.

We left the ancient Egyptian collection a little too late as it was tight to see the mummies.

It was our last full day in London, and the first rain. Not bad for a mid-winter visit, in fact there is a strong case to be made to visit large European cities in winter!