Gabrielle Ingram

Beautiful weather and clear blue skies awaited us in London. Getting in early meant we had to put in a full day before going to bed, so that's what we did. Luckily for us, the Notting Hill Carnival, Europe's biggest street party, was hotting up just as we were about to head out, basically right on our door step.

First stop though was to buy a data pack, and with that in hand we were on our way.

The end of the main street was being cordoned off ready for the parade, so we just had to follow the crowd and wait. The Carnival is a celebration of the Caribbean culture, so there was plenty of colour and lots of loud horn blowing (called vuvuzela). There were loads of people and when Craig went out later in the evening to forage for food, he felt as though he was in a distopian movie as there were so many people moving around. Finn commented his first impression is that people in London all travel in "gangs".

Unfortunately the parade wasn't quite as coordinated as we would have hoped, so to save waiting around, we watched the first little bit and headed off through Hyde Park on our way to the Natural History Museum. Contrary to my sister's experience, we walked right in without lining up for an hour.

After that, we went next door to the Victoria and Albert Museum, and ended up having some scones with clotted cream and jam in a rather ornate tea room.

By this time, the feet were getting weary, so we jumped on a bus and headed home for an early night. Given we are at the tail end of summer, we were in bed before the sun went down (which the children thought was peculiar).Read more