Bayswater

Today we went for a walk through the Brompton Cemetery. It is only a short walk from where we are staying in South Kensington and a real mostly undiscovered London gem. It is a huge old place that could do with a bit of care and attention in places but has loads of ornate plots in a fantastic walled garden setting. There are also lots of very inquisitive squirrels and other wildlife roaming around.

After that it was off to the Science Museum which is in the same area as the Natural History and Victoria and Albert museums but we had not visited here previously. It’s really cool and well worth two or three hours if you find yourself in London. There are loads of differently themed exhibits and the one’s that really captured our imaginations were dedicated to flight and technology. We also saw a special exhibit on the work of the British GCHB (the secret communications monitoring service) which was also very good with lots dedicated to the Cold War era of the 60’s and 70’s and some of the goings on between Britain and the then Iron Curtain nations.

We adjourned for lunch (to a nearby pub naturally which had very effective and welcome air conditioning) and then went to Harrods to pick up something for dinner from their food court which has awesome (if pricey) fare. By then it was mid afternoon and I left Christine behind because I had a couple of choices of other things I wanted to do...

On our last trip here I made an unsuccessful journey to take a tour of Lords Cricket ground (unsuccessful because the last tour left literally one minute before I arrived and they wouldn’t let me tag on the end of it). So I’ve been a bit bitter towards Lords and the stuffy attitude of their staff ever since and I decided to exercise my second option - a trip to Wimbledon to see the All England Tennis Club Museum and tour the Centre Court.

Getting there was sort of simple. It is on the same line as that which runs from Earls Court station (a 2 minute walk from where we are staying). However I have a word of advice... I was fairly certain the best station to get to the tennis centre was Southfields but a bloke I got talking to on the train said Wimbledon Park was better. While that may sound logical, it wasn’t actually true and I had to backtrack to Southfields - don’t trust the locals, virtually no-one is actually a local!!

Anyway it turned out to be a fifteen minute walk from the station (in 30 degree heat), but well worth it and I have a couple of photos that will appear in the next update as I took them on a really old travel phone and transferring them needs another app. The centre court itself is smaller than you might imagine and certainly quite a bit smaller than the only other comparator I have - Rod Laver arena in Melbourne. Beautifully presented as you might expect and the museum tour is top rate.

Photos attached show... Brompton Cemetery buildings; the main pathway in the cemetery; one of the side paths; a squirrel paying me no mind at all; one of the many crows in the cemetery; the Science Museum exterior; and the interior; a typical Kensington street, me outside the pub we had lunch at!En savoir plus