Fun Friday at the Natural History Museum

This is Miles.  Miles is our Postal BookClub mascot.  He arrived in London this week from Kats in Switzerland along with her bookclub selection.  I will have Miles for the next two months before I send him off to Chris in Vermont.  Miles was excited for his first London Fun Friday.

I teased Miles that I would take him to the zoo (Bill said I was being insensitive - toughen up, Miles!) but instead I took him to the Natural History Museum.  It wasn't until I got there and realized it was full of DEAD animals that I thought maybe this was even less sensitive of me than the zoo?  

I'm not actually that excited about natural history but the building is beautiful.

 There were sculptures of animals everywhere in the building - like these monkeys climbing up the archways.  (Looks like it's time for a little dusting!)

 Miles enjoyed photo bombing the big game hunter….

 and Charles Darwin.

Giant Sequoia.

 The story behind this gorilla was interesting.  He came to the London Zoo as a baby on Guy Fawkes night in 1947 and was a hugh attraction for them.  People loved to see him scoop up birds and then let them go.  He died of heart failure during a dental procedure in 1978.  It took 9 months for the taxidermist to prepare him for display. 

Miles and I agreed that the building was the best part of the museum.  After an hour he was itching to move on.

 This is more like it - Miles enjoyed our stop in the park for a pastry and tea and bit of a read.

Still Guernsey - Castle Cornet

You may have noticed in many of our Guernsey pictures that there was a castle in the background.

This is a picture of Bill telling me to go have fun in the castle.  He wanted no part of it.

 Why wouldn't you want to go inside?  It was 4:20PM and the castle closed at 5:00PM.  I knew that on my own I could do a "Power Tour" and get out before they locked the door.

This was another one of those castles that do not have a lot in terms of interiors.  But I do love the stone walls, tunnels, and staircases that connect the various levels.

 And it had little formal gardens that are kept as they would have been centuries ago.

 There was also not much in the way of information - - no audio tour.  Just plaques on the wall but even those were a bit few and far between.  Well, there were some museums but I certainly didn't have time for those and they looked like places where there might be wax figures which are not my favorite.  

The castle was used by the Germans during the occupation and they did a few add ons like this little gunman look out box (I can't think of what to call this right now) named after a fraulein.

 Imagine sitting here for hours looking out for ships.

 These are the Musket Steps.  Rows of musket men would be lined up - as the top step fired they would step down and the next row would step up, fire and so on.  It was  supposedly efficient but it seems like they would bump into each other on the way up and down.

 And then it was time for dinner!!  Heading out for the night.

Day Three - Sunday in Guernsey

Remember when we were in Guernsey?

We were surprised to see so many things closed on Sunday and Monday. Many of the stores and restaurants take the long holiday weekend off.  Right when there is an influx of tourists around with money in their pockets.  To our capitalistic mentality this is mind boggling.

Lucky for us Sunday was the most beautiful of days so we had no interest in being inside.

We planned on taking a hike on the coastal trail on the east side of the island.

Jen was given a time out on the walk.

More beautiful every year.  

Meanwhile, I look more and more like a school hood friend of Jen's mother.

The hat and glasses covers up my advancing age a bit ... I'm hoping

Never mind....

On the way we passed this man made pool area where the channel funnels into.  This is it at the beginning of our walk.

The tide is low and the walls are exposed.

On the way back the tide came in and the walls were submerged.

This gives you an indication how long our day was.

This is the path on the way to Fermain Bay, our destination for the day.  We heard of a cafe and beach.  Our fingers were crossed in hopes that it lived up to our expectations.

The path was wooded, muddy and sometimes creepy.  Good place for a slasher to come out.

We meandered a bit on the way, getting a Guernsey ice cream, taking a bunch of pictures.  After an hour plus we are getting closer... we can see the bay through the trees.

 We saw this stone staircase in the distance.

 Leading to a little enclosed beach area.  

Queue up 'Ode to Joy'.  We made it.

The french horns have kicked into a crescendo as we see the beach and the cafe ahead.

Sweetness....

We loved this cafe.  It was the only game in town in this remote beachhead, but it didn't exploit that.  Most cafe's in paradise-like locations know they can get away with serving butter sandwiches.  Lack of competition makes people lazy.  

Not our cafe.  Jen had a lovely Pimms and a tomato mozzarella sandwich on ciabatta.  I had a steak on ciabatta. We got a prime table, looked out at the channel, had our lunch with drinks and everything was just perfect.

Before and after we ate we had a lie down and enjoyed some tea and some reading time.

We commented on the gorgeous weather a couple of dozen times.

I had one of my favourite cigar moments since being in England.  (and you know there have been many, many cigar moments)

The day was so nice that the British girls were out sunbathing.

.... or something resembling sun bathing.

Good beach for us.  We don't love sand.  We threw rocks in the channel.  Fun was had.

 A++ for this day.  One of our best vacation days ever.