London: South Kensington; Friday, 26 August, 2022

I had an early breakfast and was out of the hotel just after 09:30, walking the short distance down the road to the Natural History Museum to be there for it’s opening at 10am.

I spent nearly 3 hours looking round the Natural History Museum taking in all of the galleries and only briefly stopping for lunch. After the Natural History Museum I headed round the corner to the Science Museum and spent a couple of hours looking round that as well.

From the science museum I continued wandering up Exhibition Road to Hyde Park to take in the colossal Albert Memorial, located at the top of the cultural quarter that Queen Victoria’s husband had wanted to create prior to his death.

From the Albert Memorial it was a very short walk across the road to the Royal Albert Hall which I had booked a tour of. The tour took in most parts of the public areas of the hall, including climbing right up into the galleries at the top of the auditorium. Whilst we were visiting the Finnish Radio Orchestra were practicing for a concert they were giving as part of the Proms that evening so we were able to listen in to part of their rehearsals.

As we were the last tour of the day it meant there was less need to get us out and the next group in, so we had a more relaxed tour that ended up taking nearly 90 minutes rather than the 60 minutes originally scheduled.

From the Hall I walked back through Kensington and down to my hotel to freshen up and grab a quick bit to eat before hopping on the Piccadilly line and heading into the centre of London to go to the theatre to watch Les Mis.

After an excellent performance I headed back on the tube to the hotel and turned in for a well-deserved nights rest.