England and Ireland---Day 8

Our chariot arrives

Jiti and I took the bus into London today.  I had wanted to see the British Natural History Museum.  London has a congestion charge of £10 for driving into the central area from 7 AM to 6 PM on weekdays so taking the bus avoids this charge in addition to making it very easy to park---you don't have to.

Windsor Castle

Interesting ride in, as we were on the top of a double story bus, in the front seat.  The bus goes through Windsor (with a stop at Legoland) then Slough.  From Slough its an express to London, where the bus goes down Kensington Rd and lets you off about four blocks from the museum.  It only takes one and one-half hours of air conditioned comfort to get into London.

 Main hall. Check out
the dinosaur skeleton

Museum wasn't too crowded except for the school groups.  The dinosaurs were the worst.  The museum has an impressive collection of fossils and has them exhibited very well indeed, but, of course, that's where all the kids wanted to be.  This is a huge museum and choices have to be made.  We went to the Birds, which has not only existing birds, but also specimens of extinct species.  The dodo and passenger pigeon, for example.  In addition, there is a skeleton of a giant moa, a New Zealand bird hunted out of existence by the Maori.

A real Neanderthal skull
Not a model...real.

After a pick-me-up of coffee and a sweet, I went to the Treasures-Cadogan Gallery.  This is where the choicest of the Museum's 70 million specimens are displayed in one place.  I saw a first edition of "On the Origin of the Species," a page from Audubon's "Birds of America," a moon rock presented by Nixon, a dodo skeleton, and so on.

Getting out is harder than getting in.

We then caught the bus for the ride back to Ascot.  Ride home was two hours, half an hour longer, because of traffic.  Also warmer...guess I brought too much sunshine with me.

Windsor from the road.