Kathryn's 30th Birthday

This is a short blog to summarise our recent short trip to London to celebrate Kathryn's 30th Birthday. It was the first break we have had away together in almost 18 months since our last holiday to New York, so it was well overdue!

Friday 13th May 2016

It began on the Friday as we drove up to Preston on Friday evening to stay with Stuart and Daniel. Stuart cooked a lovely lasagne and we stayed up a little late just talking and catching up.

Saturday 14th May 2016

It was an early start to get the train at 8am. Stuart kindly drove us to the station as we had chosen to get a fast direct train to London Euston from Preston which took just 2 hours, so we arrived just before 10am.

Arriving at Euston Station

After we arrived we headed straight for the Ampersand hotel so we could drop off our weekend bag and head out to the Natural History Museum.

View of hotel outside of South Kensington Underground station

After dropping the bag off, we headed around the corner for an early lunch before visiting the Natural History museum. The sun was out and it was warm enough to sit outside!

Left: Early lunch at Paul's bakery, Right: View from table outside

Unfortunately, when we got to the museum there was a queue to get in but thankfully it was only about a 30 minute wait to get in. It was warm and sunny and the queue was moving fairly quickly so it didn't seem like too long until we were inside.

Main towers illuminated by sunlight

Left: Front view of museum, Right: Closer shot of building

Main entrance hall to Natural History Museum

Fossil of stegosaurus skull

We also paid an extra fee to visit the Otherworlds: Visions of our Solar System exhibition by Michael Benson which was very interesting. There was a few selected photos for each major body in the solar system and some commentary alongside it to explain why it was chosen. We must have spent almost an hour just this exhibit.

Otherworlds Exhibition

After the Otherworlds exhibit we grabbed some light refreshments after the exhibitions and then went about the other parts of the museum which we wanted to see, although it was fairly busy by now so we didn't stay too long.

Refreshments in Darwin area

After the museum, we caught the bus from around the corner outside of the Royal Albert Hall and went for a brief visit to Selfridges on Oxford Street to have browse and pick up some little things from the food hall for later this evening.

Shopping in Selfridges

When we got back to the hotel our room was ready to check in. As usual, the standard is very high at the Ampersand and again the room was exceptional. We were able to take a short break before heading down to the lobby and cafe on the ground floor for afternoon tea.

Clockwise from top: View of room, little gift for Kathryn, bathroom and view from balcony

 Clockwise from top: Atternoon tea (Science museum theme), lighting display in main stairwell of hotel, and another of the afternoon tea

Afterwards we didn't do much except go back to our room, I had a bath before settling in for watching Eurovision, a guilty pleasure of ours, which provided enough entertainment for the rest of the evening.

Enjoying Eurovision 2016

Sunday 15th May 2016

We had a bit of a lie in before getting ready, packing our bags and heading out. We had pre-booked our tickets to the zoo and used the hotel printer to print them off before getting the tube to Camden Town.

It was very sunny and warm, we got ourselves a light lunch to eat before going into the zoo, and ate in the park next to the zoo.

Park near London Zoo

It was a short walk around the corned to the main entrance. Kathryn chose the bits she want to see and we went around to see everything. Strangely, it was actually too busy for a Sunday and we were able to get around easily.

Lemur enclosure

To avoid getting sunburnt, we went into the large aquarium half-way around the zoo.

Clockwise from upper left: Photos from aquarium, main enterance, yellow tang, giant oyster and freshwater fish

There was also an temporary indoor butterfly exhibit which was good, similar to the one we had been to at Chester Zoo.

Butterfly in Butterfly House

By the afternoon, it was still lovely and sunny and we saw the larger outdoor animals.

Left: Giraffe, and right: Pigmy Hippo

Blossom in the Zoo

At about 3pm, it was time to head back to Euston to catch our train home. We had a really good short break in London. It felt much longer than just 36 hours. We were able to walk back to the station as it wasn't too far and took about 30 minutes. Stuart met us at the station to take us back to their house before heading home to Salford.

Walking back to Euston Station