Catch that train!

High speed trains leave on the hour and the half hour (in some places). If you miss it, another comes in 15 minutes, but it will take you twice as long to get there. This morning, I had to run to catch the fast train. I made it and then we ran into track delays anyway. No big deal, I enjoyed the ride and yet again I noticed several instances of people helping each other. People that don't even know each other will help carry bags, hold a train door, or several other things. Its really nice.

I also noticed many people dressed up in costumes. The costumes were mostly cartoon characters or custom costumes. There must have been some large event happening, but I don't see much about it on the web. "Timeout" is probably the best website to get info like that and I don't see much about it there either. 

Science Museum

I started the day at the Science Museum. I was hoping for hands-on activities, but there weren't very many. I was hoping for a nice balance of old science versus new science, and I was happily surprised there. I felt very old looking at computers in a museum that I had actually used when I was little, including the first pong game. The highlight was right at the front door and its hard to explain. Its a large circle about 4 stories tall with digital white lines in it. The lines spin around the circle and crash into each other. When you get to the top floor there a large sign that says "dont touch it" and they fully intend for you to touch it. When you do, it causes a loud noise and a minor electric shock. Its fun :)

Natural History Museum

Then I went next door to the History Museum. As you might expect, its full of rocks, bugs, space, human history and several other topics. I enjoyed the 'earthquake room', where you watch a short video and the floor shakes. The room looks like a grocery store, so several items make noise and even fall off the shelves, its quite an experience. The dinosaur room had a very long line, so I skipped it and the live butterfly exhibit came with a cost, so I skipped it. I figure we'll be back with the family to see those later. Oh, I enjoyed the "ant display" a lot. They built a glass enclosed area, about 5 or 6 square feet. The bottom is full of water and there are two circular wooden platforms. The platforms are connected by one stick. One platform has leaves on it and the other platform has an ant colony in a glass case. The ants carry large leaves across the stick and put them in the colony. Pretty fascinating, but I definitely checked my shoes and arms after walking away. :)

Oh, check out this front entrance to the Natural History Museum - great!

I walked one block over to the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum. I honestly had no idea what to expect. I was guessing art, but I wasn't sure. There was a short line to get in and it started to rain. While getting wet, I read the V&A sign that said "architecture, ceramics, fashion, furniture, glass, jewelry, painting, etc".  Perfect.

Victoria and Albert Museum

I thought it was a great museum, I enjoyed it, especially the Italian sculpture area. One quote really stuck with me "before world war one, design was global; after world war one, design de-centralized". It  made me wonder if maybe we're heading back towards global design? Do these pendulums swing back and forth over long periods of time?

I looked at the time and it was only 4pm, so I decided to run over to Wimbledon. It took 30 minutes to get there, then I walked their parks for 30 minutes before getting to Centre Court. I should have gone to Centre Court first because I missed the last tour by 9 minutes. I bought a tube of official 2014 Wimbledon tennis balls and came back home.

I was home just in time for Britain's Got Talent. The last act was really good and Simon put them through with the 'magic buzzer', which means they skip the next round and go straight to the live shows. Each judge only gets one magic buzzer for the season, so this was Simon's big move.