January 29, 2010: Amusements to Amuse Amused People

Friday, January 29, 2010 (Alexander): For our last day in London, we had rice pudding and porridge for breakfast. We then hopped on the Metro to go to the Science Museum. We come inside and we see too many things and get distracted. We go inside and see an Electric Circle for an electric theme and steam engines for the energy hall. We walk through the energy hall and use a quarter of our time there (30 minutes) and realize that we need to go quicker because we had only 2 hours to spend. Next we do the history of rockets, where many rockets replica rockets were set up to seem like they were flying. We see Apollo 11, the first one that made it to the moon. Next we go to a gallery that has lots of old items that compare to new. For example, there would be a record and record player from 1960s compared to a DVD player from 2008. It showed how both worked. There were also toilets cut in half – a cross-section to show how it worked. Next we go upstairs to the Launch Pad, an interactive centre to discover so much to do, that we spent half the day there. For instance, we built a bridge that seem unable to stand on, but we could stand on, made metal float, shot rockets using hydrogen and water, made pebbles fly in Pebble Works. Next we take the Metro from south Kensingten to Westminster to go on the London Eye, the world’s biggest ferris wheel (38 metres tall). Once we get our tickets, we were surprised to do the 4D for free. 4D is like 3D IMAX, but a little more real. For example, it would spray water at you when a water splashed on the screen. Where there would be snow falling we would feel cold water as if melting on our face or somebody blowing bubbles from the screen with real bubbles coming from machines. At the end, as we walked out, we go through knee-high smoke (dry ice). Next we go on to the real London Eye and get great views of London and many pictures by Karannina. We are so close to the Big Ben, we can get the sun right behind it. After thirty minutes of amazing views, we come back down and head for St. Paul’s Cathedral to meet daddy who just came from work. St. Paul’s Cathedral is the biggest cathedral in London, and maybe in Europe. We sit up in front under the Dome, the centre of the cross of the whole church floor, to hear the Evensong. A choir of boys and men, bishops, priests, and two women, marched us singing. The singing echoed through the whole church. It was beautiful. As I look up, I see lots of gold flakes and paintings on the ceilings of the disciples and stories of the New Testament. When I looked straight ahead, I saw more gold and paintings, a cross of Jesus with gold and Latin words inscribed on the ceiling, like ‘Sanctvs’ (the Latin letter for ‘u’ is ‘v’ and the word means ‘holy’). The cathedral was lit by candles and many bright lights shining on the tables, paintings and on the ceilings. After the Evensung, we walk to Charing Cross. Then we take our last Metro line to High Gate, pack, and sleep for our trip to Rome.