Australia: Tasmania bound

Marching on with getting the blog back up to date! Here's what went on during my first week in Australia and my long-awaited return to beautiful, wild Tasmania.

Jetlag, jetlag and more jetlag

On my first full day in Australia, having slept most of the previous day and remarkably well overnight, I dragged myself to the cafe just across from the hostel, had a nice healthy breakfast and dragged myself back. I had every intention of exploring. After all, I was staying in Bondi and even though I didn't fancy the crowds, I thought I should at least check out the beach.

As it was, I spent the day reading, writing and feeling a bit grotty. How delightful. I dragged myself back to the cafe to pick up some tea and that was it. No exploring. Nothing. Still, I did at least take a couple of photos. Here's the view from the hostel roof.

Not Bondi Beach, but pretty.

I also discovered, much to my annoyance, that the shuttle run by the hostel started later in the morning than I needed it. The buses were also going to be unhelpful. Which meant I had to book another taxi to return me to the airport. Ugh.

HI, TASSIE!

While there is a note in my journal that reads HI TASSIE, it's preceded by a lot of grumbling about the fact that I had to get up at 3am, because I had to get all my stuff together and stumble out to wait for what I knew would be another over-priced taxi.

When the friendly taxi driver dropped me off at Sydney's domestic terminal just after 4am, most of the airport wasn't even open. I had a fight with Jetstar's self-check-in, got the lady at the counter to fix it and then settled down with an enormous cup of tea to wait for the security area to open up. This is what I get for booking the first flight out of Sydney.

Of course, security did eventually get going, I toddled through and plonked myself down near my gate with one of those handy sockets they've started putting in airports so I could get some charge on the tablet.

And then my gate got changed because one of the crew was ill. Which is fine, but I had to tramp all the way to the other end of the terminal. It wasn't even 6am. My brain really wasn't in the mood.

Oh well. I'd been organised and paid for breakfast on the plane, so I nibbled a chocolate muffin and enjoyed another cup of tea as Tasmania slowly hove into view out of the window.

I love Tasmania. I studied there for a year when I was doing my degree and fell head over heels for it. It's quiet, it's wild and it has the most amazing wildlife. So despite it still being far too early according to my jetlagged brain, I was strangely chirpy when I finally arrived in Hobart.

In the interests of preserving my somewhat ragged brain function, I opted for another laid back day. First stop, a stroll out to Sandy Bay to see if I could locate my old student house, via lovely Salamanca.

The mission was a success, but given that the house is clearly no longer a student house and there were people working in the garden, I didn't dare take a photo. Shame. Still, I followed up that wandering with a trip to Banjos, which is possibly my favourite cafe in the world. They specialise in pies and they are delicious.

And then I spent the rest of the afternoon lazing around the hostel, saying hi to the hostel's dogs and trying to work out what I was going to do with my time in Tasmania. For the first time on this trip, I'd really let go of my need to plan things ages in advance. I had 5 nights booked in Hobart and that was it. For me, this was somewhat terrifying, but, well, I got used to it...

But I want to walk...

First thing on my list of things to do in Tassie was to go up Mount Wellington. It overlooks Hobart and I saw it every day from my house but never went up it while I lived there. I solved that by taking the free hostel shuttle up on the Monday morning.

Gorgeous views from the top, despite a few clouds. I'd fully intended to walk down. God knows how I did it - whether I'd slept funny or maybe slung my rucksack over my shoulder a bit too enthusiastically - but my back had been playing silly buggers all morning. I thought I'd be all right once I got moving, but as soon as I started wandering around at the summit, it hurt. Like hell. So I hopped back into the shuttle feeling annoyed. Maybe I would have been OK, but I really didn't like the thought of getting part way down the mountain and being in that much pain.

Instead I had yet another lazy afternoon, which was getting boring. Eventually I managed to lever myself out of the lounge and went in search of a new pair of sunnies, given that my current pair had just completely disintegrated after nearly 6 months on the road.

Be amazed, people who know me. I not only bought a new pair of sunglasses, I also bought a nice sundress. I figure I'll be needing it in the heat.

And then I made another failed attempt at bloggery. Good god, I'm getting bad at this.

Booking galore

After visiting somewhere new on the Monday, on the Tuesday I decided to revisit one of my favourite places in Hobart, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG). It's free entry, which helps. It's also had a major overhaul since I was living there, with a whole new gallery space and a big redesign on the old galleries.

Unfortunately, the old galleries were closed for redisplay, so I had to make do with the new ones. I wasn't disappointed. There are some fascinating little things in there, going back to the early days when Tasmania was a major destination for the convict ships. There's also a great new exhibition about the impact that colonisation (or invasion) had on the Aboriginal population, especially interesting since Tasmania is the only state where the native people were near enough wiped out.

From the museum, I stopped by the tourist info centre and then spent the rest of my afternoon booking trips galore - Bonorong Wildlife Park, Bruny Island, Wineglass Bay and Cradle Mountain. The next few days looked set to be pretty busy.

Whale farming?

First stop of the day - Bonorong Wildlife Park, another place I wanted to revisit. Bonorong is a rescue centre as much as anything, taking in injured wildlife with the aim of rehabilitating and releasing. They have a lovely little collection, like this beautiful young wombat, who slept through everyone patting her bum.

And Fred the cockatoo, who will be living out his days at Bonorong as an ex-pet. I had a rather one sided conversation with him, since all he says is "hello, Fred."

Fun fact: because Fred was a pet, they know how old he is and he's over 100. Cockatoos are known to be long lived, but still, that's pretty impressive. Friendly old chap.

My favourites at Bonorong though are the roos. These guys aren't for release, so you get to feed them. Surprisingly gentle, but very persistent. They will hang onto your hand so you can't leave and anyone silly enough to lower the bag will have it taken from them.

Following on from the lovely, laid back atmosphere at Bonorong, I visited MONA. That's the Museum of Old and New Art and it is bizarre. The collection is a hodge podge of mainly modern pieces, although I did find some cuneiform tablets and a print of The Great Wave Off Kanagawa.

Half of the collection seems to be NSFW. Like the wall of plaster cast genitals...

Basically, MONA is interesting as a one off thing, but it's not somewhere I'd be hurrying back to. And this is coming from someone who appreciates weird. MONA feels like it's just there to get a reaction out of people. It's almost shallow.

Anyways, moving on from my half-hearted critique of MONA, I spent the evening trying to be social. This wasn't too hard - I got chatting to a couple of folks at the hostel. All was going well until I had to explain to one of them that whale farming isn't a thing. Oh god. And then I overheard someone saying she hadn't realised that Scandinavia wasn't a country.

At this point my brain pulled a big fat nope on me, which is probably a good thing because otherwise I would've despaired at the lack of general knowledge around me.

I went to bed and read some of my Terry Pratchett instead.

My brain is fried

Early on Thursday morning, I dashed out the last few words onto my NaNoWriMo project. Oh yeah... NaNo. I haven't mentioned that for a while. Not since I spent all week on Chiloe writing ALL THE WORDS. As it is, I ended the month with 117, 381 words, which is a new record for me. On the downside, it completed frazzled my brain, so it's probably a good thing that I planned to spend the day sitting back and letting someone else do the thinking.

The minibus came by just after 7am and then we were off on our way to Bruny Island, another place I'd never got round to visiting when I lived in Tassie. First stop, Kettering to hop on the short ferry ride over the D'Entrecasteaux Channel.

Then swiftly on to a honey farm for delicious sweet things.

And onwards to Cape Bruny and its convict built lighthouse. Gorgeous views. The next land south of this point is Antarctica. That might explain the somewhat chilly breeze.

The lizards didn't seem to be too bothered though.

From there we headed across South Bruny to a berry farm for lunch. I'd brought mine with me but that didn't stop me from indulging in a delicious slice of baked berry cheesecake. There is no before shot...

Lovely little beach just across the road, with a lovely view over Adventure Bay. Stupid selfie time, I decided.

At this point, we took a break from eating delicious things and instead went in search of the famous Bruny Island white wallabies. These guys aren't actually albino - they're just an unusual colour morph. And we did find one, hiding in someone's garden. Bad photo is bad.

Wallaby sighted, we headed back on the food trail. Next stop, cheese, my favouritest food in the world and something I've been missing since I left the UK. The Bruny Island Cheese Co more than made up for it. Delicious strong cheeses that actually taste of something, plus a delicious quince jelly and fresh bread.

Om nom nom. My delight was somewhat lessened by the next stop at the Get Shucked oyster farm. I've never had an oyster before. I like mussels. I was hoping it would be similar.

Nope. Maybe if they were cooked, they'd be fine, but raw oysters are not something I want to try again in a hurry. Yuck.

Stuffed full of delicious (and not-so-delicious) food, we headed back to Hobart, where I spent a delightful evening discussing Terry Pratchett with a French chap at the hostel. I even managed to part myself from the Pratchett book I'd picked up in Canada months back in exchange for a different one from Fabien. I'm not letting go of my other Pratchett in a hurry - a friend gave me it as a leaving present when I first came to Tasmania 6 years ago and it's somehow survived 6 months on the road with me. A bit battered, but otherwise doing well.

Death to snoring

On my final day in Hobart I returned to the Tasmanian Museum to check out the galleries which had been closed earlier in the week. They've changed a bit since I lived there. Bit of updating been going on.

Still full of interesting little bits and bobs. And the Antarctic gallery hasn't changed a bit, which meant I spent far too long trying to melt my handprint into the ice block. Like a child.

In the afternoon, I hopped onto a bus up to Launceston, Tasmania's second city. It scarcely qualifies as a city, but since there's only half a million folks in Tassie, I suppose it's relative.

Tramping the half mile from the bus station to my hostel, I had to chase my hat across the road. That was as exciting as my day got until about 10pm at which point... well...

It started off with people turning the lights on and off with no regard for the folks trying to sleep. And then someone started snoring. Not just the little bouts that most people have when they snore. Constant snoring. I kept expecting the guy to wake himself up with it, but no.

And then someone else started. Good god. And he too wasn't stopping.

I needed to get up at 6am to go on my daytrip. I was not impressed. To the point that I very nearly got out of bed and shook them both awake just so I could get some sleep.

I really wish I had, because in the event I was too much of a wuss and spent the rest of the night with earplugs in and my head buried under the pillow. Ugh.

There goes week 1 in Tasmania. Week 2 holds much promise, with trips planned to Wineglass Bay and Cradle Mountain before I head over to the West Coast for the first time. Admittedly, the promise of the West Coast is rain, but I'm a Brit. I can handle that.

Maybe I'll get to see a snake...

Canada: Don't panic!

Woo, I've survived another week. It's been an interesting one and for the first time in a few weeks I've been in more than 2 cities over the week. Here's what's been going on.

The museum overload continues

Following a week where I pretty much went to a different museum every day, I went to a few more, beginning with the National Gallery of Canada. There, I started with the very small section of comtemporary Inuit art, given that the main Aboriginal art area was closed for refurbishment or something.

Some of these bone carvings are amazing. I mean, look at this.

Little bit in love with these things. Out of the rest of the gallery, I think the most amazing part was the reconstructed interior of the Rideau Street Convent Chapel. The gallery on the whole was pretty quiet, but I got this little gem to myself for at least 10 minutes. So peaceful.

From the National Gallery and intent on making the most of my museum pass, I headed just round the corner to the Royal Canadian Mint and took a little guided tour round the factory. They only make investment and collectable coins here - the main mint operation is based out in Winnipeg (maybe I'll see if I can visit that one in a week or so). Huge rolls of gold and silver were spotted - the silver rolls were worth about $20 million if I recall correctly or was that the gold? I should have made a note.

Unfortunately no photos allowed, presumeably for secutiry reasons. I also managed to really show up my Englishness when the guide got onto talking about which way round the monarch faces on coins - i.e when we get a new monarch, they face the opposite direction to their predecessor. Everyone's there going "oh, yeah, right, interesting" and my brain just goes, "you're missing someone. Why are those two facing the same way? Ohhh..."

At which point the guide goes "have you noticed anything strange about these faces?" and without thinking I pipe up "You're missing an Edward" and immediately go bright red for no apparent reason. Of course they're missing an Edward because Edward VIII abdicated before the Canadians had a chance to mint any coins with him on. But they kept with tradition so George VI is facing the same way as George V because Edward VIII should have been facing the other way.

Rambling over. Mint tour completed, I took a nice long break at the hostel before heading out later in the evening to see the light show at Parliament.

Very cool.

A potted history of Canada in about 30 minutes told through some amazing projections. And commentary, of course.

Lest We Forget

The following morning I took a stroll along the river path on my way to the Canadian War Museum.

Gorgeous weather and some lovely views. The museum also proved to be awesome. It's very in depth, covering the history of Canada's wars all the way from the first evidence of tribal warfare some 5,000 years ago right up to peacekeeping missions today.

The Memorial Hall was also lovely, although it would have been ever better if I hadn't walked in to two girls having a casual natter in it. They clearly weren't pleased that I'd interrupted them and I really wanted to make some comment about it being a memorial hall, y'know, for remembering and not for nattering. I resisted.

I spent the evening having a very long and rambling conversation with my dorm-mates at the hostel, courtesy of the WiFi being down. The WiFi needs to be down more often - people are so much more likely to talk to each other.

No worries - I set it off in the other building too...

I spent my final morning in Ottawa taking a couple of tours of the Parliament buildings. Very interesting, lots of history but I managed to set off the metal detectors in both of them. This is because I was wearing my walking boots which have metal fastenings. I would have worn my canvas shoes, but they were all packed up ready to take the bus to Kingston that afternoon. Bad move.

So, East Block houses some rooms decorated as they would have been in 1872. Lord Dufferin, the then Governor-General's office.

John A. MacDonald, the Prime Minister.

And George-Etienne Cartier, who was in charge of all sorts of important things, but on his untimely death was implicated in a massive bribery scandal to do with the Canadian-Pacific Railroad. As demonstrated by this cute toy train on his desk.

Centre Block is the building currently used by Parliament. More shinies, such as the library which was the only part of the block to survive the 1916 fire which destroyed everything else. I want this library.

And then there's the view from the Peace Tower, built as a later addition after the First World War.

Aaaand, then I had to go and get on a bus again. Uneventful bus journey was followed by a rather more eventful first night in Kingston. See, I booked an AirBnB. It would have been my first AirBnB stay. I hadn't received any communication from the host, which I thought seemed a bit odd, but figured maybe that's just how it worked and she'd meet me there.

I turned up at the address, knocked repeatedly, called the host and still couldn't get in. I also had a quick peek in the mailbox (and, as it later turned out, missed something important). No chance of getting in. Somehow I managed not to panic. Right, says I. What do we do now?

Find a Tim Hortons, says my brain.

Shut up, says the rest of my brain. I am not going to spend the night crying in a 24 hour Tim Hortons. I am a mature and responsible adult and I will find a way round this crappy situation. At which point, wandering towards the downtown area, I spotted a Holiday Inn. Great, I'm going to have to pay a stupid amount of money, but at least I'll have somewhere to sleep, I think.

So I go and ask the guys at the desk if they have anything available. I mention in passing that I'm asking so late at night because my AirBnB has gone tits up. The guys exchange a glance.

How much was your AirBnB? They ask.

Pretty cheap, I reply. To which, much to my surprise, they tell me that yes, they do have rooms available, but that I'd get a better deal round the corner at the Confederation Place Hotel. They even checked the price for me. I nearly cried at that because they could so easily have just charged me the higher price at their own hotel.

So I pootled round the corner to the Confederation and explained my predicament to the chap at the desk. Technically, he explained, they were fully booked for the night but they did have a room available that was for "emergencies". I have no idea what sort of emergencies they had in mind, but it suited my emergency just fine. He even let me check the room before I took it.

Huge room ahoy!

OK, it cost me about 4 times as much as my AirBnB room, but at least I had somewhere to sleep, free WiFi and breakfast was included to boot.

Bobbing along

I made the most of said breakfast the next morning before firing off a few messages to my mysteriously absent AirBnB host and another to a different host who looked to have a room available for my second night in Kingston. Second host got back to me within an hour, despite not normally taking same day bookings.

Achievement get: AIRBNB BOOKED.

I spent the morning enjoying the sunshine and taking a boat trip to the Thousand Islands which sit in the St Lawrence River which runs past Kingston.

Even got a glimpse of Lake Ontario in the distance.

Getting off the boat, I got to spend another hour sitting in the park enjoying some free live music. Celtic punk. Oh yeah.

I then had a late lunch at Morrison's Restaurant. I'm pretty sure this is the place I visisted with my parents the first time I was in Canada and it had amazing milkshakes. The milkshakes are still pretty amazing and so are the chips. Yum.

Proper milkshake. The sort you can stand a spoon in.

Aaaand, then I headed for my replacement AirBnB. Bryan, my host was there when I arrived and very welcoming even though my booking had taken him a bit by surprise. I didn't see him again after he left, but I did have his cat to keep me company.

Very fluffy, very demanding and very much in love with my boot laces. Having arrived so early, I wasn't sure what to do with myself all evening, so I took myself to Tim Hortons for the free WiFi at which point I found that my previously mysterious host from the night before had been in touch and was very apologetic. Looks like an email she normally sends guests to let them know how to get in, hadn't got to me. On top of this, if I'd taken a closer look in the mailbox, I would have found the key to the property and been able to let myself in and probably work out where I was supposed to be sleeping. Fortunately, she agreed to refund me, so all is sorted now. Yay.

All in a small town, Napanee

All this meant I slept very well in my nice private room, a first since I've been away. It even meant I was nearly fully awake when I got on the bus the next morning to head south to Toronto, passing Avril Lavigne's hometown on the way. I have no idea why I remembered that.

Toronto is... big. Very big. But it's also not as hectic as you'd imagine a city this size to be. Unfortunately, despite arriving quite early in the afternoon, I spent the rest of the day sitting in the hostel feeling sorry for myself having come down with a disgusting cold. As I write this, I am onto my fourth packet of tissues in 24 hours. Urgh.

Land of screaming children and sharks

I made up for that wasted afternoon by starting the next day bright and early. Although, I must admit that the early part was rather due to my disrupted sleep - woken up at 2am by the guy in the bunk under me crawling out of bed and throwing up. On the floor. Right next to my bag. Ewwwww.

Anyway, I dragged myself out of the hostel intent on exploring the city. It was pushing 30 degrees, so I decided against wandering around too much and instead tried to find somewhere indoors. I settled on the CN Tower.

Great views, but absolutely rammed with tourists. I did manage to get a photo through the glass floor, diving in for a minute as soon as there was space. I don't remember it being this busy last time...

It still being horribly hot when I stepped out of the tower, I headed next door into the aquarium. This was both awesome - they have sharks.

And cool jellyfish.

And I got to stroke both a very small bamboo shark and a horseshoe crab.

However, it was also rammed with screaming children. Urgh. Looks like everyone had had the same idea as me for avoiding the heat. Yuck.

After the aquarium, I thought it was probably a good idea to book my train tickets and promptly nearly had a heart attack at the cost. I'm so glad I budgetted for this, because I think I would have taken a bus otherwise, however long it took.

Fortunately, I then had a lovely evening chatting with my fellow hostellers about random crap. Hostels are awesome places - how often are you going to get English, American, Swiss, German, Lithuanian and New Zealanders all chatting together?

Pottery and dinos and minerals, oh my

I have spent today in the Royal Ontario Museum. I only meant to spend a few hours there and it turned into nearly 7. The museum is huge and covers a huge range of areas from anthropology and social history through to natural science. It's hard to pick highlights, but Harold was rather concerned that I was going to feed him to the Allosaurus.

Other interesing sections included a small selection of Ainu artefacts. The Ainu are an indigenous people from northern Japan and the Kuril Islands and while I've heard of them before, I don't think I've ever seen anything about them in a museum.

Oh, and I just about resisted the urge to sing Treguna mecoides trecorum satis dee at every single suit of armour I walked past. There were more than I expected.

Also, that particular chap had a pretty cool Mughal period recurve bow. Not that I have an unhealthy interest in medieval warfare or anything. It's just good research for fantasy writing. Like that makes it sound any better...

Basically, I had a great day geeking out about all sorts of things. Plus, I saw some black squirrels in the park on my walk back.

I still have a few more days in Toronto. After that, I'm heading down to Niagara, then Hamilton before embarking on my epic train ride across the country to Vancouver. Would you believe I still have over a month left in Canada?

Maybe I'll squish in a few more museums before then?

London: Highlights in a Day

So you're only in London for a day and you want to see as much as you can without running around. What should you see and do? I spent a day traipsing round London with my sister doing the following and we reckon these are some of the best bits of the city. We did this route in reverse on a Sunday, skipping the Natural History Museum because of the massive queue at 10am (opening time). Even missing that out, we were done by just gone 3pm.

Before we start, you're going to need comfortable shoes and you won't want to be carrying a heavy bag around with you. There's a fair bit of walking involved.

Start your day with a history and culture fix at the British Museum (nearest Tube Station: Russell Square or Holborn). It is entirely possible to spend the whole day in here (this is a recurring theme with London museums) so we've picked out some highlights for you. Start off by popping up to level 1 and seeing the Lewis Chessmen and the Sutton Hoo treasures. Beautifully crafted, they are. Then head down through the early Britain and Persian galleries and turn left into the Egyptian galleries. It's always busy in here, but if mummies are your thing, it's worth it. After that, head down the East Stairs, cross the courtyard and aim for room 21 where you can see fragments of the tomb of Mausolos, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Follow the galleries through here to see some amazing pieces of Assyrian sculpture. This is the sort of stuff a certain terrorist group are currently blowing up in the Middle East, so make the most of it. More suggestions for the British Museum can be found in THIS POST.

Treasure from the Sutton Hoo burial

Once you've got your fill of history, take a walk south to Covent Garden. This takes about 15 minutes. Or you could take the shorter walk to Holborn Tube Station and hop on the Piccadilly Line to Covent Garden Station. Have a wander round the little shops and check out the street entertainment - it's normally pretty good round here.

In a kilt. Up a ladder. With knives. Covent Garden entertainment.

Move on from Covent Garden towards Trafalgar Square, another 10 minute walk. Or take the Tube (various options) to Charing Cross. Trafalgar Square's great for people watching, so make sure to spend a few minutes enjoying the view and then pop into the National Portrait Gallery, just round the corner from the National Gallery which fronts onto the Square.

Portraiture isn't really my thing, but the Tudor and Stuart galleries are pretty interesting and probably the only thing I'd personally take in. From there, move on to the National Gallery. Plenty of amazing artwork to go at in here. The majority of the collection is on level 2 - just go straight up the stairs as you come through the main entrance at Trafalgar Square. Take in Van Gogh, Suerat and Monet (rooms 43-45), Caneletto (room 38), Turner's beautiful seascapes (my favourites, in room 34) and Rembrandt (rooms 23-4).

You might be getting a bit peckish by now. There's plenty of cafes around the Square, but I would suggest if it's a reasonable day, grab something to go and sit by the fountains to eat. Again, great for people watching.

From there, hop on the Tube from Charing Cross to Westminster (via Embankment). At Westminster, take a stroll onto the bridge to get those classic shots of Big Ben and the London Eye and then head north past the Houses of Parliament to see Westminster Abbey. It currently costs £20 to get into the Abbey, a price I'm not quite willing to pay, but do have a look inside if you can - I hear it's beautiful.

Carry on walking up Birdcage Walk. This will take you up alongside St James' Park and up to Buckingham Palace. It is always busy round here, but especially so at the Changing of the Guards. Take those selfies (or whatever it is people do at Buckingham Palace) and then head across the roundabout to take the road up past Green Park. If you're a bit lost, look for signs for Hyde Park Corner. At the top of the hill is the huge Wellington Arch.

If all that sounds like too much walking - it's about 30 minutes altogether - and you're not too bothered about Buckingham Palace, hop back on the Tube at Westminster and take the District or Circle lines to South Kensington. If you've done the walking, take the Piccadilly from Hyde Park Corner to South Kensington.

During the holidays and weekends, this must be one of the busiest stations on the Tube network and it's because some of London's most popular museums are accessed from it. We're suggesting the Victoria & Albert Museum as your first stop here, purely because the Natural History Museum is best left till late in the day.

So, head up the subway from the station and head into the V&A. Again, you could spend most of the day in here, so we've picked out some highlights. First, the costume gallery (room 40), to the right hand side if you enter through the Exhibition Road doors - a great view of how fashions have changed over the last few hundred years. This will lead you into the Asian galleries. We'll come back to this in a bit, but first head straight across into room 48a to see the amazing Raphael Cartoons - these are full size template drawings to be copied as tapestries. They're in amazing condition given their age. Once you've admired these, head back into the Asian galleries, making sure to check out the Islamic Middle East section (room 42) and from there go onto the Cast Courts (rooms 46a and 46b). These are full of various replicas, including a plaster copy of Trajan's Column.

History and art fix filled? Tired? Why not take a break in the V&A's awesome cafe. It gets busy, but if you've got time, it's worth it for the joy of eating in this room.

Awesome, right?

Anyway, head now up Exhibition Road away from the station. A 10 minute walk will bring you to the top where you need to turn left. You should see the Royal Albert Hall. Cross the road to get a better view of it and of the Albert Memorial which stands opposite. There's nothing to do here, just a nice view and we've tried to bring you to the Natural History Museum as late as possible.

On which note, we now need to head back down Exhibition Road, towards South Kensington Station. The Natural History Museum is on your right near the end of the road. Take the Exhibition Road entrance into the Earth Galleries. Take the escalator all the way up to the top floor and have a wander around the Volcanoes & Earthquakes area. Have a go on the Kobe earthquake simulator - great fun for kids (and adults, let's be honest).

Into the bowels of the Earth...

Head back down to the ground floor and take a walk through the Green Zone. You should end up in a corridor full of fossil marine reptiles - one of my favourite parts of the museum. If you want to see the Natural History Museum's famous dinosaurs, now is the time. Cross the main entrance hall and enter the Dinosaur Gallery on your left. If it's late on in the day you should be able to enjoy the gallery at your own speed. If you've timed it wrong, you'll just get swept along in an irritable crowd.

The final suggestion I'd make for the Natural History Museum is the Darwin Centre. This is always quieter than the rest of the museum, but if you get creeped out by things floating in jars, it might not be for you. You've been warned.

That completes our suggestions for seeing London's highlights in a day. Obviously, these are just our ideas of what constitutes the highlights and I'd love to hear what others would include. Aside from the Tube, all the places included here are free entry. The Tube will be cheaper if you buy either a travelcard or get an Oyster Card. You'll also find getting on the Tube easier if you move down to the end of the platforms - the end carriages are quieter.

So, what do you think? What are your London highlights?