Ticking Tourist Sites

After checking out of my ‘recovery from jet lag’ accommodation I headed in towards Earl’s Court to check into my new digs. I decided to book a hotel closer in for my last few nights as there were some things I wanted to do closer in and with leaving in a few days time it also made catching my trains easier. I got to my hotel a bit early so figured I would be able to leave my bags but was pleasantly surprised to find out my room was available for me so I checked right in. After settling in and calling my Mum for a chat, I headed out the door for lunch and exploration.

After grabbing a bite to eat I did the tourist thing and headed to Trafalgar Square. I didn’t have any plans or direction in going there, just picked it as somewhere to check out and off the things to do list. It was a lovely day, and of course busy with lots of people about. I ended up walking down a road and found myself upon Winchester Palace. It is an impressive building. There is definitely some cool buildings around the place. I explored a bit and chilled out in a park before heading back to do some work and chill for the night.

The next day I headed out towards Portobello Road, it’s pretty quiet on a weekday. The Museum of Brands was out this way so I popped in to check it out. It’s quite an impressive collection of items. It’s kind of cool walking through and seeing the packaging and designs of things across the years. Each space is kind of split into a decade or so, with some background on what was happening in the UK at the time, and the world. Seeing the 80’s and 90’s rooms held a lot of nostalgia and was interesting. There was a clear distinct time where pop culture and celebrity really blended with product placement. For anyone interested in design and branding this is definitely worth checking out.

In the last room there was a display that showed the top 100 most popular products in the UK in the previous year. It also compared those items to the year before. Where there were changes, etc. These were the sort of products you buy a supermarket. It was quite interesting to see the change in some trends and how plant based items had started to make more of an appearance in this list apparently.

That evening I headed out to Shakespeare’s Globe to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I managed to get myself a £5 ticket in the standing zone. I figured standing for a theatre show wasn’t much different to standing at a live music gig. Just, less dancing. I am glad that I got to have this experience and check out the theatre. It is quite pretty and the play was fantastic. The cast were great. Such a nice evening for it too. Perfectly comfortable weather.

The next day I just had a life admin day of laundry and that sort of thing. Prepping myself for leaving London on Wednesday.