London Day 3: Natural History, Victoria Albert Museum & Harrods

After attending the 2nd day of the conference in the morning and afternoon, we spent the rest of the day visiting the museums at Cromwell Road. Most of the museums in London are FREE for visitors! Awesome right? =)

Mum and I boarded the tube on the District line (green) or the Piccadilly line (blue) to South Kensington Station.

South Kensington Station

Note that there are no lifts in this station so you'll definitely have to carry your stroller. If your baby is awake, I suggest carrying him in a carrier, closing and carrying your stroller up the stairs as it is a lot more tiring for you to carry the whole stroller (baby and all) up the many flight of stairs (we did it so we know)!

Our first stop was the Natural History Museum, which was just a 5-minute walk away. Follow the signboards in the station to the correct exit and then read the Direction Map (you know, the ones that say "You Are Here") that is mounted on a vertical signboard. There are quite a lot of these on almost every street so you should be able to find your way there quite easily. Alternatively, ask someone! =)

Natural History Museum
(Opening hours: Mon to Sun, 10am-5.30pm)

A member of staff welcoming all the visitors.
Although he has to repeat his speech possibly a thousand times a day,
he does it with the same amount of gusto each time! I thought he was great =)

The skeleton of a real dinosaur!

It's so big that I can't capture all of it in one photo

The Natural History Museum reminds me of "Night in the Museum" and "Harry Potter" (I'm quite sure they built the Harry Potter set based on this building)! The architecture is really spectacular!

Beautiful ceiling beams and staircases. Felt like I walked right into Hogwarts! =)

Lots of visitors on a normal Tuesday afternoon!

It's like a Noah's Ark full of animals!

The Natural History Museum is fairly baby-friendly, with nursing rooms and lifts located within the building. We didn't manage to look at everything in detail as we were with a baby (plus it was so crowded) so when we felt we had seen enough, it was time to go =)

We visited the Victoria & Albert Museum next as it was located just next to the Natural History Museum. Couldn't resist taking a picture with the iconic red telephone booth just outside the museum =)

London Telephone Booth
(a REAL one, not like the fake decor ones!)

Victoria & Albert Museum
(Opening hours: Mon to Sun, 10am-5.45pm)

Entrance to the Victoria and Albert Museum

The Victoria & Albert Museum is really a museum of the Arts which celebrates all kinds of art from all over the world. From pottery to painting to fashion, this museum has almost everything. If you're an art student, you will be in heaven (my buddy Hwa, you will love this place)! *laughs*

Fashion over the centuries

Me with a statue of a woman breastfeeding!
Not surprising that it's my favourite statue in the whole museum *laughs*

These are real statues!
Not like the "inspired" ones that we are used to taking photos with in Asia. These are REAL! *laughs*

A selfie with the mum

Lots of parents bring their kids here because there is a water fountain in the middle of the garden for the kids to jump around in. I could have spent a lot more time in this museum as I'm a lover of art but since my mum is not (and we didn't have a lot of time), we continued on to our next destination: Harrods!

Harrods is a 15-minute walk along Brompton Road from the Victoria and Albert Museum. It is a straight road to Harrods so it was not difficult to find. However, the road can be quite bumpy with a lot of traffic so by the time we arrived, we were so tired that we decided to rest and eat at PAUL (colleagues said that this was better and cheaper in London).

PAUL
Address: 122 Brompton Road
(Opening hours: Mon to Sun, 7.30am-7.30pm)

Look at the selection of bread and pastries! Yum!

We were so hungry that I only remembered to take this photo halfway through our meal!

The food is indeed wonderful! I loved the chocolate croissant, the Quiche Lorraine and the chocolate macaron *yum*

When our tummies were full, we proceeded across the road to Harrods, a large building on its own with floors and floors of all the luxury goods that you can think of!

Harrods
(Opening hours: Mon to Sat, 10am-9pm; Sun 11.30am-6pm)

Harrods is having their Summer Sale! Whoots!

It was the baby's turn to get his dinner so I nursed him at one of the nursing rooms in Harrods (detailed review here). The nursing room was really lovely, one of the best that I have visited in London =)

Nursing on a rocking chair in the nursing room!

We tried to do some shopping after that and only managed to explore a few floors as the place was huge! Strollers were not allowed on the escalators so we had to search for the lifts, which were located really far away. We ended walking more than we should just to hunt down that perfect bag or wallet. It was rather exhausting!

Anyway, after walking a few rounds and finding nothing that caught our eye (perhaps we were just too tired), we decided to head back as it was already late.

The nearest tube station, Knightsbridge Station, was just round the corner so it was pretty easy to get back to Hammersmith via the Piccadilly line (blue).

We were so tired that we fell asleep the moment our heads hit the pillows!


Continue to >> London Day 4: British Museum & Oxford Street
<< Back to London Day 2-4: The 9th ICCAP at the University of Roehampton

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