Southbound - Easter by Rail
A happy closeness of events meant that our usual journey back down to North Yorkshire was extended to encompass attending one of my friend's wedding near Norwich. We decided to do the whole trip by train.
The morning of Easter Sunday saw us taking a trip down to Saltburn where I flew my kite on the beach, we ate chips, and then we strolled back through the gardens before driving home for an afternoon of Easter egg hunting.
To join the two weekends together we booked a few nights in London, journeying down by train and staying in a Kensington hotel, just down the road from the Natural History Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum. I used the first sunny afternoon to make my first visit to the V&A since I saw an exhibition of Leonardo's sketches. I returned to the hotel by way of Hyde Park and the Royal Albert Hall. The hotel turned out to have a fabulous view to the west where a constant stream of lights showed the approach to Heathrow.
The next day we took the tube into central London, heading to the Courtauld Gallery to see the small but equisite Picasso exhibition. Then it was across the Thames to the Tate Modern for the impressive Lichtenstein retrospective. We returned to the hotel via St Paul's and a tube ride back across the capital.
With Leslie working I had a day to explore London myself. I chose to visit the Royal Academy, the Science Museum (really enjoying the Turing exhbition including my first sight of an Enigma machine) and then another trip around the V&A.
On the final morning in London we went to the British Museum to see the Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum exbition. A truly astonishing collection of artefacts slightly ruined by the crowd and the tiny placards.
Then we caught the train through to Norwich for the wedding which was lovely. On the Sunday we had a free day to recover and overcame our hangovers with a stroll by the river and a pub lunch.
In the evening I went out with Tommy to try and hear the elusive boom of the Bittern in one of the local broads. We didn't have any luck with the Bittern but did enjoy some of the local wildlife, as well as the local brew on the way home.
The next morning we went round the cathedral before catching our train back north. With changes at Peterbrough and York we eventually got back to Aberdeen after a 9 hour journey.
