Today was an interesting day – lots of sights but we didn’t stay at any for more than half an hour.

We set off in 20 degree weather (and humid as usual) and were able to take our favourite 88n bus all the way through Westminster to Trafalgar Square. There we hopped off and spent some time in the National Gallery. We’d always planned to only stay there if there were suitable family friendly activities, so we started by asking the front desk where the best exhibits were for children.

They sent us to the end of the third floor, however their suggestions turned out to be no more than large paintings – which were only remotely more interesting to Oscar than small paintings. The quality of the collection was excellent however, with huge room after huge room full of works through the different centuries. Mil and I enjoyed looking around for half an hour and reading the inscriptions next to each painting, but we could have spent all day here and really didn’t scratch the surface. I took a few obligatory pics just to prove our attendance: The Hay Wain by John Constable (1821), Calais Pier by Joseph Turner 1803, Execution of Maximilian by Edouard Manet (1867 – this one was cut up by the artist himself and bits were sold individually, but were eventually reassembled) and Venice The Feast of Saint Roch by Canaletto (1735).

On leaving we spent a few minutes in Trafalgar Square, thankfully free of the hundreds of pigeons from my last visit. The kids had fun watching a floating Yoda levitating using only The Force.

We then moved on to a kid favourite and parent nightmare – M&M World. We paid a visit purely on the strength of another school family’s recommendation, but in reality it’s just a place to spend a lot of money on chocolate. There’s nothing to “do” other than wander around and fill up bags with your selected M&Ms (which you can buy pre-packaged from the supermarket for a fraction of the cost). We walked out having spent 25% of our daily food budget on a lot more chocolate than we needed.

From M&M world we wandered around the shops of Covent Garden, eventually stopping at a reasonably cheap café selling pre-packaged rolls, to be either eaten in or taken away. We regrouped and then split up, with Zach, Oscar and I tackling the British Museum, whilst Mil and Annie went shopping.

The free British Museum is rated the number one tourist attraction in London by TripAdvisor, and we entered the majestic building with high hopes that it would rank up there with the Science or Transport Museum. However this museum, whilst undoubtedly containing an impressive collection, was more along the lines of a traditional museum. There were thousands of ancient artefacts, all laid out neatly behind glass. When we asked where to head for the kid section, they directed us to the ancient Egyptian mummies. These were mildly interesting to Zach for a couple of minutes, however the whole museum was geared to adults who could move through very slowly, taking their time reading the inscriptions for each object. So like the National Gallery, we entered and left within half an hour.

Around the corner from the British Museum is a Cartoon Museum, which the kids had begged us to take them to. So I duly took Zach and Oscar along, and met Mil and Annie there. Kids were free, and my ticket thankfully didn’t cost much as the cartoon collection was quite basic, and most were political satire in nature. Oscar found a very quiet secluded space to recharge, whilst Zach worked on learning how to draw cartoon figures from an instruction book.

It wasn’t long after Mil arrived that we moved on again, this time to try a traditional English afternoon tea of scones, jam and cream in a nearby café. We all took it easy here before making our way back to Westminster.

It was quite late in the day but we were all still feeling energised and keen to fit in one more thing, so we visited the Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral. This relatively new church (built around 1900) is particularly active, with Mass celebrated six times each day. Even as we were there we noticed a large number of people gathered for individual prayer.

However the church is most famous for its bell tower, and we took the lift to the top (unfortunately they wouldn’t let us walk up the 300 steps) for extraordinary 64 meter high views in all directions. It’s only from this vantage point that you notice the absence of many high rise buildings in London. There are certainly a number scattered around, however not nearly as many as you’d imagine for a city populated with nine million people. The lookout is an excellent substitute to the pricey London eye, and our family ticket only cost only £12 (around AUD$20).

The weather had turned a bit sour as we left, with light rain and a stiff breeze, in stark contrast to the stuffy Underground return journey.