Ex Bibliotheca

The life and times of Zack Weinberg.

Sunday, 28 March 2004

# 9 PM (GMT+1)

Visited the Science Museum. They have big collections on the history of different kinds of engine: steam engines, airplane engines, jet engines, and even Babbage's Difference Engine, which they built a full-scale working replica of. There is also a cute interactive exhibit on materials; you get to test steel samples for hardness, figure out what kind of failure some broken part suffered, that sort of thing.

I was going to go to the British Museum too, and at least walk past Sir John Soane's Museum (which is also closed on Sundays) but I was too tired.

# 6:20 PM (GMT+1)

Free day in London. I walked up Portobello Road, but unfortunately (it being Sunday) almost all the shops were closed. Looped round and walked through Kensington Gardens. This is distressingly manicured; all the trees are in straight rows, on a flat plain of grass. The fountains at the head of the Long Water are nice though. Now eating lunch in a little cafe across the street from the Science Museum of London.