On Holiday, Day 5, Lunch, Tanks and James Bond

With being here for 15 nights I can do the tourist thing at a very leisurely pace. None of this getting up at the crack of dawn and having to get 'dressed' for breakfast. I usually spend the first half of my day lazily lounging in my pajamas, enjoying my coffee, catching up on emails, uploading and organizing my photos from the previous day. You know, what a real holiday should be. The idea is to return home rested and relaxed. Not stressed and in need of a holiday from your holiday. So what this means is I usually just plan on seeing one thing a day.

Today I am meeting a friend for lunch. The restaurant is just around the corner from tower bridge and I had this amazing cod battered with chili and coriander seasoning and Asian vegetables. YUMMY! I didn't take my usual meal photo as this place looked a little on the posh side. But you'll just have to take my word for it that it was aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

After the nice long lunch catching up with my friend I decided to check out the Imperial War Museum. It's one of those places that I've heard about and when taking the bus back I pass on a regular basis. I had noticed that they had some banners advertising the new exhibit on Ian Flemming, author of the James Bond book series (and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as I discovered) so that intrigued me enough to check it out.

The museum itself is free, but the Flemming exhibit had an admission charge. When you walk in the first thing you are greeted to in the large open atrium are the tanks. Every little boys dream to see these monstrous vehicles up close and personal.

I take a wee wander around but eventually pick up my ticket and go into the exhibit. I found it quite interesting but not entirely sure it was worth the 8 pound charge. But that's just me.

The museum is massive and I barely scratched the surface of it as I hadn't done any research into what they have. But I'll put it on my list of things to go back to a bit later in the holiday.

It is still roasting outside and this is affecting my energy levels. Once outside I make a b-line for the kiosk to get an ice cream. All they've got are the prepacked treats, no real cones where they ask you if you want one or two scoops. But at this point I don't care, I need the sugar as a bit of a pick me up and the frozeness to combat the heat. The museum is surrounded by some park space and I found this beautifully haunting memorial sculpture .