DAY OUT: London

Our day in London began at the Design Museum, where we visited an exhibition about the legendary 'Blitz Club' (birthplace of the 'New Romantic' movement in the early 1980s). It took about an hour to get there from Euston (as expected, with a line change and a walk through Holland Park) and we arrived about 15m before our time slot. They didn't seem bothered and we were allowed to go in straight away, indeed I think most places are pretty flexible about these 'time slot' bookings, especially if they aren't sold out.

It was quite a good exhibition, with a selection of clothes and photographs from the club alongside some background information about fashion/music magazines of the day like 'i-D', 'Viz' (not that VIZ!) and others. There was also a selection of vinyl sleeves and a large screen playing 'Fade to Grey' (Visage), 'The Freeze' (Spandau Ballet), 'Ashes to Ashes' (David Bowie) and 'Vienna' (Ultravox) in rotation.

In a different room there was a semi-animated performance of 'To Cut a Long Story Short' (also by Spandau Ballet - apparently the only band that ever played at the club) and in others all sorts of memorabilia (flyers, invitations, posters) alongside information about the influences that fed into the 'Blitz Kids' creations (Kraftwerk, European Cinema, Punk, etc).

Leaving the museum we took a short walk to Edwardes Square and the Scarsdale Tavern. After two really nice meals out already this week we weren't expecting anything particularly stunning, but the burger and chips were surprisingly nice (even the rolls, which looked a bit dull, but tasted great!).

I would have loved to sample their sticky toffee pudding, but mindful of a lot of walking still to be done, I gave it a miss. Great service here too, and nice loos. Definitely worth a visit if going to the Design Museum.

Finding ourselves with a bit of spare time on our hands, we decided to catch the tube on Earl's Court Rd and look in at Harrods. We hadn't been there in a little while and we had a brief look around at the jewellery, watches and handbags before getting back on the tube and heading to the Elipso VR Experience we had booked..

Our VR experiences have been a bit mixed; often good, but occasionally marred by malfunctioning headsets. This one though was pretty good. Again we got here earlier than planned (we tried to waste some time by looking for the Amy Winehouse statue in Camden Market, but still got there fifteen minutes early - not that it mattered). 

This one was pretty good, telling the story of the Roman Colosseum, from the perspective of a young boy and gladiator who took part in the games. It certainly conveyed the scale of the arena and the VR was quite effective, though as usual it was a bit tiring on the eyes after a while.

There is also a 'Titanic' VR experience which might be worth going back for...