My last day in London. Travelodge, being forever helpful, won’t let you leave your bag at the hotel for the day so you have to either carry it around with you or rent a locker at Euston station. At least my feet and my legs didn’t feel as bad as they did the day before, so it’s off to my usual haunt for breakfast, along the Thames to the millennium bridge and Tate Modern.

I will always find Tate Modern and it’s contents completely fascinating and I'm not entirely sure why. Most of the items inside you couldn’t really call art, they aren’t the kind of pieces that you can stare at for ten minutes and see something new for that length of time. It’s more a case of the logistics of making it and setting it up in the gallery. The turbine hall contained the How It Is piece at the far end. You cannot possibly call it art at all, it is just a huge shipping container that is open at one end. It hasn’t been sculpted or moulded by hand in any way it has just been manufactured. You can walk up the ramp and go inside but there is nothing to see, it is completely black. You can hear kids running around, banging on the walls and screaming but that’s it. Possibly that is the point, how much more black could you get! There is a great sign near it which forbids flash photography in the exhibit.

I certainly wasn’t going to walk around carrying my bag so I left it at the cloakroom, purchased a ticket for Pop Life and started to wander. Pop Life was more interesting than the other exhibits, I think that most of the other stuff is static. The kind of pieces that can’t be moved because of their size and weight. One gallery contains a VW camper van and a huge metal slab that is hanging from a girder that mustn’t have been moved in years. Lots of cool stuff by Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, a piece or two by Anish Kapoor and a few items by Damien Hirst that I hadn’t seen before. The strangest of which was not the white calf with gold hooves in a gold framed tank but something much more alive. I was walking around one gallery and saw two young ladies, both blonde, both identically dressed and both twins. Strange to see twins that are dressed the same, surely that is just something that parents do to make their lives easier. Once they get a sense of independence, possibly around the age of 5 or 6, they want to dress differently. Anyway, I didn’t see them again until I was near the Damien Hirst exhibits, when I saw a member of the public talking to them. They were just sat on two chairs about 6 feet apart, any closer and it would have just looked strange. Later when I walked around for the second time they were just talking to each other. I think the description of the ‘piece’ just said Dixie Jo, but I may be mistaken.

It is such a great place that I always contribute the required amount at the cloakroom for looking after my bag and also at the donation boxes on the way out.

Back over the Thames again and down the Embankment, past the Houses of Parliament to Tate Britain. Again leaving my bag at the cloakroom. I did consider going to see the Turner Prize 2009 exhibits but after seeing them in Liverpool a few years ago I decided that paying for the privilege isn’t really worth it, unless you know what is being shown and have some appreciation of the artists. The other items were just as interesting, exhibits by Bridget Riley, Gilbert & George and some huge paintings by David Hockney. The other stuff I'm not really a fan of, the old masters I'm not all that interested in. Some of the oil paintings are interesting because of their size and the detail that goes into them but even the works in the Turner galleries, for me, weren’t worth more than a passing glance as I walked past.

Downstairs for a sandwich £3.50 and a cappuccino £2.20 and to collect my bag. The shock at paying so much for a butty and a drink made me forget to make a contribution. Oh well.

Walking back, in the general direction of Euston station, I had to stop off again at the Apple Store to see if they had any Magic Mice in stock. They were still just selling the Mighty Mouse that I had seen the other day, but I did get to try one on a new iMac and was quite impressed, both with the size of the iMac and of the new mouse. It just didn’t look as if they had any in stock.

My train back wasn’t until 8:00pm so I did have an hour or so to kill beforehand.

Pondering the events of the past few days I don’t think stay in London again. The expense of an overnight stay is too great, that and the lack of rest because you never sleep as well in a strange bed, just isn’t worth it. The journey from home to London is just over an hour and a half on the train. Booking in advanced the trip there and back only cost £30, even a return to Manchester costs about £15 and that’s only about 25 miles away. If there is something in the capital that I want to go and see I can book a ticket ahead of time and go down on an early train and return on a late one. It just isn’t worth staying over.

My legs ache, my feet still hurt, I have another day of walking ahead and to cap it all it’s raining. Not the water running down your neck kind of rain, just that fine drizzle that blows around instead of just having the decency to fall vertically.

Breakfast first then I decided to take the tube from Holborn to Tower Hill. I certainly couldn’t face walking the full distance again. A single ticket in zone 1 is now £4. On my first London trip it was, I'm sure, just £1. At least I bought Carnet tickets 10 for a tenner and that was it, all of my travel in London paid for. There was a change at one station and I ended up surfacing before realising my error and going back down underground to find the correct line. Getting through the barrier at Tower Hill was fun, as the machine took my ticket the gate snapped open, but I wasn’t quick enough on my tender feet and almost got stuck. The alarm went off but no one stopped me.

By the time I arrived at the Design Museum I was slightly damp to say the least. Thankfully they were open and I purchased my ticket by handing over £8.50. The first floor was filled with architects models and photographs of buildings, some actual, some proposed, including a few designs for Tate Modern that didn’t make the cut. Not all that interesting. The second floor seemed to be closed off. I don’t know if this is usually an exhibition floor, this being my first visit, but I'm sure there must be something there. The third floor had more architects models of futuristic houses as well as some artwork done by someone who did the design for one of the last Olympic games… and that was it. Talk about being completely underwhelmed! After seeing all the great stuff in the shop I thought that the museum part of it was going to be more of the same. Chairs, furniture, gadgets, iPods anything that is well designed and serves it’s purpose, but there was nothing like that. I'm sure I've been to the art galleries in Manchester that have had more ‘design’ items than that. Yes, bitterly disappointed having visited the place twice on consecutive days. I just had another walk around the shop, which was infinitely more interesting, and free, bought my pack of Field Notes memo pads and headed back across the bridge to Tower Hill tube.

On the underground again to Euston Square and a trip to the Wellcome Collection, which I had only passed the other day. I've always had a fascination for medical artefacts like this and admission is free. It is just wall to wall science. A printout of the human genome, that isn’t something that you’ll see every day and certainly isn’t something that I think you could replicate with a bubblejet printer. Guillotine blades, hair and teeth of those long since left us. Amputation saws, shrunken heads, male anti-masturbation devices, chastity belts, artificial limbs, dentists chairs, it’s all just wonderful intriguing stuff and did I mention that it’s free? The café was packed so I just had a little wander, more of a limp really, around the shop and then outside to decide what to do next.

I still had places I wanted to go to, Hyde Park in daylight might be nice and it had stopped raining. In the end I decided to head back to the hotel via M&S for something to eat. Walking was still painful to say the least so back down to Euston Square tube I went. At a ticket window I asked for a single to Tottenham Court Road, the bloke behind the glass said that I just needed to go up the stairs and left and that was Tottenham Court Road… and like an idiot I did just that. I guess it did save me another £4 tube fare. So I ended up walking back to the hotel. By this time I was limping quite badly, so much so that passersby were checking my left leg to see if it looked wooden.

Back in room 721 of the Covent Garden Travelodge I lay, under the duvet, eating my sandwiches, watching afternoon TV and I really noticed how grubby the room was. The ceiling was false, which is fine, but they always seem to be made from the same substance that egg boxes are made out of, that really course cardboard that has just been loosely mashed together. So there’s a brown stain on the ceiling, a light bulb no longer works over the door, the window frames are metal and have fixtures missing, this allows cold air and any outside noise easy passage into the room. There is both a vast air-conditioning unit, which looks as if it was fitted in the seventies, I didn’t try it, and a Dimplex heater, again untested. One wall had a large bubble in the wallpaper, another had scuff marks from a boot, it was certainly a boot as there was also a clear print of it on the wall. I counted 4 electrical outlets that must have been in use at some point but now just had covers on them. The bathroom was in a similar state of disrepair. Caps that should have been covering the heads of screws were missing, fixtures like the toilet roll holder had been broken, replaced with new holes drilled without filling in the old ones. A bath was completely out of the question as there was no plug. Four drill holes in the tiles didn’t seem to perform any purpose and lastly, the one thing that never seems to work in hotel bathrooms, the ceiling extractor fan didn’t work. Or possibly it was so efficient and well made that it was inaudible. A snip at £120 a night for a room with only a single bed.

It doesn’t stop there – the other annoying thing was that the two lifts had indicator numbers for the floors, so that you knew if it was your floor. The LED indicator numbers didn’t work, so twice when the lift doors opened I got out. Thinking that that was my floor. There isn’t even a sign on the wall where the lifts are showing which floor it is. The only way you could tell that you'd hit the ground floor is to look for a tile pattern on the floor instead of carpet.

I had been sending text messages to my niece Zoe, telling her what I was up to. She had sent me one back asking if I'd go to the Apple Store on Regent Street and get her a Magic Mouse. I thought that she was mistaken and that it was called a Mighty Mouse and that there had been rumours of a touch sensitive mouse with no scroll ball. I said that I'd only been in there the other day looking for one myself. Little did I know. You don’t check the internet for a couple of days and look what happens.

Another day and up and out before 9, off towards St. Paul’s with a stop at the nearest Pret A Manger for breakfast.

I'd been a fan of the David Cronenberg film Eastern Promises since it came out. In fact I had even paid a rare visit to the cinema to see it when it was released. Of course I bought the DVD when that was available a few years ago and have watched it a few times since. There is something about it that appeals to me, possibly the alien culture, the earthiness of it or the violence, I don’t know, I can’t quite put my finger on it. When I found out where the “Trans-Siberian Restaurant” exterior scenes were shot I decided to pay a visit to St John Street and see it for myself.

I think the main difference that I noticed when I arrived is that the street is very quiet. In the film it’s like a main street. The main door would have been changed but the gated doors to the right look the same. Then to the right of them there is a passage way to a loading bay which may have been the one used in the film. According to Film London it’s the 6th most used film location in London. From what I could tell the main door was unlocked but there wasn’t any sign that it was occupied.

From there it was around St. Paul’s Cathedral, towards the Tower of London and Tower Bridge, to the Design Museum. I wandered in and had a quick look around the shop and spotted the Field Notes books that I wanted and the Objectified DVD which, for me, still hadn’t arrived. Lots of other cool design books and bits and pieces. Trim phones, for those who remember them, and Eames Elephants which are stools made out of one sheet of plastic shaped like an elephant. I remember one being on the stage at the TED talks a few years ago and didn’t know what it was, except that it was a stool of some kind. I certainly didn’t know that it had been designed by Charles and Ray Eames. This was all wonderful interesting stuff exactly the reason why the Design Museum was first on my list of places to visit. I walked up to the desk and asked for a single ticket and was told that the galleries were closed today. Bugger. But that they would be open tomorrow. Thank goodness. A little disappointed to have to make the trip out there again but at least I’ll be able to visit during this trip.

So from there it was back along the Thames to City Hall. Not exactly a stroll in the park I assure you, especially when there are detours to consider.

It is in City Hall that The Movieum of London is located. As words go ‘movieum’ isn’t one of the best, I guess it’s a cross between ‘movie’ and ‘museum’. What didn’t bode well was the fact that there were people outside trying to drag people in that were walking past. Anyway, another £12 ticket purchased and I wander around. I'm asked if I have a camera with me, I was expecting to be told that no photography was allowed, but instead was encouraged to take photos, just not in the Beatles section. Heaven forbid that photos of the Beatles be released without permission or consent. A few things were interesting enough to photograph, a glass studded coat from Hellboy, a purple suit from the first of the new Batman films (I did read that Jack Nicholson kept all the suits that were made for him, I may be wrong) and not much else really. It certainly wasn’t filled with visitors. There must only have been about 8 people in the place. Some Star Wars stuff, some 007 props and things. That’s about it. I think I tried to wander around twice, to get my money’s worth, but trying to be interested for that amount of time was difficult. I started taking photos of Harry Potter items just because it was a novelty. And this is me, a pretty big movie fan. Oh well.

From there I think I wandered back to the hotel for a nap. You never sleep well in a strange bed, certainly not a single one. Then I went out later to take some night photos using my little Velbon tripod that I'd packed just in case.

The heels of both feet and my left leg were hurting. I was only thinking on the journey down that on the first visit to London I'd managed to get both blisters and leg pain… and yes, I'd had them again now. Only a day and a half into my ‘holiday’ as well, with another trip out to the Design Museum tomorrow. It’s not going to be fun.

Considering that my last holiday was back in September 2006 I think I've done well to last this long. There was a few years when I would always go to London and spend 4 nights or so in a hotel spending the days wandering around, visiting galleries, museums and generally soaking up the culture. Then I think one year I went down, which is always expensive for just one person, and didn’t really have any thing in mind to go and see. I must have seen it all. Any visits after that had to have a purpose, Nine Inch Nails at the Astoria or the opening of the Regent Street Apple store.

Over the last year I've kept a list of places that I'd like to visit if I paid a trip to our nations capital. That list grew quite large so a 4 night stay was planned for October, my favourite month for such trips.

The train to Euston arrived at about lunchtime but the Travelodge reservation said that check-in had to be after 3. I arrived about an hour early having walked down Tottenham Court Road carrying my bag. With there being a queue at reception I thought I would be fine to check-in early so that I could leave my bag in the room. No such luck. Had I paid the extra for an early check-in? No. It might have been helpful of them to check to see if my room was ready, instead it was a case of having to pay an extra £10 to check-in an hour early. My room could have been ready and waiting for me but instead I had to wander around waiting until after 3 to check-in. Not the best of starts but there you go, rules are rules. They also won’t let you leave your bag so I had kill time carrying it around with me.

I wandered towards Trafalgar Square and Saint Martin-in-the-Fields, managed to get lost a little, then made my way back to the hotel to check-in.

Once I'd dumped my bag in the room it was back to Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly to the Royal Academy of Arts where Anish Kapoor had an exhibition.

The person who sold me the ticket, £12.00, asked if I was aware that the gallery closed at 6. Yes, I had checked the closing times the day before on the web and it was only 4 now so 2 hours should do it easily. I knew what was coming, more or less, as I'd seen a video on the BBC web-site. The most interesting pieces were the ‘wax train’ that went through two doorways and the ‘wax cannon’.

At one end of the ‘wax train’ line there was member of the galleries staff who had a broad cockney accent who was saying to a few inquiring visitors that it was made of wax, a wax type substance. It certainly can’t have been sold wax as it would have been too heavy to move. Apparently it takes an hour to move from one end of the line to the other.

I did manage to see the ‘wax cannon’ being fired, which is primed and loaded every twenty minutes. Over the length of the exhibition it will fire 3 tonnes of this red wax into a blocked off doorway. It’s amazing that the gallery allowed it. The building must be old enough to have a preservation order on it and the doorways, and the plaster moulding in the cannon room, were splattered with this red wax. Let’s hope it doesn’t stain. The other exhibits, piles of coloured powder (or were they?), piles of blobbed clay/mud, the horn and the dimples where really nothing to get excited about. I think I must have been in and out in less than an hour. Bargain.

From there it was off to M&S for something to eat and to queue up for 15 minutes in the quick checkout area with some apples and a drink. Then with the sun slowly setting a quick walk in, and then out of, Hyde Park walking down Park Lane. A wander around the Hard Rock Cafe store then around Buckingham Palace, down the mall back to Trafalgar Square and back to the hotel.