London on a warm, sunny, October afternoon

Seen on the District Line, between Embankment and Mile End this afternoon:

• 4 people, slumped asleep
• 1 tourist consulting an enormous fold-out map
• 1 young man in a vivid yellow polo-shirt, frowning at his laptop
• 2 tired children, reading books
• 2 pairs of suede loafers (one brown, one pale blue)
• 1 young couple munching crunchy apples and grinning at each other
• 3 pairs of sunglasses, perched on heads
• 1 baby, covered in ice cream.

We went to explore the newly renovated Museum of London in the City of London.  It was always one of my favourite museums to visit - curiously unhyped, and with a palpable sense of history to it.  The whole museum has undergone a massive £20m refurbishment over the past couple of years, and it is now fully re-opened.  It is now, without doubt, my absolute favourite museum in London.

We spent four hours there, and felt like we barely scratched the surface of what there was to see.  I loved the amazing River Wall where there is a display of hundreds of prehistoric objects found in the Thames.  Most of them would have been thrown in deliberately as offerings to the gods.  There were so many skulls!

I showed the children the display of suffragette memorabilia, and they were shocked at this part of history they had not encountered before.  The film of Emily Wilding Davison throwing herself under the King's horse on Derby day horrified Cam, who said he couldn't believe the suffragettes' fight was only a hundred years ago.

We ended at the glorious Lord Mayor's Coach, and chatted to the curator about all the preparations that begin next week to get it ready for the Lord Mayor's Show.  I've never been to the show before, but perhaps this will be the year.

When we came out of the museum, blinking in the unseasonable October sunshine, we decided it was too nice to go home so we went for a stroll along the river to the Embankment.  There were even more treats waiting for us.

A beautiful church in the City, with a very cool name - St Botolphs-without-Aldersgate

St Paul's Cathedral - simply stunning in the sunshine

A plaque on a bench in the City - oops!

The Tate Modern and the Millennium Bridge

A great many people crossing the Millennium Bridge

Beautiful dolphin-entwined lamp posts along the Embankment

Sea Container House and the London Eye

The RNLI lifeboat crew, stopping for ice creams alongside the Embankment

The London skyline in the sunshine, including the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament

My almost-eleven year old, and his lovely long eyelashes!