"First of all, I would like to make one thing clear: I never explain anything"

It is Monday. The kids left yesterday. It is Betty and I. Our last week in London. Our plan is to make the week more relaxed and personal.

The hotel room is large by Europe standards. The bathroom is almost American in style and size. The shower is not an after thought. There is a full shower curtain and you can turn around.

One of the travel issues you become familiar with as you travel internationally is electrical adapters. I am sure that constant international travelers has closets full and can never find the right one when needed.

First advice, do not buy adapters in the store - any store including REI - simple, you can buy on Amazon for a quarter of the store price. Secondly, you may or may not need a converter. Converters convert 220 (European and United Kingdom) to 110 so that you will not fry your USA electronics.

The good news is that almost all personal electronics chargers you will use on your trip - cell phones, computers, cameras, video - reduce both 220 and 110 to the wattage used to recharge their batteries. How do you know? Simple, if you have a charger which uses a UBS connector to connect your device into the wall socket to charge your various devices. You do not need an converter.

You can purchases in the US hair blowers and curlers which will work on both 110 and 220.

Buy one converter just for security. Leave in your suitcase until that rainy day.

I recommend the purchase of four adaptors for each of the countries you are visiting. It is surprising how many electronic devices are now required in daily life. The Internet is your friend to identify the specific adaptors you will need. Be prepared, the hotel rooms have few outlets and the majority of those are in use. So you make decisions - turn on the lamp or charge my phone. Multiple by the number devices and people, there is always a shortage of outlets.

I am a person that likes to walk. When you walk you see so much more. You feel part of what is going on around you. You read signs. You look in windows. You greet people. You stop for coffee. You get lost and find wonderful things.

The hotel is really great. The deal includes either a breakfast buffet or a Continental breakfast. The buffet is entry level of the hotel. The Continental is on the sixth floor. I have opted for the Continental. My thought is coffee and biscuit. Instead, the Continental is a mini-buffet.

The Television is onto either BBC or Sky News. The major news of the week is the Queen's 90th birthday; Obama's visit, the London Mayor election and the upcoming June vote on remaining in the European Common Market.

UK journalism is a hideous joke. There is no attempt to report the news. It is scandal, demagogy and poorly written. I read the newspapers. It is not even entertaining.

The food is great and the breakfast room is well furnished and attended. My only complaint is that room is stuffy and the sensation is uncomfortable warm. Now, in their defense. I plan to leave for my walk right after breakfast so I am dressed for a London spring of 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

As I will learn during the week the hotel is in a great location. Besides the immediacy of the Underground station, we are within walking distance of a number of museums. High Keningston area is within a few blocks.

I have no direction in mind as I leave to hotel. I turn right.

In two weeks in London, I never become comfortable with the direction that vehicles will come at me as I step off the curb. I would not even attempt to drive in the UK. I rate the London driver as much more scarier than Paris or Rome.

As a pedestrian, I was much more comfortable in Rome than London. Romans stop. There are rules. I will scare the crap out of you, but I will not hit you. In London, they want to hit you.

The problem with crossing a street in London is that you have to look in the opposition direction than you have all your life. It is not just me. Look down as you begin to cross a street and there is a specific message "look to your left" and then "look to your right". It has to be dangerous if they have to tell even their native pedestrians at every corner which direction to look before stepping off the curb.

This is a orientation walk. What is the neighborhood like?  In the direction I walk, the area is predominantly residential. I turn left on the first large street I come to and follow the curving street into a more commercial upscale area.

There are very few straight streets in London. Those streets that do not curve only last for a few blocks. Therefore it is hard to get lost, but difficult to get your bearings. I am reminded of Boston saying "You cannot get there from here."

The road curves towards to the Albert & Victoria Museum. I now have an idea where I am and where the hotel is located. I pass the British Natural History Museum. It is huge. The original building is red brick Victorian and is substantial. The modern structure which is integrated into the original building is an immense metal and glass structure. What possibly could require so much space?

This morning the line is actually long. It is Monday. The Museum has several short term exhibits which appeal to schools. It is about four blocks to the hotel. At the end of the walk, I never knew that Kensington is home to so many embassies. I now know where the Tunisia and Iraqi Embassies are for example. Not every impressive. But, surprisingly, no armed guards either. There must be ten embassies in Queen Gate Rd alone.

At the hotel, Betty joins me for lunch. Italian restaurants exists everywhere and as both chains or as small single shop businesses. Italian food says good food at reasonable prices. Think about it, have you ever seen a French restaurant chain. This is true in Paris. The easiest small restaurants are Pizzeria and Trattoria.

There are about six or seven food places on the hotel street.. Two coffee shops, three delis, a Whopper, a pub and a Wildwood. Wildwood is Italian food and not that bad.

After lunch, we walk to the Natural Museum. The crowd has diminished but we still have to walk to the far end of the block in order to walk back to the entrance.

Inside, the public museum is remarkable small. Betty remembers the museum as much different. Betty remembers glass cases with exhibits. Now, the museum is more "friendly". My guess is that the curators now limit the exhibits and rotate the collections.

So there are few actually bones laying around. It is neat and tidy. You can do the museum remarkably quickly which is great for tourists and children with short attentions. I was disappointed.

I missed the Darwin part of the museum. Betty said it was interesting. The dinosaur was brief and somewhat interesting. I have not been to the Field Museum in Chicago in a long time. My memory of that museum is fonder.

What is worth the trip (the museum is free) is the building itself. As you walk the steps of the main room, your steps on the stairs are with Charles Darwin and Richard Owen. (Richard Owen is the gentleman who named "terrible lizards" dinosaurs.)

The museum is within the museum complex that includes the Albert and Victoria and British Science Museum (which always had a line a half block long) so it is worth an hour late at the day.

We needed a slow day. Tomorrow, we travel.