Downe with Darwin

Although Darwin's collections are at the Natural History Museum, Darwin spent most of his remarkably productive years out at his house and gardens in the countryside town of Downe. We spent the day traveling to and from there, and then walking the site - an English Heritage site. We did start our day with breakie at the hotel as usual. We were a bit disappointed to find this hotel serves continental rather than English style breakfasts, but we have to endure some hardships at some point, no?

Then we were onto the tube (Earl's Court is our hotel's nearest Underground stop) and off to Victoria Station. There we got our "return" train tickets to the town of Orpington, where we caught the city bus that took us to the hamlet of Downe. Here is the lovely train ride out of the city toward Orpington. 

Now onto the bus and off to Downe! We packed onto the small R8 bus, which was, as one student said, "...the most exciting piece of transportation yet." 

Darwin's house itself was a hit. No photos are allowed inside the house, but we got to see all kinds of artifacts, plus his study, dining room, gardens, laboratory, greenhouse and grounds. Some of Darwin's experiments were still ongoing...so we decided to do a reenactment of a photo made famous three years ago...

And of course no trip to Downe would be complete with out a quick visit to The Queen's Head Pub (a Downe staple since 1565!). After the chips, bread, soup and a couple of pints (in the favorite pub of Chucky D himself), we loaded onto the bus to reverse the trip that brought us here.

Cheers!