Dinosaur hunting

 Many years ago now, we took the Boy to Crystal Palace Park to look for dinosaurs.  Today, we took his brother.  Boy2 is 10 now, much older than his brother was when we went.  We had planned to catch a train from Brixton to Penge East, and then come home on the no 3 bus, but when we got to Brixton Station, the train said "Delayed", and the one on the opposite platform didn't seem to be going anywhere.  Citymapper told us that there was a big problem at Victoria with trespassers on the line, which had closed it to all traffic in and out of the area, and was not expected to reopen until 11:30.  It was now about 10:30, so we got a refund on Boy2's ticket and went on the no 3 bus, after all.

In many ways, this was a good idea, as the park slopes very steeply downhill from there, and if we'd gone the other way round, we would have had a great deal of uphill walking, which might be very good for me, but I do not enjoy.  

So we caught the bus and in due course arrived at Crystal Palace bus terminus.  We walked down through the park, passing various sphinxes en route.

 We would have liked to have visited the farm they keep there, but it appears to be part of a college now and no longer open to the public, as far as we could tell.  But it was not far from there until the first of the dinosaurs appeared, and we had a lovely walk down the lakes looking at them all (most photos on Facebook).  They aren't actually all dinosaurs - some are extinct mammals.  It was fun looking at the images on the placards we passed, showing how the Victorians thought the various animals might have looked, and how we now think they looked.  

Then we walked on past the café, and out of the park to Penge East station, which has a lovely waiting-room with a free library and piano!  We didn't have long to wait for our train, and then back to Brixton and lunch in Mama Lan!