All good things come to an end

The last day of our trip to London included a tightly packed program of science, history, culture and theatre. Well-rested and strengthened by a hearty breakfast, we headed to the operating theatre dating back to the 12th century. There, we explored the museum of historical medical instruments and medicines. The actual operating theatre itself was located in the attic of a church. In the theatre, we received an informative, yet humorous lecture on the topic of medical procedures throughout the 19th century. As it turned out, having a disease or an injury in those times would have been very unpleasant due to general lack of hygiene or anesthetics. Most of these procedures were gruesome and usually also fatal.

The images from the operating theatre left us without too big of an appetite for the upcoming meal. This was served at the Wild Food Cafe, a vegan restaurant in the heart of Soho. The vegan meal was a change of pace among the typical meals we had throughout the week.

Well-fed, we continued on to a Harry Potter walking-tour through central London. This journey led us through many sites on which scenes from the Harry Potter universe were filmed or inspired by, including Dyagon and Nockturn Alley and Platform nine and three quarters. Along the way, we took part in a quiz, where the group was split up in the Hogwarts houses answering questions on details about the Harry Potter world. Hufflepuff emerged victorious.
After a short break in Coven Garden, we had a mixed asian-style dinner in a high-tech restaurant called Inamo. In the restaurant, the menus were on tablets and the tables were huge interactive displays themselves.
Straight after the meal, we headed to Lyceum Theatre for an extraordinary performance of the musical Lion King. The whole group was thoroughly impressed by this spectacle.
This day was a fitting end to an amazing week with a multitude of scientific and cultural experiences, leaving us in awe of the generosity of Roche.