Leonardo da Vinci Painter At The Court of Milan

2:50am

The da Vinci Exhibit at the Royal Museum in London.
We got to the museum to queue at about 2:20 am on a Monday and there were five people in front of us. The next person showed up about an hour later. People slowly trickled in from then until 5am. Between 5 and 6 am the flow of people increased greatly.

6:00am

The people in the queue in front of us both got there at 1 am... That's right one in the morning. We will call these people the 1amers and they were comprised of a group of 5 students from London and a guy from New York City. For the students this was their 3rd attempt at getting tickets so that is why they were there so early. Saturday they had gotten there around 7 am and were told the tickets had sold out. Sunday they had arrived about 5:45 am and after about an hour queuing they were again told the tickets had sold out. So they were taking no chances this time. So if you are planning a trip weekdays would be than the weekend, however the closer the exhibit gets to the end, 5 February 2012, the tougher it will be to get in.
The gallery does have a coat check and we were able to check our coats and book bags and the 1amers had a bunch of gear including blowup mattresses and blankets however when we came out the coat check was full and not accepting anymore items.
It is a great exhibit and if you have a chance I highly recommend it, well worth the wait.

7:50 am not long now... everything is relative