Icing on the cake

Buckingham Palace

Garden Cafe

Cakes with ER logo

Us in gardens at Buckingham Palace

Nice view

Waving goodbye to Nelson and London

It’s Saturday, which means its shopping day. But first we detour to Buckingham Palace as the state rooms are open today. Well the lines are miles long but the palace knows how to run events with precision. We are ushered through and enter the palace via the Ambassador Gate and the Grand entrance at our appointed time. Onto the quadrangle and then arrive in the first of the lush rooms, the Green Drawing Room, gilded and set with florets, decorated with paintings, chandeliers and 17^th century furniture it is a sight to behold. The tour goes on and on though the throne room, picture gallery, music room and much more. It is all exquisite and very practical how the rooms are arranged for people to enter and leave. We have an audio guide that gives excellent commentary on the function and history of the rooms.

It is the most amazing palace and to see this on my last tourist day just tops off a wonderful trip. But wait there’s more, time for lunch at the garden café. Jane had heard that the café was good, well good is an understatement the food is exceptional, especially the cakes. We thoroughly enjoy our garden tea at the palace.

Then guess what, surprise, surprise there is a gift shop. More shopping. Then onto the gardens. What an event.

Back to familiar territory now, I will pine for being at Covent Garden on a Saturday, there is so much hustle, bustle and excitement. A few more shops conquered and then we explore Cecil Court.

Its time to retrace our very steps from the first Saturday. We go past the National Gallery, see Trafalgar Square and wave goodbye to Nelson. Then home for plaice and champage, or was that Champagne and plaice? 

Finally after many nights of cloud I see the North Star. Tick.

Panic in the pod

Thames Flood Barrier

Emirates air line

Jane before panic

After panic

View towards city

London Ambassador

At Dominion Theatre for We Will Rock You

Yeah, Jane is back on the tourist trail. We tackle some domestics and now set off to Pontoon Quay. Its take 3 changes on the DLR but I don’t have to worry as Jane can work out any map. We are 10 miles down the Thames and can smell salt air, we have finally arrived at the Thames Barrier. It’s the world’s second largest movable flood barrier and an amazing feat of engineering.

Next up is the newest mode of transport in London the Emirates Air Line it was only opened to the public yesterday and is a cable car across the Thames. It seemed like a good idea to try it out.

We use our Oyster cards to access, cool. We got a pod to ourselves, good. We go up, and then up, and then up till the wind hits us. Woosh, the cable car swings sideways, I’m scared, Jane is hanging onto the handrails with a death grip. What the hell have we done why did we come up on this thing? Panic sets in but the urge to take photos takes over and I jump from side to side making the whole thing swing even more, Jane panics more. This makes me panic more. The wind keeps howling and shaking the pod. If Stephen was here he would be laughing at me now. Now Jane is still holding on with a death grip and gives me instructions on what to take photos of. Who knows what I am doing. The Thames, city, O2 and Olympic site all look magnificent from up here. Thankfully before we know it the nightmare is over and we make it to the other side. Time to hop out of the pod and be greeted by two of the Emirates staff.  We watch as others jump off and they too are freaked out. I feel sick in the stomach and Jane is shaking. Great experience but just a bit too scary on a windy day.

Now back into Soho to test out the medical services of the UK as I have an ear infection. We have an hour and half wait which is actually good as that helps calm us down from the air line ride. All very efficient and entertaining watching the other patients like, Ronnie who needed his medication and Joan who broke her arm.

Dinner in Soho and now on way to the next big event we walk into a shop for a fridge magnet and leave with a fridge magnet and a leather jacket.

The final event for the day and we enter the Ga Ga world to help Gallileo and Scaramouche find music. We are at the Dominion Theatre for the musical We Will Rock You. It’s loud, fun and very entertaining. So now I have done a London show as well, this trip just keeps getting better and better. Thanks Jane!

A day in the country

Salisbury Cathedral

Salisbury Cathedral

Iron Age burrow

Stonehenge

New celtic friends

Roman Baths

Bath

We are rolling past green hills, thatched cottages and sheep on the way to Salisbury Cathedral. The cathedral is big, beautiful and cold. We hear the story of the Magna Carta and are hushed silently in to awe at it. It’s interesting to learn that one of the clauses was repeated in America’s declaration of independence.

Next stop is the big event Stonehenge. There are 100’s of people but thankfully the way the viewing walk is structured everyone can get photos. Would like to come back here on summer solstice with a few other thousand people and do some pagan worshipping. Sounds like a big event.

Leaving Stonehenge the guide flippantly says there is an iron age burrow on the side of the mountain, I am on right side of the bus and have a great view. Due to my time team obsession I am over excited by this not sure anyone else on the bus cares.

Finally onto Bath a beautiful town with amazing architecture. Drive in by a house Jane Austen lived in and then we arrive at the Roman Baths. We all pile off the bus and into the baths with strict instructions on which winding lanes to go down and meet back at the bus. Make another new friend, Bricius from the Dobumni tribe. I am sure his name is actually Bruce. He is a celt who works for the romans making statues, apparently they pay well.

There are three levels to explore and down on the bath floor the stones are large and uneven, seems pretty weird that a long time ago romans where walking over these stones. There is so much to explore in Bath that I only touch the surface this is one place I will need to come back to.

Then it’s the long journey back to London. Everyone sleeps like the exhausted tourists we are.

Home late but its still light and have not yet seen the north star. However the moon has appeared and its upside down, weird. Off to bed now.

Olympic fever

My mate

Yuri

30 days to go

Arthur Phillip

Watling St, oldest street in London

Touching roman wall

Today I start at the Churchill War Rooms and check out a whole lot of memorabilia about the great British bulldog, Winston. Its kinda weird walking the same corridors as him and all the other people that worked so hard in WW2. They put a lot of emphasis on how the decision making process worked for defense and civil matters, I think today’s companies could learn a lot from how this encouraged quick, informed decisions.

Next stop is my mate, Captain Cook. But Olympic fever has really struck today and my short cut up horse guards parade is cut off. So I take the long way around and, oh, no, Cooks statue is surrounded by barriers. After talking to three security guards they finally escort me in for my photo. Another statue is placed across the way from Cook for Yuri Gagarin. It is placed in such a way that Cook’s gaze passes the mantle of exploration over to Yuri. I like it. Also met some Russians that are pretty excited about Yuri statute so we take some pictures together.

Next stop is dodge the tourists under Olympic count down sign and check out the mosaic floor in National Gallery. Then onto National Portrait Gallery where I say hello to Cook, Phillip and Banks all in one room. Also see Harry and Wills and stacks of other exceptionally good portraits. It’s a good time to see at the end of the trip as it puts face to some of the names of people in history.

Time to tackle the city. The city is just over one square mile and is policed and managed separately by the City of London. Sounds a bit political to me but it has been working that way for about 1,000 years so I don’t see it changing anytime soon. I meet up with a guided tour of the city and again learn so much my head is spinning. We started on the oldest street in London which was originally a Celtic pathway and learn lots about how London evolved. One of the more interesting stories to me was about Arthur Phillip, we saw his statute and learnt that his remains had been intended to come to Australia however they have gone missing.

It starts to spit with rain and I move onto the find of the day, Roman ruins. Aptly found on a street named London Wall. That sort of gives it away. Conveniently they are located right next to the Museum of London, so time to check this out as well. After three weeks of traipsing around I feel like a bit of an expert on the museum experience now and this one is great. Sections are in a logical time line and I learn heaps. Should have come to this museum earlier in the trip as it puts the three main events of renewal in London, Boudica, Great Fire and Blitz into perspective.

Then it’s out on the train to visit Suzie and Harry for dinner. Harry makes an amazing desert full of cream, meringue, strawberries and raspberries it called Eton Mess. Sort of like a mashed up pavlova.

Stand on the right

New career?

Cleopatra's neddle

Catherine on the Thames

Tower Bridge

Toad in the hole

As I leave the house I build up a sweat. What’s happening, it must be at least 18 degrees. Great day for an Aussie to go shopping for a winter coat. The assault is made on all the big stores on Oxford St. Its sale time which helps. Come away with three tops but not that not much for all the walking I have done.

So time to reward myself with a break at Covent Garden watching the street performers. Then back into the fun stuff .

Museum of Transport is next on the list. I am so impressed with the public transport and oyster card system you can get anywhere and everywhere easily. However I have one major problem that I need addressed. On the escalators you have to stand to your right, whereas in Sydney it is on your left. I have never been good at left or right anyhow so this just throws me. Being week 3 I am ok at this now, but in my first week it was hard. One man was particularly nice and said he would let me off just this one time for my mistake. The weirdness for me is at some of the tunnels and station entrances the signs say keep to your left. So I go into the museum to search of a train spotter to discover the meaning of this. Alas the museum is staffed by 21 year olds, so the mystery remains. It’s a very modern museum I try out driving a bus, tube train and overland train. Maybe this could be a new career.

A heat wave has started now its at least 22 degrees and half of London have stripped their clothes off. So I escape the swelter and go into the cool confines of the Courtland Gallery. Find some nice examples of pointillism, looks way different in real life than it does in picture books.

Next on the list is Cleopatra’s needle another ancient Egyptian obelisk. The name is a bit of a furphy, it’s actually not related to the Cleopatra we know. It was built about 1,000 years before she was born. The twin to this obelisk is Napoleon’s Column in Paris. Tick. Now there is just two more to see in New York and Egypt.

It’s still sunny and hot so I decide to take advantage of the day and get out on the Thames. Take a trip down to Greenwich with Brian and Mary to Aussie grandparents over here for a new baby. Pass all the sights and see lots of barges working on the river.

Tonight’s delicacy is a British dish called “Toad in the Hole” expertly made by Jane, sausages wrapped in Yorkshire pudding batter. Next on the list is pie and mash.

Three lifetimes

V & A Museum cast room

Real people dusting an old computer

The Enigma machine

Telephone box

Pet Spa at Harrods

Some of the clothing racks for pets at Harrods

Someone once said that you need three lifetimes to explore all of London and I am beginning to think they are right. You could use just one lifetime on the fantastic museums. So today is museum day.

V & A tempts me first and I arrive just as a tour starts. Am blown away by the Raphael cartoons. These where made for the Sistine Chapel in Rome as templates for tapestries. They are each about 5 x 5 metres square and are made of 180-200 pieces of paper pasted together. They where then weaved in Brussels. The cartoons sat around there for about 100 years, then travelled with Charles I to England and then sat at Hampton Court Palace in boxes for a few hundred years. Eventually they where unearthed and framed and later donated to the V & A be Queen Victoria in memory of her husband Albert. They are still the property of the Queen today. From here it’s the Hereford Screen, plaster cast room and William Morris decorated café.  This place is a treasure trove. You could not see all of it in a week.

A quick walk next door and into the Natural History Museum with about 1,000 screaming schools kids. Shuffle past T-Rex and Blue Whales but what really grabs me is the Cranbourne Meteorite is was found in Victoria, Australia in 1854. At 3.5 tonnes I would like to know how it ended up here in London.

Code breaking is another one of my favourite topics and by complete fluke found this next great exhibition on AlanTuring. Saw the actual Enigma machine that was used at Bletchley Park to break the codes. To think about how daring the men where that went into the sinking submarine to get this machine and how much the efforts at Bletchley Park effected the outcome of WW2 is amazing.

Queen Victoria’s, “I love Albert” monuments are next. Royal Albert Hall and the memorial make a strong statement. Also found another piece of telephone box art. Jane and I have been finding them all over London.

Final stop over is the pet spa and shop in Harrods. Well I’ll be. It makes me giggle just to look at it. So much stuff, there must be people out there crazier about their pets than me. That’s a surprise. Jane also tells me when I get home that Christian the lion who was released into captivity and then years later recognized its owner in the wild was brought at Harrods.

Phone home ET

How we keep in contact between Sydney and London.

Hurrah we’re at Harrods

New friends, Constable Brown and Taylor

Beautiful

Silly

Action man

Kensington Palace

28,000 pound coat!

Happy football fans, who would have known?

Jane has been leading me on a wild good chase for the last few weeks and we have never actually made it to Harrods yet. Today the plan is to be different.

Now we explore the beautiful gardens, talk about Henry VIII hunting dear in the 1500’s and see where the swim leg is for the triathlon in the London Olympics.

Next stop is Princess Diana memorial, a bit weird, sort of a mini canyon in a never ending circle. Would have expected a poem or something on the side. After a while of playing around there it grows on you though, the water sounds nice and it has a serene feel to it. Harry practices walking around the edge and jumping the gaps for when he comes to Australia to do some canyons.

Still no sign of Harrods, will today be the day?

We head west and Kensington Palace comes into view. Its massive and a long way away, wish we had those hired bikes. Harrods must be near here somewhere? More photos shots of Kensington Palace and a spot of football along the way. We finally make it out of the park and are on a road with people, buildings and buses. We must be getting closer. With about 100 other people we wait at the bus stop I assume everyone must want to get to Harrods as well.

Our expert tour guide Jane, gets us on the right bus and we get closer to Harrods. At first Harry and I think she is taking us on a wild goose chase again. But finally Jane and Harry have knowing looks on their faces. It must be close. I have to guess. They told me it was as big as Buckingham Palace I see a building with lots of union jacks and viola we are here!

Nobody told me you need body amour to shop in Harrods. Its sale time and the place is packed I cant believe there is anything wrong with the UK economy.

We set off for the food halls, David Jones you have nothing on this. Every chocolate in the world is here and I want to try every one of them. There is a whole counter just for fudge. Harry uses the 16 page store guide to navigate around. We explore many floors and just happen to end up at the fur coats. A lovely man lets me try on a 28,000 pound fur coat. It feels exquisite.

We all leave Harrods with some famous green shopping bags but the day is not over yet. Time to travel to Mary and Jeff’s for yummy dinner, England v’s Italy and Suzie’s (Harry’s mum) story about the polo today.

Suzie works at Windsor Park, the Queen arrives driven by Prince Phillip, presented some trophies and then was asked in front of Suzie if she would like some afternoon tea. She responded very politely “No thank you, we have had a big week and we would like to go home”. What an understatement, the amount of work she does in a week is phenomenal.

Seven noses of Soho

Seven Noses of Soho
Source: www.peterberthoud.co.uk

Invader

Catherine and Peter

Jane found a rolling fool by Dr. Cream

The final nose and infinite wealth

The nose hunter gang

Luck was again on our side today we found a very interesting walk to discover the Seven noses of Soho. The noses are life size and glued to buildings around Soho in full view but really hard to find unless you know where to look. They where placed by sculptor Rick Buckley in the 90’s and to this day seven survive.

We arrive at Covent Garden and meet our guide Peter Berthoud. He looks like a taller version of Tony Robinson so I take that as a good omen.  With a few other adventurers we set off down a street we had just walked through and get to practice on an ear. Harry finds it, Jane finds it, everyone else sees it and then I finally see it. We had been through this street many times and without Peter we would never have known it was there. The rules of the game are Peter takes us to the location each of us has to find it on our own without telling the others. Hmm, I am a bit slow at this game.

The first nose location is reached and Harry finds it first. Drat, he is rewarded with the lolly bag from Peter. It goes on and on with Harry and Jane finding the noses and me coming a poor last. This is unfortunate as we have a bet on whoever finds the most noses gets to choose where we go for dinner.

Peter is an amazing guide as we wind our way through the streets of Soho he shares all kinds of fascinating facts and interesting stories with us. This is really getting into the nitty gritty of London and I love it.

We travel through little lanes, streets bustling with cars and red buses, under houses, through a pub and more. Hear stories from every different aspect of London life from secret nightclubs to seeing the water pump where John Snow solved the cholera epidemic. It would take a book to share everything we learnt and saw. A few tidbits I just have to share:

The term mews nowadays means a paved yard behind large city houses. In the 17^th and 18^th century this was often where horses where kept. But before that the original meaning of mews was where birds like falcons where kept. Umpteen years ago one of the kings decide to move his horses into the falcon mews and  hence the adaptation of the meaning.

Phoenix Garden is a little oasis amongst the buildings of SOHO. It was a bomb site and in the 80’s locals asked the council is they could turn it into a garden. The council agreed and to this day still survives. The land must be worth millions.

Not only did we find noses but invader had been at work as well. He is an artist that puts up tiles in the pattern of space invader. They are all over the world, rumor is there are some in Sydney and Melbourne. I will be on the lookout when I go home.

We even saw where Jacob Von Hogflume the inventor of time travel lived in 2189.

Peter adapts the tour as he learns more about us to include everyone’s interests, he even showed me a Captain Cook statute, my first one in London.

Finally we arrive at the last nose, thankfully this one was easy and now as the legend says we will attain infinite wealth.