The Fab Four

We arrive at Sissinghurst Garden Castle
(L to R, Jane, Amanda, Jackie, Catherine)

Autumn fruits

The Tower

In the hedges

Amanda and Jackie with
 autumn foilage starting to appear

Some of the flowers we saw

Apple tasting

Fun in the hedges

Cheers!

Oblix at the Shard, amazing
atmosphere, views and champagne!

The chosen rendezvous point is London Bridge. Text messages arrive with updates and before we know it they arrive. Amanda and Jackie are here to join the tourist trail!

Amanda was the inspiration for visiting this destination in 2013, to quote the opening lines from Giddy at the Gardens:

This tale starts 18 years ago at 66 Clarence St where Amanda B is yet again regaling me with the places she has visited over her massive managers desk on Level 4.  She has lugged in an exquisite book with photos of Sissinghurst Castle Garden, a beautiful garden with a fascinating past in Kent. Today I stand in this garden and see first hand the beauty, symmetry and creativeness.

So today Amanda, Jackie, Jane and I catch a train to the lovely Weald of Kent to experience Sissinghurst Castle Garden in the autumn. It is a photo frenzy from our first step.

Jackie is a keen gardener and inspects every plant. We wander this way and that way and explore every nook and cranny of the garden. The gardeners are busy at work in the orchard repairing the lawn after a long summer and we look longingly at the apple trees laden with fruit. Then whilst navigating through the hedges we discover a basket of apples for visitors to enjoy. Yes thanks, we will partake in the that.  Yum.

Recently a new section building was opened, the South Cottage. We arrive just in time for a tour. Rob our guide is passionate and knowledge we learn all about Harold and Vita’s lives (the creators of the garden) and even sat by the fireplace in the room where the likes of Churchill, de Gaul and HG Wells had a fireside chat with Harold. We do a lot of tours and Rob put into context the more sensational aspects of their lives with facts and background to round out the complexity of these two intense people and the times they lived in.

Where does the time go? Back on the train to London we go, its an hour trip however only feels like minutes. But the day is not over yet its time for a celebratory drink and what better place to have it than at the 32nd floor of the Shard. We arrive just in time to sip champagne and enjoy the slow transition from light to dark as the sun sets, Does life get any better than this? 

Thanks to Amanda and Jackie for a great day out. After all these years of blog posts and our mutual travel stories, it was great to share a day together!!!!!

Kensington Kicks

Leighton House Museum

Leighton House Museum

Holland Park

Holland Park

Squirrels, I love them. Jane calls them vermin

Design Museum

Cute kids clothes on the high street

Balenciaga exhibition 

Balenciaga exhibition, learning
how to make a one seam coat

Balenciaga exhibition trying
out the cape dress 

Harrods Christmas Shop

Kensington is the chosen destination for today's activities and we cover a lot of ground:

• The Muffin Man - a quaint tea shop
• Leighton House Museum - former home and studio of the leading Victorian artist, Lord Leighton
• Holland Park - with Kyoto gardens and squirrels 
• Design Museum - all space age and showing the evolution of products we use every day
• Victoria and Albert Museum - new entrance, Balenciaga exhibition and netsuke (one of our current obsessions based on the book The Hare with Amber Eyes)
• Harrods - mecca of all tourists

Highlights included:

• photo shoot at Holland Park terraces
• making a one seam coat out of paper at Balenciaga exhibition
• shopping for Christmas decorations at Harrods

Gotta dash we have planning to do for our date with two important Aussies.

Update from Leighton House exhibition

One of the many surprises from today was an exhibition by Alma Tadema, a Victorian artist. Jane spotted a portrait that she knew she had seen a programme about. It was by Tadema of his engraver,  Léopold Lowenstam and was brought along to Antiques Roadshow by one of the engravers descendants.

The portrait has been described by the Antiques Roadshow’s pictures expert as one of the “best pictures we have ever seen on the Roadshow in its entire history”, and is believed to have received one of the show’s highest valuations.

Watch the Antiques Roadshow clip  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p048nqjz

Layers of time

Old fashioned police call box

Schnauzer chasing squirrels 

and we did a lovely top with purple flowers

Museum of London

The only Invaders in a museum

Street art snapping

Malta has 365 churches,
one for each day of the year.
London must have enough pubs for
every minute of the year.

Rosewood Hotel

Rosewood Hotel

Rosewood Hotel

Sunday maintenance has limited the trains and tubes on our planned adventure. So we change tack and head into the city to the Museum of London. A short detour to Postman’s Park to see if Amanda and Jackie are there, instead we find a schnauzer chasing a squirrel. 

The Museum of London documents the history of London from prehistoric to modern times. Jane starts a game where we imagine all the type of people that came before us from each time period. We meander through the year seeing finds from all over London. The Booth maps are fascinating and show which areas are poor and rich. But the best bit is the discovery of an Invader in Victorian London. Exit through the gift shop and its on the bus down to Holborn.

Next stop on the tourist trail is Red Lion Square for a little bit more of William Morris, Dante Rossetti and John Harrison. We also learn that this is the possible resting place of Oliver Cromwell after he was posthumously beheaded. Gruesome. Then following an argument over land development there was a pitched battle in this park between lawyers and builders in 1684 with lots of injuries. Another example of the layers and layers of history that make up every square inch of London. Today it is a little park to walk the dog and a bit on the grotty side. What will it be in 100 years time? A parking lot for flying jetpacks?

Moving on, what is this building? Beautiful proportions, fancy carriageway entrance? It was an insurance building, now its a hotel. Let's have a look around. The uniformed staff and fancy cars are a dead giveaway. Luxury at its best and they have a residence dog. Time for a toilet stop and lets see what hand cream they use.

Now its time to head to the movies, alas our session is sold out. So on to the National Gallery we go. Then home to Lewisham for some grocery shopping with fish for dinner.

Buses and exploding walls

Dulwich Hill Picture Gallery, Jan van Huysum

New friend at Dulwich Hill Picture Gallery 

Garden Museum cafe

Captain Bligh’s sarcophagus
set in a garden of Pacific plants

Newport Street Art Gallery

Works by Dan Colen

Pharmacy 2

Great minds think alike,
we both found the same inside-outside card

We start out on the P4 bus and potter up the hill to Dulwich Hill Picture Gallery. This gallery is the oldest in England and has an envious collection of paintings. Including a Rembrandt,  Jacob de Gheyn III that is in the Guinness book of records as the most frequently stolen artwork in the world.   I like the flowers by Jan van Huysum but the rest is a bit ho-hum. A quick hello to the West Highland Terrier sitting at the door and its time to move on.

The weather is grey and dreary will it rain? We head off towards the bus stop, meandering through Belair Park, discover a Mona Lisa with a squirrel and hop on the number 3 bus to Lambeth. The Saturday traffic makes a slow trip but its great on the top of the bus checking out all the sites, a bit of street art and one of my favourite spots from last year, Brixton.

Off the bus and its raining, lets duck across the road to the Garden Museum cafe, a couple of nice meals later and we are ready to continue the tourist trail. Whats this big garden stone thing in courtyard, Why its Captain Bligh’s sarcophagus. Well, that was an unexpected find. 

Google maps out its time to find the Newport Street Gallery. It's easy we are here, with a little bit of street art on the way. This gallery is owned by Damien Hirst an English artist, entrepreneur, and art collector. I used to think he was a bit way out for me, but he is definitely growing on me or maybe my tastes are changing. First the obligatory security check, the security guard is big and beefy but so sweet. Then we are greeted by one of the staff who explains how the gallery works. This is not.your usual stuck up gallery, what a nice friendly way to start the experience. 

The works are all by Dan Colen, an American artist. Bam, its American flag draped around a sandstone block, then holes in the walls it looks like a roadrunner has gone through, now Scooby do, great paining with subliminal you and me and on and on we go with cigarette butts to colour glass balloons this exhibition has it all. The final room has more exploding walls and a few surprises on the other side. They have to be seen to be believed.

But wait there is more on the staircase on the way down a pair of shoes are dancing on the roof, very Pottereseque. They stop everyone in their tracks.

Now we find the Pharmacy 2, a cafe decorated like a chemist shop inspired by one of Damien’s works from the 90’s. Not much of a gift shop but some very nice picture books, hmm, whats in these folded pages. Oops, that is definitely X rated. Think I will stop looking at books now.  

A walk along Southbank, a cup of tea (surprise, surprise), a spot of shopping and home we head. Oh oh, Waterloo is shut for engineering works. What a pain, its time to box around, Jubilee line to Canary Wharf then the DLR to Lewisham. Along the way, we saw John Lennon, Sid Vicous and lots of young ones in lederhosen heading to Octoberfest. London is really coming alive for a big Saturday night. We have a big night in critiquing all the dancers and judges on Strictly Dancing. 

A magical day

I can fly!

Entry into the great hall

Great Hall

Great Hall, teachers table

Moving staircase

Gryffindor common room

Dolores Umbrdige's office

Die you death eater!

Forbidden Forest

Platform 9 3/4

Hogwarts Express

Butterbeer, I liked it!

Knightbus

Death eaters attacking the crowd

Diagon Alley

Beep, beep, the alarm goes. Crash the phone falls, crash everything next to the bed falls, crash I fall out of bed. That was a rude awakening. What’s the time? We are up early to go to HARRY POTTER STUDIO TOUR!!!!!!! 

Taxi, bus, line, security, line, ticket. Done.

The music starts, excitement ripples through the crowd, wait for it. Ta da, the doors open and we are into the great hall. Wow. This is where the actual scenes from Hogwarts castle were filmed. The tables are set, the pumpkins are lit and I feel like we are first-year students entering for the first time to get our houses selected by the sorting hat. The photo frenzy starts. This way, that way, finally down to the teachers table, the owl podium is real gold and melted wax. This is mesmerising.

The guide announces please leave the grand hall and move onto the next section. We keep snapping, politely the guide announces again and then we reluctantly head out. Now we see how the costumes, props and sets are made.

We travel through the Gryffindor boys dormitory and common room, Dumbledores office (my fav), the potions lab (with potions magically mixing), Hagrid's hut, how to make slime and so much more.

‘UP’ we shout, Jane and I make a broom rise. We are so magical. But that's nothing, now its time to learn how to ride a broom. Jane the daredevil goes first, then me, we travel over the castle, along a train line, lake a street watch out for the bus. This is incredible good fun.

On we go the quidditch, Ministry of Magic, horcruxes and my favourite has to be Dolores Umbridge’s office in gaudy pink with cats. Yes, the cats are even cute.

What that section over there? The wand experience. Let's have a go, pick a wand, Hermonie’s, of course.  The wand instructor shows me the moves and I practice, then the death eater comes up and I fight him. Try move one on death eater, oh no, he wins, learn another move, he wins, on the fifth move I win. The death eater falls and Jane captures all my moves on camera. It does not happen if we don't take a photo.

Now onto the forbidden forest, this is amazing all smoke and massive trees, whats that big thing, its monster spiders, This is surreal. Jane and a worker try to scare me with a big spider, its does not work, well maybe a little. Laughter all round.

Turn a corner and we are on platform 9 3/4 and its a full-sized platform with train, carriages, the works. More photo snapping and now its time to rest these weary legs and drink a butterbeer.

Onwards we go, Privet drive, a death eater attack, ride in a flying car, this is all insane fun. More models, the Hogwarts Castle in 1:24 scale. So impressive. Now for the final frenzy and exit through the gift shop, happy with our treasure hauls off we go to find the bus. Now time to sit back and watch Harry Potter movies as we wind our way back into London.

Any normal tourists would just head off home, but not us. Cup of tea and a scone at The English Rose tea shop, shopping to buy a big coat for the next adventure and then on the bus we go for a night tour of London. There is a bit of scramble at the front of the line with people from India and Uruguay pushing in, but Mathew the tour guide points to us and we are lead like the princesses we are first on the bus and grab the front seats up the top. What a day.

#wbtourlondon