sleepy tiger

Sachi’s mum, Mrs Shinobu Negishi, is interested in plants. There are some gardens where they could offer attractions over the winter period. Kew Gardens is one of them. Hence, I took her there on Wednesday, 13 February. Like the previous day when they arrived in London, it was bitterly cold on 13 February. Mrs Negishi treated me to the entrance fees for Kew Gardens. On entering the Victorian gate, the Palm House and lake appeared in front of us. She noticed some shrubs opening flowers and found a number of snowdrops, hellebores, etc, on the Woodland Gardens. Having heard about the orchid exhibition, we headed for the Princess of Wales Conservatory. We firstly strolled through the Dessert room with the collections of cacti, and then looked round the orchid exhibition in the Rainforest room. There were ... read more

Mark took a day off on 5 October. We decided to visit Chilham, Kent, which I visited a couple years ago. We took the high speed train from St Pancras Station and transferred to the southeast train at Ashford International Station. Mark found the high speed train very efficient and comfortable. I remembered the way to access the village from Chilham station. After reaching the entrance of Chilham village, I showed Mark the Woolpack Inn which used to be the village Coaching Inn and the old stables on the opposite side. We walked up on the street and saw several Tudor timber framed houses, e.g. Cumberland House, Clifton Cottage, some of which were used as butchers till the 1960s. We arrived at the Square surrounded by a number of medieval houses, and Chilham Castle. Mark agreed ... read more

Having volunteered for 2 Willow Road, Hampstead on 22 September, I was given 2 badges of Priority Entry for London’s historic houses. We read through the guide of Open House London 2012, and decided to visit 32 Warwick Gardens, N4 1JG on Sunday afternoon. After the lunch, we took the No.141 bus, got off on St Ann’s Road, and walked to Warwick Avenue. Despite the rainy weather, quite a few visitors were looking round the house. I spoke to one of the ushers how the modern family living room has been remodelled from Victorian mid-terrace house. She explained: In order to create more usable open space for the modern family living, they decided to remove all of Victorian fireplaces and mantelpieces, internal walls which divided on living room to the other and kitchen and dining room. ... read more

Our final destination was Nürnberg, which was 60-90 minutes journey by ICE train from Munich. My mother remembered the Gothic buildings which were seen just above the station buildings. One of the good things about Nürnberg is Altstadt (Old Town) is near the central station and all of the attractions were within the city wall. We found the subway leading to Koning Tor and Koningstraße. Numerous stone buildings and half-timbered houses were standing on Koningstraße, and it was as though we had been transported to the medieval world from the modern life. Loads of food stalls and restaurants were opened, and it made the streets attractive and bustling with the increased number of the tourists and traders. We stopped at the bridge with the viewpoint of the medieval almshouse. I encouraged my mother to sketch it. ... read more

Sightseeing in Munich We left for Marienplatz (city centre) at 9:30. We transferred at Sendlinger Tor to go to Marienplatz. English announcements were provided at the stations which had transport connections. The tourist information centre was located in Neue Rathaus (Town Hall). We bought a 3 day group Munich Welcome card, which was €29.50. We went to Frauenkirche, a few minutes walk from Marienplatz. Originally built in the 13th century and its distinctive copper onion domes were added in 1525, the church was drawn in several landscape paintings. Unfortunately, one of the towers with the lift was closed for renovation work. We looked round the church. We tried to return to Marienplatz by 11 o’clock to see the movements of the clock. We ... read more