More than London!

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I tend not to blog about my UK travels. However, I feel it would be a good idea to share my travels home as well as abroad. Besides, I hope my travels at home will give ideas for travellers who are planning to visit the UK.

I recently spent a couple of days in London. Although I have been to London many times, I am still fascinated with the capital and there is so much to see and do! I remember this quote, 'If you're tired of London, you're tired of life!' I think for me, this could be very true!!

Sir John Soane Museum

I am going to be studying about Sir John Soane, a Georgian architect, on my current humanities course. I wanted to visit the museum as part of my study preparation. It is unlike any other museum I have visited. His many collections (he has neo classical taste it seems) and artifacts are housed as they were housed when Soane was alive. In fact, it was promised that his collection would be the way it was. The highlight was seeing Egyptian Seti's Sarcophagus in the crypt. With Soane's architectural background, the house was designed to allow for natural light to shine via its glass domes and windows. This probably explains why the rooms were a bit dark because of the miserable weather outside!!

St Paul's Cathedral

I always wanted to explore St Paul's Cathedral as far as I can remember and finally had the opportunity to do so. It is not cheap visiting the catherdral but definitely worthwhile. Since studying Pugin and church architecture in my last course, I now appreciate church architecture more even if I am not religious. The cathedral has the neo classical/renaissance look to it unlike the gothic designs and interests Pugin pursued. I visited the cathedral itself admiring the architecture and the materials used especially the marble. The highlight was visting the galleries. The indoor views down the below from The Whispering Gallery were wonderful and the gallery is renowned for it acoustics. After climbing 300+ steps to the Stone and Golden galleries, I was rewarded with amazing views of London!

The Royal Institution of Great Britain (RI)

Neither am I a science fan nor have an interest. However, I enjoyed studying about Michael Faraday's inventions in my last humanities course and I am going to be learning about Humphrey Davy in my current one. Whilst I was in London, I wanted to pop in and look at their exhibits including Faraday's and Davy's inventions of electricity and 1st safety lamp respectively in the early 19th Century. I even saw the lab where Faraday experimented his famous inventions. The quick visit was a taste to what I have studied and what I am going to study. The RI is more of a conference/venue/working centre so there is not that much to see and some of the other exhibits were cordoned off because of a private function that was happening the same day.

Meeting up with friends

Nicki and I have been friends since 2000. We lost touch for quite a while but we were reunited via Facebook last year. Nicki now lives in Australia with her fiance, Corey. They are visiting the UK for three months and they have got recently engaged, which is exciting! We decided to meet up for lunch in Covent Gardens. We had lunch at a pub (The Wellington) and the food and beer was good! We had lots to catch up on and had a great time. We look forward to meeting up again....at the Engagement Party in the New Year.

It was nice being in London again and no doubt I will be returning very soon!!!!

Last but not least - Wilberforce House and Museum

My parents and I made an afternoon trip recently to Hull, an hour away from Leeds, to visit Wilberforce House and Museum. We have shared interests in slavery and the slave trade. We were looking forward to learning more about Wilberforce who played an important role in ending the slave trade. We were impressed and amazed with the information and exhibits about the slavery, the slave trade, and the political and humane fight to end this. There are a lot of interesting exhibits and experiences to take in and it was overwhelming at times. I am going to be studying Wilberforce and Slavery so the visit will be handy. I enjoyed learning more about Wilberforce and his life. Other than his involvement in politics and religion, he was a member of the RSPCA (an animal charity in the UK) when it was first formed and he gave one of the first public speeches. It was a worthwhile visit and highly recommendable!

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Photos

Sir John Soane Museum
An eccentric museum

The West Front and Towers
From the Golden Gallery, St Paul's, London

Paternoster Square & Monument
From the Golden Gallery, St Paul's Cathedral, London

12 o'clock!
St Paul's Cathedral, London

Me!
Stone Gallery, St Paul's Cathedral, London

The Stone Gallery
St Paul's Cathedral, London

The Old Bailey
From the Stone Galley, St Paul's Cathedral, London

View of Millennium Bridge
From the St Paul's galleries, London

Panoramic London
From St Paul's galleries, London

West Front
St Paul's Cathedral, London

Nicki & Corey
The Wellington, Covent Gardens, London

The Royal Institute (RI)
London

Wilberforce House
Museum Quarter, Hull

Exhibits
Wilberforce House, Museum Quarter, Hull

Exhibits
Wilberforce House, Museum Quarter, Hull

Nelson Gardens
Museum Quarter, Hull