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Woolly says – I was up early and ready to go, today promised to be exciting as we set off on a mission to find a tiger and a witch. The train from Bishops Stortford sped us into the centre of London and as we plunged into the London underground system I found myself remembering the oily fuggy smell that makes it so distinctive. I climbed onto my first tube train of the day, it seemed so narrow compared to the metro systems we had been using in South East Asia and the people were so tall making Jo look like a minion once again. I’ve got used to be quite tall on this trip in comparison to others, I was now back to peering up at everyone just as my small companion does.
Woolly says – Our first stop was to The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) which is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.3 million objects, with our time limit we were only going to get a chance to see a small fraction of the exhibits but for us it was like going on a treasure trail that would finish our journey. The building alone was spectacular and as we paused to get our bearings I started to regret the need for speed and dearly wanted to linger, but with no time to spare I trotted after the women and into the Islamic gallery which gave me a feast of beautiful ceramics, patterned rugs and a beautiful Turkish fire place. We ducked into the next room, hopefully the main source of treasure, beautiful dresses and Indian paintings were lookedat and admired, when I spotted what I thought was the Royal Regalia, the collection of gold that should have been in Myanmar
Museums, Markets and Marionettes , It was stunning and so much better than the replica, such a shame that the people of Myanmar can’t view it in their own country. Having taken our snaps Jo led the way towards the back of the exhibits in the hope of finding another lost relic. This relic had come to our attention on our trip through The Summer Palace in Bangalore and we knew we wanted to see the real thing
How the Young Men of Bangalore saved the day! , <em style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal;">that was a hell of a day!
Woolly says - ‘Tipu’s Tiger’ was made for Tipu Sultan, ruler of Mysore in South India the tiger, an almost life-sized wooden semi-automaton, mauls a European soldier lying on his back. Concealed inside the tiger’s body, behind a hinged flap, is an organ which can be operated by turning the handle next to it. This simultaneously makes the man’s arm lift up and down and produces noises intended to imitate his dying moans, says a lot about the Sultans views! It was huge in comparison to the one we had seen, the condition of it was incredible, we stood admiring him for quite a while with each of us pointing out that it was much bigger than we had expected. Having had our fill, I trotted back towards to the underground and our pit stop before lunch, arriving at our destination. During our travels we had heard that Primark had a whole Harry Potter store, with all of us being big Potter fans we wanted a quick look on our way to eat.
Woolly says – Split into houses I immediately headed towards the Gryffindor section, while Jo and Zoe went in search of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw respectively. A quick snack and we were off again, running deep under the streets below in the rattily carriages, rising upwards and back into daylight we wondered what the area surrounding Victoria square was like, I peered around but it appeared to be quite a large building site and nothing of note except for a huge billboard that had quite a large green witch emblazoned on it and beneath it the entrance to the Apollo Theatre, I raced across the road and into the building, once the women had caught up with me, I had claimed my seat and sat gazing around at the interior. T
he Apollo Theatre is a Grade II listed West End theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue opening its doors on 21st February 1901 with the American musical comedy, The Belle of Bohemia. For the last 12 years it has been home to the cast and crew of the musical Wicked. His grubby face beamed up at me as the lights dimmed and we were plunged into the world of Oz and the story of how the
wicked witch had become wicked in the first place.
Woolly says – It was very good with lots of green costumes and song after song, the happy ending arrived …… and yes there is a happy ending! I sat there clapping my paws and thinking of the last six months and what we have seen and the places we have visited, such an incredible time, from putting the Ganges to Bed to a London Musical and so much more on the way, a lifetimes worth of memories for us. Jo says it’s back to work time and some reality, I think we’ll have to see about that! Where are my maps?
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Truly beautiful
The details are amazing'