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Published: September 5th 2023
Nothing says London like the Tower and Tower Bridge
Apparently the original design of the tower was a steel structure like the Eiffel Tower. Even Victoria said it would spoil the view of the Tower of London. Hence the stone facade.OK, we’re back in business mainly due the loving care and attention provided by Nurse Dianne supported by the Princess Cruise line staff. I think the many errors I found in the text versions of the blog were not caused by the effects of COVID, but from the fact that I can’t type. But onwards….
London Day 4 The
British Museum was our main target for today. It is so immense that you can’t really take it all in during one visit. We toured the China section which brought back many memories of our time in China.
The other area where we spent time was a section on Africa. One display, The Tree of Life, was very moving. Mozambique suffered badly from war and natural disasters in the late 20
th century. In 1995, the Turning Arms into Tools project was established to exchange weapons for ploughs, bicycles, sewing machines and, in one case, a whole village turned in all their weapons for a tractor. A video showed how a group of artists cut up some weapons and ammunition to convert them into a beautiful sculpture.
We continued our walkabout in
Russell Square on our way to St.
Flowers galore
There were many flowers in full bloom - hanging baskets, planters, and gardens full. Etheldreda’s Church, the oldest Medieval church in England. This area was the London home of the Bishop of Ely years ago. The church is still an active parish even though it is tucked away and tricky to find.
One thing we like about London is that it is very walkable (if you like walking). We stumbled across the Old Bailey which we had visited before. It felt like an old friend as we had seen it many times while watching
Rumpole of the Bailey. We encountered St Paul’s Cathedral from a different angle which gave us a nice photo op. We had been through the Monument underground station several times without really thinking about it. I mean, there are many monuments in London, does this really refer to a particular monument? Well, yes, it does: the monument to the Great Fire of 1666. It took 6 years to complete and, at over 200 feet tall, must have been impressive when completed in 1677. Today it is hard to see unless you are standing in the right place. You can walk up some 300 stairs to the viewing platform. We chose not to.
This may have been the day
Glazed Dragon Tiles, late Ming Dynasty
These tiles originally ran along the ridge of a building in Shanxi province. The tiles supposedly protected the building from fire. I mis-remembered the bus number to take home. There are 10 buses that stop at “our” stop, including the 48, 68 and 168. Coming home, one of them stops at Tesco at the other end of Burgess Park. We had walked a long way and when we got off at Tesco, I realized we still had over a mile to walk to get home. Sigh.
London Day 5 Hamstead Heath is a very large area in the north-west section of London. We took a bus, a tube, and another bus to get to our starting point, Kenwood House. This fine old country home was remodeled in 1760. It was given to the Nation in 1929 and is open to the public at no charge. Beautiful house, full of fantastic paintings and interesting items on display. The grounds are well taken care of but not fussy. They turn into the rest of a series of walking trails that are well used. One of our destinations was Parliament Hill which was supposed to have great views over London. They weren’t bad, what you could see of them. Too many trees but I don’t think cutting them down to improve the
Ancestral screen from Nigeria
At the request of Kalabari chiefs in 1916, a number of ancestral screens were placed under the protection of Talbot, a British district officer in southern Nigeria. Talbot then presented 9 of these screens to the British Museum. view would be too popular.
An easy day today, topped off by walking to a local pizza place for supper. Very popular place. The pizzas were big enough that we were able to take enough home for supper tomorrow.
London Day 6 We have long thought that a barge trip down a canal in England or France would be a neat experience. Then we read about the
Regent’s Canal in London. It’s not a live-aboard boat ride but then you don’t have to manage the locks yourself. We again bussed and tubed our way to Little Venice to start our voyage. It’s only a 45-minute relaxing ride but the commentaries by the captain and the guide were funny and the weather was excellent. You disembark at Camden Market which was very crowded. We were quite happy to beat it out of town and continue down the tow path past the Camden lock. The tow path is very restful and a pleasant change from the Market.
Our destination was the
Canal Museum which described its beginnings, busy days, and gradual disuse. Thanks goodness they saved the canal. There were plans to drain and build on the leftovers
The Tree of Life
Mozambique experienced a devastating civil war from 1976 to 1992. Many weapons were then hidden or buried. The Tree of Life project enabled this moving piece of art to be built from weapons that were turned in. and it would have been a real shame to lose these reminders of the past. They had a restored canal boat inside that really showed the life of a bargeman and his family. One little boy (a tourist) was fascinated by the barge, He kept telling us about what all the features were for. He also mentioned several times “I’m four years old”. I asked his mother if he had been to the museum before and she said it was his first time and she couldn’t get him out of the boat to see the rest of the exhibits.
Both the barge trip and the museum were well worth visiting.
London Day 7 We had finally managed to buy tickets for
Tower Bridge. This was one visit I had been looking forward to ever since we had started planning this Great Britain trip. You get to go up the one tower reading many interesting facts as you go, cross the river on one of the two walkways way up high and back again on the other. All the displays were excellent, and the views were spectacular too. You go back down the tower on the other side
Tree of Life closeup
So you can see the individual pieces of the cut up weapons of the river and then descend into the lower reaches where all the machinery used to raise the bridge deck is located. I found this visit to be the best event yet. The diagrams and descriptions were clear and very interesting.
The plan for our last visit was the
Victoria and Albert Museum, a museum we had meant to visit on previous trips but never made it. The building has been expanded since its beginnings in the 1800s and the building itself is well worth the visit. I wasn’t as keen on the contents, a lot of sculpture and paintings, but maybe
I am just suffering from museum overload.
I made yet another bus/tube error on this adventure. I had carefully planned our route to Tower Bridge, from Tower Bridge to the V&A Museum and from the V&A back home. After a while you forget which trip is which. On the way to the V&A, I got us off at the tube stop we were supposed to use to get home, so we had to get back on the tube to get to the Museum. But at least I got us home in fine shape and we
Russell Square Gardens
A large garden not far from the British Museum. It has a fascinating history. The earliest mention of the area appears in the Domesday Book. didn’t have to walk from Tesco.
Our last adventure was to stop at Waterloo station to check things out for our trip to Southampton the next day. We are ready!
London Day 8 I described our journey of Southampton in the last mini blog. Who knew how valuable that upgraded room would be?
ToBeContinued
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