More London Wanderings & Globes

I’m finally almost up to date, barring that 2nd day of Hong Kong which is almost going to be too much effort to write at the moment. I’ll try and do it when I have some spare time.

Yesterday was another interesting day, seeing a few sights which I didn’t know existed and some other planned experiences. You know what? I’ve just written around four posts and I’m over this for now. Here are some pictures with extended captions to get you up to speed.

Old London Wall

Above: What remains of the old wall which surrounded the city of London. This is outside the London Museum.

Mounted Policeman

Above: I first spotted this mounted police man after he used a pedestrian crossing in the city. He the proceeded to go through a garage door with a sign reading “Emergency Police Vehicles, Keep Clear”. I had to chuckle.

Commit No Nuisance

Above: I thought this was an interesting sign and as I was taking this photo, a woman approaches me to say “you know wha’ tha’ means? It means don’t piss down the wall. Bit’a local Surrey history for ya”. Awesome.

The Gherkin

Above: You can see this building from everywhere. I gather it’s called The Gherkin because of it’s shape. Pretty cool.

St Olaves Church

Above: Pretty creepy looking entrance to a church, eh?

I saw all these sights in the afternoon yesterday, walking around to kill some time while I was waiting. Waiting to go to Shakespeare’s Glob to see a play, which I finally did at 7:30 last night. It went by the name of Timon of Athens and is supposed to be a Tragedy, but although tragic was also a very funny take on understanding generosity and what it means to have true friends . It was originally scripted but much of the performance was very contemporary with actors dressed as crows leaping on bungy cords from the roof, and lots of action happening down in the peasent crowds, where I was also standing. There was nudity and poos and lots of other filth going on. The audience loved it.

The Globe Theatre itself is a replica of the original Globe, beam for beam, and it looks spectacular. Here are some shot (they are not too good, but the light was being pedantic).

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

Alright, that’s enough for now. Enjoy.

A Few Bits of Art

Just a quick update on the local art front. At some stage over the last few days I decided to finish off the Tate Modern street art walk around London’s southern burrows. International artists have congregated upon the city for this exhibition, here are a few pieces which I saw and liked.

Tate Modern Street Art

Tate Modern Street Art

During my walk, I also found myself walking down a strange back-alley which housed an independent contemporary art gallery called Union. The curator was more than happy for me to take photos of the excellent array of works. Here are a few:

Excellent Marble Sculpture of a Fertile Woman

Jigsaw Puzzle!

Red Landscape

Awesome!

Natural History & Piping

During one of the past few days, I figured that I would check out the London Museum of Natural History. I have now fully aquainted myself with the subway system which is just as convenient as the one in Hong Kong, just more packed, less air-conditioned, grimier, and slower. But it works, and that’s the main thing. Using this new-found skill, I navigated my way to the appropriate station of which I have now forgotten the name.

Once you step out of the Tube Station, the Museum is at once imposed upon you, casting a shadow over it’s surrounding not unlike the hundreds of other ‘vintage’ buildings in the city. Although this building is definitely old, it feels like it has been renovated at some stage in the near past, as on the sills of all the exterior windows sat a gargoyle-like depiction of the natural world, which I’m sure would not have been there on initial creation.

London Museum of Natural History

The inside was just as majestic as the exterior, with huge arches, staircases and tiled floors. Oh, and the exhibits! There was much in here which was similar to the Hong Kong Museum of History, a large amount on geology and the creation of the universe and earth, but there was much, much more. The Hong Kong Museum turns into an exhibit of life past in Hong Kong, London has a separate museum for this which I will come to in another post.

TheLondon Museum of Natural History had taxidermy! Lots and lots and lots of it, I read somewhere that there was 22,000 pieces! And I could believe that. They had separated the animals into what they eat or what family, order or class they were from, and it was all very interesting. I have never actaully seen a real Anteater before, nor a mountain goat or manatee. Crazy. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take any photos in these halls as everything was behind glass and every photo I was trying to take reflected 40 Spanish tourists back at me through the lens.

They also had DINOSAURS! I haven’t seen a dinosaur skeleton since I was 5 years old in New York, so this was particularly exciting. The museum had a huge collection including Triceratops and T-Rex skeletons, alongside a number of the larger plant eaters of names which I can not now remember. Although it was a very cramped linear exhibition, I managed to get a few photos, some even of thee mechanical life-size T-Rex robot!

Triceratops Skeleton

Robot T-Rex

Later on that day, it was about time that the famous shisha bars were found. I had heard there was one on Edgware Rd near Marble Arch, so after Adam had finished work we headed over there. What I found was a street riddled with piping establishments! Prasnaglava, take note – Edgware Rd, Marble Arch Station – you will be needing this advice when you come to London next.

We never did find the place I had been reccommended, so we just ended up at a random bar. The shisha in this city is very expensive, you will not get change from £10 for a pipe, and in our situation, not a very good pipe. It was exciting to walk in the door and see 30-odd pipes all ready to go, being  instantly offered a choice of apple or pineapple, but this is where the excitement ended. We chose apple and they brought it out. The coals guy came along with a bucket of coals and proceeded to put 4 large coals right in the centre of the tinfoil. It tasted good for about 1 minute then  it got so hot and started burning, there were no tongs available for the customers to use so we had to stop until the coals-man could come and rearrange things for us. I’m not sure if his english was bad or what, but instead of taking a coal off and putting them on the edge, he put another one on! It was too much to smoke, fly to me Spirit of Christmas upon the back on Constable Habeeb and calm me for my nerves are not well.  So all in all, not the best experience. Who are these Middle-Easterners trying to kid?

Adam Smokes the Pipe

Statues With Random Posers

I have found that on occassion it is not easy to take a photo of a statue without someone random person always being in the way. This could be annoying but I’ve decided to use it as a project piece. From now on you will see a number of posts of statues with random people posing in them, mainly because I think it’s funny.

Girl With NZ Statue

Boy with Nelson Mandela Statue

I’ve created a Flickr photo-set for all these images which you can see by clicking here.

London Sights

I haven’t written in a couple of days and I probably shouldn’t be now as it’s close to 1am. But never mind, I want to get a few things up.

Yesterday was again, for me, another “hottest day of the year”. This time in London. It is definitely not as hot as Hong Kong but it is still sweat producing if you are wandering around in the sun all day. Nevertheless, I managed to get around a number of the tourist attractions which the city has to offer.

Adam was showing me around, our first stop was the London Eye. This is essentially a huge ferris wheel with enclosed capsules which takes you high above London’s skyline. It was deathly expensive so I didn’t take a trip on it. I also didn’t really manage to get a decent photo of it as there were so many people in the way and  i didn’t want to cross a busy road just for that. You can see it in the corner of one of my photos of the Guard’s House.

We then crossed the Thames towards the central city, only to find everyone’s favourite pie manufacturer, Big Ben. That is one majestic clock.  And boy was I excited to see it (cheers, Brook)!

OMG it's bBig Ben!

Big Ben does not stand alone, and has attached itself to the side of the Houses of Parliment, the place where I gather many big decisions are made by Brown men, but not so many black ones. Racialist jokes! But really, it is another awesome building with incredible attention to detail.

Houses of Parliment & Big Ben

Over the road from the Houses of Parliment was Wesminster Abbey, which again I have no photos of. It just didn’t feeel like something deserved of all the fuss it seems to accumulate! Another church in a city on oh so many.

Next we took a walk down to Tower Bridge, that’s the famous one which always gets confused with London Bridge. It’s around 700 years old and there are so many tourists that it is out of control. But nevertheless, it’s a pretty amazing sight to see. As with many of the other architectural wonders in London, it is beautifully detailed and would have taken a number of craftsmen a long  time to put it all together.

Tower Bridge

We walked on from Tower Bridge towards St. James’ Park. If anything was essentially English, it had to be  this place: cultivated gardens, a false lake, plenty of pathways, and people picnicing everywhere. And more squirrels (and a pelican or two!) :) Sitting neatly behind St. James’ Park is that place which you have all seen before – Buckingham Palace. So now it was about time to visit aunty Elizibeth (although she dosen’t actaully live here). To be honest, it really doesn’t seem to be as majecstic as is protrayed on television and it definitely not easy to photograph. But never mind, it was cool enough to see the Beefeater Guards in their finest comatose-like poses. There was also a number of statues spotted around a larger statue in the front of the palace which a notes saying they were donated by New Zealand, and seriously, these statues were better than anything I’ve even seen back home – crazy!

St James' Park

NZ Dontated Statue at Buckingham Palace

Beefeater at Buckingham Palace

We had now been walking for hours and both my feet and back were sore and I was pretty tired, so off home it was for what was a pretty early night on current standards.