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A high speed trip.

A high speed trip.

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The high speed railway route from St. Pancras Station in London runs down through Ashford in Kent, under the English Channel, and thence to foreign climes. On its way it also passes through Stratford International Station in Greater London and, as I have mentioned before, the rail route from our local station goes through Stratford on its way into London.

Part of that high speed route can also be used to get to other places in Kent so on Saturday we went, by high speed train, to meet two friends of ours, Ian and Carole, in Kent who live very near Rochester and that is where we all met.

We caught our usual train from our usual station and travelled to Stratford then walked for 10 minutes to Stratford International Station and caught the train to Rochester. The run to Ebbsfleet, the next station, is on the high speed line but it is mostly underground having to pass under the River Thames. We were obviously travelling fast but I've no idea what our actual speed was although these trains have a maximun speed of 140 MPH. It took us 30 minutes to get to Rochester where Ian and Carole were waiting for us at the station.

Walking out of the station we crossed a road or two and very soon found  ourselves in High Street.

You can see that the town was expecting us because of the bunting hung across the street. A short distance along and we came across this building – notice the legend just above the doorway in the second picture.


The building is late 16th century and was once a town house but has been converted to three shops. This building was used by Dickens as the model for Pumblechook's home.

The Kent countryside near Gad's Hill Place, Dickens's last home, is the setting for Pip's childhood in Great Expectations, and Rochester is the model for the 'nearest town'.

Mr. Pumblechook was charged with escorting Pip to Miss Havisham's house for the first time. Because of this, Mr. Pumblechook believes forevermore that he had a big hand in helping Pip to his fortune.

A little further on we saw Eastgate House dating from around 1590.


The second picture is the rear view showing the Swiss Chalet, where Dickens wrote some of his greatest works, which was given to him by the French actor Charles Fechter and it arrived on Christmas Eve 1864. It was originally located opposite Dickens' house on Gads Hill.

There are two rather dubious looking Dickensian characters sitting on the wall and some even more dubious characters over to the left. Amanda on the right, Carole in the centre and Ian on the left. This is the middle of June and you'll notice that we are all wearing jackets. We are still waiting for a proper summer.

Leaving Eastgate House we hopped up Crow Lane to the Vines. The Vines used to be the vinyard of the local monks but now it's a small park and a very nice one.

Just opposite the Vines in Crow Lane is Restoration House where Charles II stayed on his return to England in 1660 to be crowned (the restoration of the monarchy). The building is the amalgamation of two medieval houses.

We left the Vines at the far end and emerged into Minor Canon Row. These Canons are not the BOOM BOOM sort but the eclesiastical sort, you understand, and they needed somewhere to live so this row of 7 Georgian townhouses were built for them between 1722 and 1735.

Walking round the corner at the far end and we get our first view of the cathedral.

It didn't take us long to get to the west end and the main entrance where we went in. Entrance is free.

There are more photographs of the interior but you'll have to wait for those to appear on the main web site.

Back in the High Street we stopped for lunch in a nice little restaurant called the Atrium with plenty of wooden beams. Service turned out to be a bit slow but the food was very nice. Well, of course I had the Chocolate Truffle Torte for dessert – I mean, do I look silly?

Whilst we were having lunch we could see, out of the window, this building across the street.

It was the Poor Travellers' House dating from the late 16th century. It was endowed under the terms of Richard Watts' will of 1579 providing a night's board and lodging for six poor travellers. More pictures will appear on the web site later.

A little further along High Street next to Two Post Alley is this rather interesting Tudor building and it really is that wonky.

You may notice a small bit of the castle beyond the end of the alley.

The weather was deteriorating by this time with a very strong wind so we went for a quick look at the castle and I managed this photograph in a quick flash of sunlight.

It looked very impressive but we didn't want to hang around in this weather so we'll have to make a return visit.

Ian and Carole took us back, in their car, to their house for some tea. We had strawberries and cream with some coffee and walnut sponge to follow which was very nice indeed. I'm desparately trying to make you envious here; I hope it's working.

When it was time for us to leave Ian and Carole drove us back to Rochester Station where we caught our train to Stratford and thence another train home.

Rochester was a very pleasant town packed with interest and just 40 minutes from London making a nice day trip destination.

 

Medieval, Monumental and Modern

Medieval, Monumental and Modern

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8:30 PM Wednesday 1st May 2013.

Just back from our day trip today and this comes under the ‘Modern’ category.

Before I continue with this post I’m going to get you to guess what/where this might be. I’ll give you a few days and I’ll also give you a clue. It’s in London. There, that narrows it down a bit doesn’t it? smilies

9:30 AM Sunday 5th May 2013.

Clever-clogs Annecyborn was the first with the correct answer. It was, indeed, the Gherkin and this shows the whole width of the base.

Another sunny day forecast, another trip.

We arrived at our London terminus, Liverpool Street Station, and went out into Bishopsgate where we turned north and walked until we reached Brushfield Street on the east side of Bishopsgate. Walking along Brushfield Street we soon arrived here:

That is one of the entrances to Old Spitalfields Market. The area belonged to St Mary Spital, a priory or hospital erected on the east side of the Bishopsgate thoroughfare in 1197, and the name is thought to have been derived from that.

By the later 19th century inner Spitalfields had eclipsed rival claimants to the dubious distinction of being the worst criminal area in London and it is this area that is associated with Jack the Ripper.


The market building is 19th century and turned out not to be particularly interesting architecturally unlike, for example, Leadenhall Market. There are plenty of shops including cafes which seem popular but we weren’t really interested in those so we moved on.

We came out of the eastern end on Spitalfields Market and walked south along Commercial Street, turned right into White’s Row, left into Bell Lane until we came to Frying Pan Alley. There is nothing special about Frying Pan Alley except it’s name and with a name like that we just had to walk through it.

It is an old alley although, sadly, all the old buildings have been razed to make way for modern buildings. However this alley once housed numerous Ironmongers who identified their premises by displaying a frying pan outside.

On the map above Spitalfields Market is top right and Frying Pan Alley is marked with an arrow.

We came out of the west end of Frying Pan alley, turned left into Sandy’s Row, right into Middlesex Street, forked left into Catherine Wheel Alley (named after the Catherine Wheel Inn which was demolished in 1911) then left again into Cock Hill. It’s a maze of narrow streets and alleys round here. That took us, via a dog leg, into New Street and after turning left into yet another alley we found ourselves in Devonshire Square. You may be able to trace our route on the map above in the darkened rectangle.

Devonshire Square is area enclosed by buildings and accessible only via alleyways. All these alleys and squares are old but the buildings have obviously been replaced.

Devonshire Square is actually a number of individual squares connected by alleyways and as we wandered through we came across this life-size sculpture of a knight on horseback.


King Edgar (944-975) made an agreement with a group of 13 knights that he would give them land near to this spot on condition that they would each engage in three combats, one on the ground, another on water and the third below ground.

We did wonder how they could have fought below ground but after thinking about it we decided that they could have used a cellar or crypt.

We made our way out of these squares and alleys and headed south towards the Gherkin.


We couldn’t really miss it could we?

Nearby is the medieval church of St. Helen’s dating from the 11th century. It is the largest surviving church in the City of London and it contains more monuments than any other church in Greater London except for Westminster Abbey.

It is unusual in that it was designed with two parallel naves, giving it a wide interior.  Until the dissolution of the priory in 1538, the church was divided in two by a partition running from east to west, the northern half serving the nuns and the southern the parishioners. That partition has since been removed. It is the only building from a nunnery to survive in the City of London and one of the few churches to survive both the Great Fire of London of 1666 and the Blitz during World War II.


You can see that they have cornered the market in monuments and there were more all over the floor. This church was William Shakespeare’s parish church when he lived in the area in the 1590s.

Heading south down St. Mary Axe towards Leadenhall Street we passed another medieval church – St. Andrew Undershaft dating back to the 10th century although the current building is mainly 16th century. This is another city church that survived both the Great Fire of 1666 and the Blitz.

The church’s curious name derives from the shaft of the maypole that was traditionally set up each year opposite the church until 1517 when the custom ended.

We were now headed west to the Guildhall where I was hoping to get a photograph which is better lit than the last time we were here. We went via St. Michael’s Alley, which we previously visited when we went to Leadenhall Market, and I took a photograph of the Jamaica Wine House. This was originally London’s first Coffee House.


We soon arrived at the Guildhall where I took my photograph.

The last time I tried it was late in the day when the sun was low and there was a large dark shadow across the courtyard and across part of the building. Much better this time.

We now headed for the Barbican and arrived at about lunchtime. This is the Barbican Centre Terrace and that low building ahead on the left is the Barbican Food Hall (not a particularly imaginative name) where we were going to have lunch.

It was not at all expensive at around £9.50 for a main course and the food was beatifully cooked and very tasty. We both had Thai Red Curry of Duck Leg with saffron rice, vegatable rolls and Coconut Dip. The duck meat just fell off the bone and we thoroughly enjoyed it. To be recommended if you are ever this way.

After lunch and before we left we went up 3 levels to where the conservatory is situated. It was not open today as we expected but I took a photograph from the outside of part of it to show what the construction is like.


We left Barbican and emerged into Aldersgate Street a little north of the Museum of London where we caught a bus going north to the Angel, Islington, where another bus took us west along Pentonville Road to St. Pancras.

For a railway terminus that is a pretty impressive victorian building. However we hadn’t come here to see that specifically we had come to visit the British Library.


That’s St. Pancras Station peeping over the wall in the second picture.

This is a large, impressive modern building with a very interesting construction. This is the entrance hall.

The library holds over 150 million items from many countries, in many languages so it may take you a little while if you want to read them all. It also includes the King’s Library; a collection donated by King George III and housed in the King’s Library Tower, a six-storey glass and bronze structure in the entrance hall. This shows just part of the King’s Library Tower.

A number of books and manuscripts are on display to the general public in the Sir John Ritblat Gallery which is open seven days a week at no charge. Some of the manuscripts in the exhibition include Beowulf, the Lindisfarne Gospels and St Cuthbert Gospel, a Gutenberg Bible, Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur (King Arthur), Captain Cook’s journal, Jane Austen’s History of England, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories, Charles Dickens’s Nicholas Nickleby, Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and a room devoted solely to Magna Carta. That lot should keep you amused.

They also hold copies of all web sites and blogs which have the suffix .uk which will include this web site and blog. In that copy of this web site there will be a picture of the British Library and in that library will be a copy of this web site and …. ad infinitum.

We decided it was time to leave and so went out into Euston Road. Walking south-west along Euston Road we turned left at Dukes Road which led us to Woburn Walk.

This attractive pedestrian street features beautifully preserved bow-fronted buildings that were built in 1822. A plaque on one of the buildings marks the house of W. B. Yeats, who lived here between 1895 and 1919 and the street is home to restaurants, bookshops, and galleries.

Our next, and last, planned stop was the Charles Dickens Museum just off Grays Inn Road in Doughty Street. We planned to walk through a number of what we hoped would be attractive squares on the way. It turns out that they were.

Starting with Tavistock Square:


and finishing with Russell Square.

We soon after arrived at the museum. The entrance door is the one on the right.

There is a sign on the railings giving opening times and it closes at 5:00 PM with last entry at 4:00 PM. So what’s the time? 4:10 PM. Oh #@**&^!! smilies

So we didn’t get to see it after all that. Next time perhaps. We caught a bus to Holborn, changed to a bus to Liverpool Street Station and caught the train to go back home.

Trains, Cranes and Cobbles

Trains, Cranes and Cobbles

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Chance is a fine thing. Our weather forecasters invariably get it wrong but occasionally a forecast will turn out to be right purely by chance. Saturday was one of those forecasts. It was forecast to be sunny all day and so it was.

We leaped on a train, figuratively speaking, and leaped off at Stratford (one station before our normal terminus – Liverpool Street Station). There are two stations at Stratford now; the one that we just used, which has been there a long time, and Stratford International which is relatively new. It's called Stratford International because the international trains don't stop there (what?). They were supposed to but the train operators refused to stop there because it's only a few minutes out of St. Pancras. However they were threatened with being forced to stop there so they agreed to re-examine the situation after the Olympics. We shall see.

However there are trains that stop there which go to parts of Kent. Well that's foreign because it's south of the river and we are thinking of taking a day trip down into Kent at some point so we thought we'd see what was involved in getting from one station to the other.

This map shows the relationship between the two stations with Stratford International just below the top (Blue lettering), Stratford Station just below that and to the right (grey lettering) and the Olympic Statium lower down and to the left.

The large grey/brown block between the two stations is the Westfield Shopping Centre. It turned out to be a fairly straightforward walk through the shopping centre from one station to the other so we'll know for next time.

Having walked to Stratford International we didn't have to walk back because we were then going on the Docklands Light Railway, henceforth known as the DLR, to Blackwall. We managed to get a front seat looking out the window so I took a few photographs on the journey.

This one is as we were leaving Stratford Internaional because I thought that arch looked rather graceful.

A little further on and we were approaching Stratford and the Olympic Park with the stadium on the right and the strange twisty helter-skelter thing on the left.

One has to be very quick in composing a shot when trying to take photographs from a moving train and it's also tricky holding the camera steady whilst bouncing up and down with the train's movement but I managed this shot of the Millenium Dome as we went past.

We had to change trains at Canning Town to get to Blackwall and this is our next train arriving. They are rather cute. The nice thing is being able to sit behind the front window as there is no driver (they are controlled by computer).

Arriving at Blackwall DLR Station we went to start our walk. The first thing to do is look for the sign pointing to Billingsgate Fish Market and follow the wide paved path going out of the picture on the right.


So we did that. This brought us to a main road and a very short way away to the left was a short flight of wide stone steps which took us up to the edge of Poplar Dock.

It was nice to see, when this dock was redeveloped for housing, that the old dockside cranes were left in position.

Walking along the dock we saw a lot of boats and from here the cranes can be seen over to the left and a red DLR train in the distance on an elevated section of railway. Walking to the southern end of Poplar Dock we were able to cross into Blackwall Basin and see the buildings in Canary Wharf reflected in the water.

 We also caught a glimpse of the Millenium Dome again just beyond these waterside apartments which we saw from the footbridge.


We eventually reached the lock which is the entrance to West India Dock with yet more, and larger, cranes just off Prestons Road. The buildings of Canary Wharf are prominent in the background.

On the other side of Prestons Road is yet another view of the Millenium Dome. That thing seems to pop up everywhere.

We eventually reached the western end of West India Dock and headed east along the other side of the dock and started to see a bit of greenery.

Bearing in mind that the London Marathon comes through here tomorrow we saw very few signs of that. Just a few TV broadcasting vans with dish aerials on their rooves but nothing else. We did wonder if there might be crowd barriers is place specifically to spoil any photographs I might want to take but, no, not a sign.

We reached No. 1 Canada Square which is one of the very tall buildings and went into the shopping centre at its base. This shopping area must go under a large number of the buildings because it is v-a-s-t. There are also free public toilets here if that interests you (and if you can actually find them – we did smilies ).

We did finally find our way through to Cabot Square and emerged once more into sunlight and were surprised by a couple of little attractive cameo views that suddenly appear here from time to time.


We left Cabot Square and made our way north towards West India Quay, not to be confused with West India Dock which we have already passed, and we emerged from the left onto the footbridge in the distance just beyond the cranes.

This view was obtained by going up on to one of the DLR platforms of West India Quay station which is on an elevated section of the railway at this point. Yet more cranes which, I thought, looked a bit like Martian War Machines. Here is another view of the Martian War Machines with the DLR showing in the background in the station from which I took the previous view.

The area on the right of the footbridge includes some of the original docklands buildings which have been restored and fronted by the original cobbled surface. This includes the Museum of London Docklands and also numerous restaurants. Walking along here and looking at all the different menus one is rather spoiled for choice. We eventually decided on one particular menu at a restaurant called Henry's and decided to have lunch.

We were shown to a table in the sun with padded seats, which was nice, and our order was taken very soon after. Our drinks arrived first and our meals not long after that. Table service was very efficient but drinks and meals took longer than we would have expected although not too long so I expect the slight hold up was in the kitchen.

Amanda had roast belly of pork with dauphinoise potatoes and vegatables and I had pork schnitzel with red cabbage and sautéed new potatoes. We both enjoyed our meals and the food really was very good. So much so that I had to refrain from licking the plate. Amanda made the point that her dauphinoise potato was some of the best that she'd had.

The problem started when we decided to have a dessert. We placed our order and waited, and waited, and waited. We queried this a number of times and were told it would arrive soon. It didn't. We finally got our order 30 minutes after it was placed. Both of our desserts were cold items so no cooking needed. The desserts, like our main courses, were very nice and although we were given an apology I said that waiting 30 minutes really was unacceptable. They cancelled the cost of the desserts by way of compensation.

In spite of that long wait I think that it must have been an unusual problem because it was busy and obviously very popular so we will go back if we are that way again and give then another chance. From the point of view of table service and quality of food I would recommend them without hesitation.

We now headed to the Museum of London Docklands shown here in part of the restored warehouse with a cobbled frontage.

The museum is big with a variety of exhibits including some which try to show what the narrow streets of old London would have looked like.

After spending some time looking around we realised that we were both feeling tired and so decided to head for home. Leaving the museum we headed through the grassy Canada Place.

Then through Jubilee Park

and towards the nearest DLR station thence back to Stratford and on the train home. Our second trip of the year (our first being to meet Marie in London on her birthday).

 

Round the world in a day.

Round the world in a day.

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Our railway line terminates at Liverpool Street Station on the east side of London and we pass through Stratford, where the Olympic Statium is being constructed, on the way. This trip we got off at Stratford to get on the London Overground which we hadn't used before.

The London Overground is really an ordinary overground railway line, like the one we use to get to Liverpool Street Station, but is run by Transport for London and is treated as part of the London Underground system so any Underground ticket will also cover you for use of the London Overground, for the relevant zones, without any extra payment. :mrgreen:

The trains themselves are of a new design where you can walk from one end of the train to the other along the central aisle without having to pass through any doors.

We were obviously on that train but where were we going?

The weather lately has become very unsettled with a lot of cloud and some areas have also had some rain so not a good time to go out and about. However Tuesday, yesterday, was forecast to be sunny and warm to the west of London so we were headed to Kew gardens.

The total journey for us was about two and a half hours and we arrived at the gate around 11:30 AM. There was a queue of about six people so it didn't take long to get in. We had our 2for1 voucher, and we get in at the 'concessions' price being 'decayed persons' which reduced the entry charge to 11.90 for both of us.

There are plants from all over the world here so we had a lot of countries to travel through. We'd better get started then.

We were told that the Palm House was closing today at 2:00 PM so we headed there first. What they didn't tell us is that the high level walkway was closed for filming which was a pity as I was looking forward to taking some high level photographs. :cry:

This is an amazing Victorian building and is a 'must see'. I have to say I wouldn't like to be responsible for cleaning the windows. :shock:

There is a lot of vegetation in here and it's fairly popular although it doesn't feel that one is jostling for space. It's also warm!

Behind the Palm House is the Rose Garden and the little building on the left is the Waterlily House of which more later.

One thing to say about Kew Gardens is that it's not quiet. Apart from the other visitors there are these thing going over at the rate of about one a minute. :roll:

This is one of the 'smaller' ones. You can see here that they are offset a little to one side of us but later in the day they were directly overhead. You can blame it all on overseas visitors landing at Heathrow Airport. :devil:

I took that photograph whilst we were walking from the Palm House to the Temperate House which is another of the stunning Victorian structures here. It is huge!

I couldn't go back far enough to get it all in because of the trees and so there is a section chopped off at each end (that's the section nearest the camera in the top picture of the two).

Like the Palm House this place is stuffed with plants some of which are impressively tall.

There is a small pond in here containing some fish which are impressively large.

Another thing they didn't tell us when we entered was that the high level walkway in this house was also closed for maintenance but this is how we would have reached it had it been accessible. Next time then I suppose. :bawl:

From the Temperate House we went up here.

It's called the 'Xstrata Treetop Walkway' and it runs in a complete circle through the treetops. You probably need a head for heights for this and if you lean on the rail along the edge of the walkway you can feel the whole structure swaying slightly but it's certainly worth it for the local views.

I should warn you that the floor of the walkway is made from metal which is pressed in a sort of 'open weave' fashion so that if you look down vertically through your feet you can see right down to the ground.

It was now around 1:30 PM so we decided to head for the White Peaks Cafe for some lunch and to go via the Sackler Crossing across Kew's main lake then via the Bamboo Garden, the Minka House and the Rhododendron Dell. It's going to be a late lunch.

The lake is only a short walk from the Treetop Walk and we were soon there.

The edges of the bridge are constructed using bronze posts which, from a narrow viewing angle appear to a solid wall but when looked at from a right angle appear as individual posts with gaps between.

After crossing the lake we headed for the Minka House and on our way we saw these:

A group on their way to the Young Goose Convention perhaps? They are Canada Geese and when we were walking along the path we walked through a group of adults and young walking in the opposite direction and they didn't show the slightest nervousness of us humans as we passed through their group. Not surprising I suppose as they must see a lot of us.

This is the Minka House which was originally a farmhouse built around 1900 in a suburb of Okazaki City, near the southern coast of central Japan, dismantled, shipped to England and re-assembled here by Japanese carpenters as part of the Japan 2001 Festival.

Onward through the Rhodedendron Dell.

We eventually arrived at the White Peaks Cafe at around 2:00 PM. Food and drink in Kew Gardens is a little on the pricey side but, for a captive audience, it could be a lot worse. We each had a small quiche, smaller than the average saucer, with a few salad leaves and a sprinkling of sauce which cost 3.50 each. A slice of (fancy) cake, which we didn't have, would have been about the same. Drinks are reasonably priced. There seems to be little difference in prices at each of the available cafes/restaurants.

There is nothing to stop you bringing your own food and having a picnic outside in the gardens but of course you'll have to carry it round with you. There are also drinking fountains dispensing free ordinary water in a few places.

After lunch we heade off towards the Princess of Wales Conservatory and, on the way, passed by the 17th century Kew Palace. This is one of the Royal Palaces and has an extra charge if you want to visit – we didn't.

The Princess of Wales Conservatory was commissioned in 1982 to replace a group of 26 smaller buildings that were falling into disrepair. It was named after Princess Augusta, founder of Kew, and opened in 1987 by Diana, Princess of Wales. It is the most complex conservatory at Kew, containing ten computer-controlled climatic zones under one roof. Kew describe it as 'vast' – it is. I haven't seen a better place in which to get lost and thoroughly enjoy yourself whilst doing so.

As I mentioned above there are ten different climatic zones separated by double doors and these zones are also split into different levels with numerous connecting pathways and steps. When arriving at a junction it is difficult to decide which way to go because each way looks equally interesting.

This is what we saw after entering the conservatory:

Quite an attractive little corner for a short rest. There are two ways on from here, right or left, and we went left through the Temperate Ferns zone and through into the Tropical Rainforest zone which is probably the largest of the zones.

Phew! That's both from the visual and climatic points of vew. On the left you will notice a small door which is one of two entrances to the Carniverous Plants Gallery and I did notice that fewer visitors came out than went in. I wonder why that is?  :???: These are a few of those plants although there are many different types.

We did, eventually, find our way out and walked the short distance to the Davies Alpine House and Rock Garden.

From the rock garden we went to the Waterlily House.

It was now getting close to the time we should leave so we elected to get a cup of tea and then made our way back to Kew Gardens Station and thence home.

There will be lots more photographs for those who are interested when I get around to creating the pages for Kew on the main web site.
 

Down among the tulips something stirred.

Down among the tulips something stirred.

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Monday 18th April saw us heading off to London on the train, on our first trip of the year, to meet Marie who was over here from America and who was leaving for home the next day. We had arranged to meet at Holland Park Station so that we could start our day by visiting Holland Park.

Marie was waiting for us and we duly set off on the short walk to the park. Holland Park has a number of entrances and the entrance near the underground station was called Sun Trap and looked quite imposing.

We went through the gateway and found ourselves in a wooded area and, as we progressed, we started to see Bluebells. There were also lots of Daffodils but they had just finished flowering and were looking rather sorry for themselves but the Bluebells looked rather nice.

We eventually came across the statue of Lord Holland, after whom the park is named, and the two ladies are, reading left to right, Marie and Amanda. They seem to be heading for me quite purposefully so it may be time to beat a hasty retreat.

There were a number of paths lined with Japanese Maples which looked very attractive.

We next found the Kyoto Garden which is a traditional Japanese garden created in 1991 by a team of Japanese gardeners sponsored by Kyoto Chamber of Commerce in association with the Japan Festival of London. You can see Amanda is about to dive into the pond and Marie has turned her back in disgust.

We also saw Mrs Moorhen with three mini-moorhens looking for food along the edge of the pond.

All in all a very attractive setting including a waterfall.

Someway further on there was an area of formal plant beds which were very colourful and pretty and it's quite surprising what one can find in some of these plant beds.

Yes it's a Peacock trying to disguise itself as a tulip but not quite managing it. There were other peafowl around and some of them perched quite high in the trees. Holland Park is, apparently, the only London park to have peafowl.

We decided at this point that we'd seen most of what there was to see and made a dash from West London across to the east to Greenwich via Canary Wharf in Docklands. We stopped in Docklands to have lunch at the Turkish Hazev Restaurant which is the building on the right beyond the trees. Pretty yummy food, no, make that very yummy food and to be recommended.

After lunch we got back on the Docklands Light Railway and headed to Island Gardens Station where we walked to the Greenwich Foot Tunnel and under the Thames to Greenwich and I won't even mention all the steps down and all the steps up.

It is possible to meet some very strange people down here as evidenced by the photograph (mentioning no names of course).

Once on the other side we visited the Painted hall in the Old Naval College which is already featured on the web site but I'll incude another photograph here.

Then across to the Chapel.

From here we climbed the hill up to the old observatory where we were treated to this view across the Old Naval College to Docklands beyond.

Time was running out and we had to make our way, by DLR and Underground, to Liverpool Street Station where we had a meal together. Then we caught our train home and Marie went back to her hotel to pack for her journey home tomorrow. All in all a very good day was had by all.
 

An imposter, tea for two but it’s all Greek to me.

An imposter, tea for two but it’s all Greek to me.

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Yesterday, Thursday 17th June 2010, we went back to London. The reason we chose that day was because the weather forecast given the day before was for clear skies and sun all day. They were lying, of course, but more of that later. This trip turned out to be less satisfactory than previous trips for a number of reasons.

 
The first problem turned up soon enough when we had to change from our mainline train to the Central Line on the Undergound. There was a train waiting in the platform so we got on and sat down just in time to hear an announcement from the driver to say that the train wouldn't be going anywhere because of a signal failure further along the line. Luckily at this station we also had a choice of the Jubilee Line or the DLR. We were aiming for Piccadilly Circus so we took the Jubilee Line to Green Park and then one stop on the Piccadilly Line to Piccadilly Circus. We got there in the end.
 
We emerged into bright sunshine and I took a few more photographs of Eros. Eros is actually an imposter. Did you know that it isn't actually meant to be Eros but his twin brother Anteros?
 
To answer Tracey's query about the traffic – it is still not going around 'Eros' as it once used to but passes it by on one side.
 
 
We headed off down Haymarket to Trafalgar Square where we had a brief foray into the National Gallery to get a cup of coffee and to use their toilets. Back in to Trafalgar Square for a few more photographs then along the Strand.
 
 

 We noticed by this time that there was a substantial amount of cloud building up. There were some patches of blue sky but not many. This view of the Strand shows the church of St. Mary-le-Strand in the foreground and showing beyond is the spire of St. Clement Danes.

Nearby was the entrance gateway to Somerset House which used to hold public records such as birth certificates but now, in their own words, it is "An inspiring space for art, culture and creative exchange" whatever that is but it is a pretty impressive building.

 
 
At the end of the Strand near to where it changes to Fleet Street we passed the Royal Courts of Justice
 
 
and then we stopped to look at the George Inn which is nearly three hundred years old.
 
 
A little further on was Twinings tea shop which has been here since 1706 and was where Queen Anne and Christopher Wren used to buy their tea.
 
 
This building, in Fleet Street, survived the Great Fire of London and was built in 1625. It used to be the 'Wig and Pen Club' but is now, as you can see, a Thai Restaurant.
 
 
We were now back at a location we'd visited on our last trip, the Temple, and as there was now a lot of cloud about (so much for the weather forecast) which made trying to get sunlit photographs rather long winded we decided to have lunch. Surprisingly there are two cafes in the Temple grounds and we chose the 'St. Clements Cafe and bar'. They have a rather eclectic mixture of chairs and tables with the wooden tabletops left bare but the food is good. You can, in fine weather, have your meal in the garden if there is a vacant table (it's very popular).
 
After lunch we were hoping to see the interior of the 16th century Middle Temple Hall which is the building on the left in the top photograph below with the interior, hardly changed since it was built, in the lower photograph.
 
 
 
That is a seriously impressive double-hammerbeam roof and I won't patronise you by explaining that term as there are those of us who purport to know all things Tudor who will probably be forthcoming with that information (without cheating by looking it up on the Internet).
 
Middle Temple Hall is next to Middle Temple Lane which leads down to the Embankment. This is the impressive archway at the bottom of Middle Temple Lane looking into the lane from the Embankment.
 
 
Back out in Fleet Street we saw Ye Olde Cock Tavern. Apparently the narrowest building in Fleet Street, and looks it, as well as the oldest having been founded in the reign of Henry VIII.
 
 
We had found, prior to our trip, a book called 'One Man's London' which featured walks in London and which, in one section, described the area north of Fleet Street as a maze of little alleys, lanes and squares of the sort one might expect to find in Dickensian scenes. The book was written in the 1980s and we were very interested in exploring this area. We soon found one of the alleys mentioned, Red Lion Court, which led to the Red Lion Inn except that it didn't. There was no sign of the inn and after a while we realised that although the alleys and squares were still there the buildings had been demolished and replaced with ghastly modern office buildings .:bawl:
 
That was the biggest disappointment of the whole trip. We did, however, find a few remaining locations. One of the passages is Clifford's Inn Passage which leads to the gateway of Clifford's Inn, one of the oldest Inns of Chancery (1340) which has since been demolished although the gateway remains.
 
 
There was also Gough Square and Dr. Johnson's House nearby.
 
 
 
We made our way up to Holborn and emerged by Staples Inn which I photographed on a previous trip but at that time we forgot to have a look at the courtyard behind the facade. This time, however, we did look.
 
 
In appearance it is remarkeably like the other inns of court such as Lincoln's Inn and the Temple which shouldn't really come as a surprise. After leaving Staples Inn we made our way to the British Museum.
 
 
This was my second visit. My first visit was about sixty years ago. I can see this becoming a habit if I'm not careful. Amanda has been much more recently than I have and she didn't recognise this bit.
 
 
We decided it must have been changed relatively recently. A very pleasant space.
 
We were getting quite tired by this time but we wanted to see at least something of the exhibits and although we were feeling a bit droopy we didn't feel quite as bad as this chap looked.
 
 
I was that thin when I was 18 but probably not as good looking. If some parts of the image look a little odd it's probably reflections in the glass. I really needed a polarising filter for that but don't have one for the new camera.
 
We saw the Elgin Marbles in the Parthenon Gallery including Amanda's favourite – the one with the bull on it.
 
 
 
We also managed a bit of Egyptian/Assyrian stuff.
 
 
We managed to see only some of the Greek, Egyptian and Japanese galleries but eventually decided to stop, as we were so tired, and make our way back to the train and home. I took more pictures in the museum than I've shown here although the rest will probably appear on the main web site pages eventually.
 
That's the end of the current trip. If you stand around for a while another one may come along soon.
A power station that isn’t and a wobble that isn’t.

A power station that isn’t and a wobble that isn’t.

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Wednesday was a delightfully sunny day and we had planned our next trip to London today so it was off to the station and on to the train again.

We changed, as we did last time, at Stratford on to the Docklands Light Railway headed for Tower Gateway. We were luckier this time and managed to get one of the front seats (there is no driver – remember?). This is how it looked through the front window.

I asked Amanda if she was steering and she said "No, I thought you were" so things got a little tricky but we didn't come off the rails. smilies

We had to change at Poplar which meant waiting seven minutes for our train so we took a few more pictures of the DLR. This is Poplar Station looking back in the direction from which we'd come.

And this is from Poplar Station looking in the direction of where we were headed. You do like looking at trains don't you?

We had planned to start roughly from where we'd left off last time so after getting to Tower Gateway Station we walked the short distance to St. Catherine's Dock going past the Tower of London on the way.

Just ignore the plastic covered scaffolding around the towers; 'they' always do that to me when 'they' know I'm going to take photographs.

We were soon back in St. Catherine's Dock for a leisurely walk round. There are some very large privately owned yachts here and lots of flats overlooking the water. Anyone tempted to buy here? You could then invite us up to stay together with a trip on your private yacht.

From here we crossed Tower Bridge to Shad Thames where we didn't have time for a long look round last time. We walked through to the far end and guess what we found?

These.

The outside boat is a replica of a 19th century Mississippi Paddleboat but I haven't been able to find out anything about the other boat. We didn't expect to see these within view of Tower Bridge.

There are lots of eateries around here and we went into one called 'Teapod' (no it's not a typing error) in Shad Thames on our way back towards Tower Bridge and had some lunch. They offer tea, coffee and various snacks including such things as soup and afternoon tea with scones, jam and clotted cream. Amanda had a sausage sandwich whilst I had some meatball soup, with bread, which was absolutely wonderful. It is only a small place with just a few tables but we would recommend it unhesitatingly for a light lunch.

We walked back to Tower Bridge and continued past on the Thames Path where we looked across to the Tower of London. This is the view that I would like to photograph but without the plastic covered scaffolding. They do it on purpose, you know, whenever I appear with a camera so I suppose it will have to wait for another time.

Then on past HMS Belfast now moored permanently in the Thames for visitors to look around.

After passing HMS Belfast we spotted the entrance to a place called Hay's Galleria. It turned out to be a converted wharf with an arched glass roof housing some shops and restaurants together with an interesting modern sculpture.

Our next stop was where we had to deviate slightly from the River Thames. The riverside path ends at London Bridge so we went inland for a very short way to the first turning which continued in the direction that we had previously been headed. This brought us to Southwark Cathedral.

I took far more pictures inside than I did outside. That's mainly because the cathedral is surrounded by buildings so the space available in the precincts is relatively small. Those interior pictures will appear on the web site in due course (whatever that means).

After leaving Southwark Cathedral we once again found our way to the continuation of the riverside path and it wasn't long before we had our first glimpse of the dome of St. Paul's cathedral.

The bridge directly ahead is a railway bridge connecting with Cannon Street Station; the two square towers are at the entrance. Soon after, we found the Golden Hind, a full-size replica of Sir Francis Drake's 16th century galleon which has sailed the world covering over 140,000 miles in the process.

A little further along the riverside path is the replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre complete with thatched roof.

A few hundred yards along there is the Millenium Bridge and the Tate Modern. When the Millenium Bridge was first built it wobbled when people walked along it which I think some found disconcerting. That has been corrected and there is now no wobble. Pity really – it might have been interesting.

Behind the Millenium Bridge is the Tate Modern art gallery in a giant building which used to be a power station and has now been converted to an art gallery – some gallery. We went in to have a look at the building rather than the exhibits and came out with two interesting pictures. The first picture is of the old turbine hall of the power station.

I'm not sure if the item on the left is a section of scaffolding or an exhibit.

The second picture I took from the restaurant which is on the top (seventh) floor.

You can see the Millenium Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral across the river. We set off across the Millenium Bridge hoping for a little wobble, but – nothing. Then just before we reached the far side I took this picture of St. Paul's Cathedral.

After leaving St. Paul's we cheated and caught the tube to Holborn. Our legs were getting a little tired by this time. When we came out of the station we saw Staple Inn – a timber-framed building which survives from before the great fire of London.


Then, having threatened our legs with dire consequences, they walked us a relatively short distance to Lincoln's Inn Fields. A group of ancient buildings, housing various members of the legal profession, and enclosed gardens such as you see here. At this time of year and in the late afternoon sunlight they looked very pretty.

At this point our legs mutinied and refused to go anywhere but the nearest tube station. So we toddled off to Liverpool Street Station to get our train back home.

That was yesterday, as I write this, and my calf muscles still ache and so do my thighs and I suppose we'll be silly enough to it again sometime soon.