Michael and I made the trek from our apartment to Gare du
Nord to catch the Eurostar to London. We
left ridiculously early as we wanted to make sure that we did not have a repeat
performance of our journey to Belgium and we were certain that there would be
increased security measures in place at the station. We passed two protest marches on our way
however we did not hang around to see what they were about. We arrived to find the station very quiet
with no extra police and we passed through customs and security in record
time. Michael didn’t even get the usual
grilling from British customs. He had
given the largest of the knives to Tim so we passed through security without a
hitch.
The train journey was comfortable and uneventful. We were lucky as the following day all
Eurostar trains were stopped for several hours due to a fire in the
tunnel. We arrived at St Pancras
International where we immediately noticed the armed police patrolling the station. I will never get used to seeing armed police
in London – it seems so un-British.
We stayed a few nights in Fulham Broadway before moving to a
fabulous apartment at Barons Court. The
apartment was very swish with nice furnishings and top of the range
appliances. We even had access to a
gated private garden (I have always wanted to see inside one of those). The area seemed to be a French enclave with
many French people around. The good news
was that the local cemetery teemed with squirrels so it didn’t take long before
I was up there with my bag of peanuts.
It was interesting to note that I wasn’t the only mad squirrel lady as
others also took time out to feed and watch the squirrels play. In fact, they were the plumpest squirrels I
had ever seen!
Michael and I headed over to Somerset House to view a
photographic exhibition Wounded The Legacy of War. The photographer was the Canadian singer
Bryan Adams and the portraits were very powerful, showing British servicemen
and women who have suffered life-changing injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was a sombre and thought provoking
exhibition, which portrayed the courage and determination of the injured men
and women.
I took myself off to visit Hogarth’s House in Chiswick. The house was built around 1700 and Hogarth
purchased it to be the family’s country house and as an escape from the noise
of London (his London home was where the Odeon now stands in Leicester
Square). This struck me as ironic as the
A4 roars along side of the house – all 6 lanes of it! The noise was most distracting as the traffic
could be heard in every room of the house.
Nevertheless, the exhibits were very interesting and I was glad I went.
When Tim visited us, he commented that I was full of useless
information about London (which he nevertheless imparted to Jess when she
arrived). I came across another gem when
I read the book Bizarre London, which I just had to check out myself. At the southern end of London Bridge there is
an enormous white spike that hardly any one notices or knows what it
symbolises. Well, I do now. It commemorates the tradition of displaying
the severed heads of traitors on the original London Bridge. Things you learn!
I visited the National Portrait Gallery to see Hogarth’s
self-portrait however I was disappointed to discover that it is currently not
on display. I wandered around the
gallery and saw some very good works including an exhibition on the life and
works of Lord Snowdon. I also saw a sculpture
created with 10 pints of frozen blood.
Now that is something you don’t see every day (and I wouldn’t
particularly want to).
The next stop was the Tate Britain as I wanted to see a
particular Hogarth painting that I had seen mentioned at Hogarth’s House. I couldn’t believe my luck when I arrived to
discover that the gallery was holding a special exhibition of Hogarth’s
works. I had a lovely time wandering the
exhibition and the rest of the gallery.
If fact, it was so good that I took Michael back a few days later so he
could see the gallery for himself.
Michael enjoyed the Henry Moore section, which had a number of
sculptures on display as well as some of his drawings.
Tim and Jess gave Michael the book The Churchill Factor by
Boris Johnson for Christmas and both of us thoroughly enjoyed reading it. To mark the 50th anniversary of
Churchill’s death an exhibition titled Churchill’s Scientists opened at the
Science Museum, so we went along to have a look. The exhibition was very interesting,
particularly as it illustrated some of the points made in Boris’ book. Churchill’s fascination with science led to
the scientific achievements that helped Britain win the Second World War. We then wandered the rest of the museum and
both commented how much Michael’s dad would have enjoyed the different
exhibits. I don’t possess a scientific
bone in my body however even I found the exhibits fascinating (even if I didn’t
fully understand them all).