Arriving at ‘our London house' was like coming home with everything as it was and sparkling clean. Lily, our housemaid, had been very busy preparing for our arrival. It was so lovely to see her again.
Following a good night’s sleep after our flight from Singapore our first task was to organise some internet and phone access. This year 3 had the best deal so we went with them for Laurie’s phone and iPad and a dongle for my computer. While it’s not lightening fast it is way quicker than satellite broadband at home.
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| The view down to Earls Court Rd from our fourth storey bedroom |
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| Louise at the stunning gates of Kensington Palace |
Our first port of call was a re-visit, of which there will be many, to Covent Garden to watch the buskers in the courtyard at the Crusting Pipe. Our favourite performer, Jack Day, formerly of Adelaide, wasn’t there, but we’ll be back.
The next few days were filled with lots of walks - Kensington Palace Gardens, 10 minutes away; Holland Park, five minutes away; Portobello Rd Market, a 15 minute bus ride and a five minute walk.
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| The 'tradesman's entrance' to Kensington Palace - not! but this is the backyard. |
Getting around London is a breeze. We don’t have, want or need a car. A bus stop about 10 metres from our front door can take us to two different destinations. About a six or seven minute walk in either direction takes us to two tube (underground railway) stations - Earls Court or Kensington High Street. Oyster cards are the way to go and these automatically charge you the cheapest fare for your particular journey. We like to take buses as you can see where you are and the beautiful buildings which are everywhere. Mind you we are in the rather ‘posh’ end of London. For a longer trip involving a couple of changes it is cheaper to take the train as you ‘touch in’ and out at the end of your journey. On the buses you ‘touch in’ as you get on only, so each trip attracts the minimum fare.
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| Laurie at the peaceful Kyoto Garden in Holland Park |
One day we met up with our Mansfield’s Hannah Mitchell, who is the daughter of a work colleague of Laurie’s. We had a very enjoyable lunch together in a little cafe restaurant tucked away off Kensington High Street.
One of the joys of being in London is the ability to take a “London Walk”. This company was started by an Australian years ago and has grown to become an amazing resource for visitors who want to learn more about the secrets of London and its incredible history. One thing the English do really well is history.
Our first walk this trip was a tour of the Victoria and Albert Museum. We’d been before to see the tapestries - huge wall hangings which take years to complete but this time we thought a tour of the highlights of the museum would be a good thing which it was. Whilst you pay for the London Walks you go on, entry to the museums in London is free except for special exhibitions they have from time to time.
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| The incredible Dale Chihuly chandelier in the entry hall of the V&A Museum |
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| This little fellow in Holland Park obviously can't read! |
In the entry to the V&A Museum is the most impressive blown glass chandelier by Dale Chihuly, an American artist. It is enormous measuring 8.2 metres high, and 2.7 metres wide and deep. Special re-enforcing had to be applied to the ceiling to carry the weight of the chandelier which is in blue, green and yellow and looks stunning in the sunlight as it streams in the very large front entrance to the museum.
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| A enormous mould replica of the Trojan Columns from Rome |
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| The Gloria Gateway a mould from Santiego in Spain. It is also enormous. |
For those interested in the Cast Courts at the museum visit: http://www.vam.ac.uk/page/c/cast-courts/ They are amazingly interesting.
What a stunning display it was too. Kew Gardens looked totally different last year as it was buried under snow. This year the crocuses were just popping their heads up through the grass, a month earlier than last year.
These magnificent gardens were established as a nine acre plot in 1759 by Princess Augustus, mother of King George 111. The history in this country is staggering. The gardens now cover an amazing 132 hectares.
The orchid festival is in the Princess of Wales Conservatory which is stunning. On several levels it covers 10 different zone controlled environments.
The orchids are beautiful and so varied.
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| This enormous palms reaches to the top of the palm house. Notice how small the people are at ground level. |
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| Bambooo roots |
We also visited the Palm House, an enormous glass house containing comprehensive displays from Africa, the Americas, Australasia, Asia and the Pacific as well as an impressive marine display.
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| Large spiral staircases take visitors to a high cat walk for a bird's eye view of the plants |
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| Interesting art - fairy ring by willow artist and sculptor Tom Hare. |
We knew friends from near Mansfield, Barb and Craig Jones, were to be in London babysitting their grandchildren for a time and then heading off to a ski show in Europe, so we’d arranged to meet up with them. They were keen to go to Oxford on their way to a tractor factory tour so we piled into their daughter’s car and headed west.
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| Craig, Laurie and Barb outside Christ Church College at Oxford At this point I should mention the weather! We had happily avoided all the reported bad weather as, where we live in London, the rain seemed to stay away. We’d only had a few showers of rain on a few days. HOWEVER Oxford was a different story. It was freezing cold, windy and rainy. Not a good day weather-wise but we enjoyed the day anyway. |
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| Water encroaches on Oxford follow the wettest winter in 250 years |
The weather in the south west of England has been devastating for the residents and businesses with a huge amount of flooding inundating an incredible amount of countryside. It is now creeping closer to London, with flooding at Staines to the west close to Heathrow Airport. Just deviating a little more, the incredible Thames Barrier, which keeps high tides out of London has been used dozens of times in the last two months to help keep the tide water out of the Thames to allow the flood water down. It is seldom used in normal circumstances. Meanwhile back to Oxford.
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| Some of the delicious temptations at the Covered Market |
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| Barb, Louise and Craig salivating at the cake decorating shop! |
Soon after jumping off the ‘park and ride’ bus we headed for the Covered Market (out of the rain). Driving in Oxford is not a good plan. The streets are so narrow and mostly one way so to get anywhere you drive round and round in circles till you find the right place and then there is no parking available. So the ‘park and ride’ bus works well.
The Covered Market is exactly that. But more proper shops than haphazard market stalls. There’s one amazing shop that specialises in cake decorating. You watch the workers beavering away creating absolute master pieces.
It wasn’t the day to do a walking tour so we enjoyed some retail therapy, particularly in a shop called the Edinburgh Woollen Mills. Great specials greeted us. Put it this way, we supported the economy of Oxford.
After farewelling Barb and Craig we jumped on the Oxford Tube (a bus not a train) and headed back to London.
Shortly I'll add our next walk, London in the Blitz, a visit to Covent Garden to hear the talented and always entertaining buskers and Dover Castle and the Secret Wartime Tunnels………….
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