Days 3-5 (1st to 3rd Sep): London

Day 3 (1st Sept) (16.09 km): Our London accommodation was in Shoreditch, in the East End of London. The Shoreditch / Whitechapel / Bethany Green area is now quite eclectic in character with a large Muslim community, homelessness, alternative culture, trendier places and the old public housing communities.

It is full of graffiti and street art. Note the hair in the first image. It is actually composed of dead branches etc.

Sunday was a great day to be in the area as the famous Columbia Road Flower Market and Brick Lane Market were on. Although we had no need or wish to buy anything, wandering around was fun. And the food in Brick Lane! So much to choose from. We bought plenty: curries of various sorts for lunch and dinner,  ( including my first jackfruit curry - very delicious), pastries for morning tea, and an unusual assortment of Turkish delights for suppers.

The flower markets were bright with sunflowers and hydrangeas and many people were wandering home armed with large bunches of colour.

There were some interesting shops around both Columbia Road and Brick Lane too.

After a brief return to our accommodation to feast on curry, we set off into central London for a vague wander. Australia has a lot in common with England but there is no way that you could mistake London for an Australian city. In the 40 years since we were last here, the city has become a real fusion of modern and old. 

Just wandering the streets and lanes of London is fascinating. Here and there you can find all sorts of things. Here was a churchyard/graveyard. Now, only headstones remain and it is a quiet retreat in an otherwise busy area.

Street names are intriguing and probably an insight into the past.

Statues and other signs of old power are everywhere. 

We chanced upon and visited St Bride’s Church where we viewed ancient Roman artefacts and pavement, among other things, many of which were only discovered when a WWII bomb uncovered the crypt.

Being a Sunday, St Paul’s Cathedral wasn’t open for ‘normal’ tourism but we did have the opportunity to sit under the dome and listen to a half hour organ recital, not of religious music, but of 20th century organ compositions. Two out of the four were good. The sound wasn’t as big as we’d imagined it would be, but so very clear - even for the smallest sounds. 

We then mosied down to Trafalgar Square. It was as busy as I remember from 40 years ago and I climbed up to have my picture taken with one of the lions. Slightly more difficult to clamber up than before.

We then had a conversation with Oscar Wild after eating an ice cream and finally wandered along the Thames back to St Paul’s to catch the bus home. 15 km of walking later we crawled into bed!

Day 2 (2nd Sept) (13.18 km): We woke up to a duller day weatherwise on Monday which was a bit of a shame since we had views on our agenda for today. To start the day we headed to Skygarden, the highest publicly accessible garden in London and also a great spot to view the city and gain a better perspective about where different places are. As a river city, London has the ability to fool you. For instance, I thought that The Shard, the pointy building at the back of the last photo, was on the other side of the river from where it actually is.

We hadn’t booked tickets to the Skygarden which, although free, can sometime be difficult to enter if you haven’t booked. Get there at opening time though and you have a decent chance.  Despite the grey, the views were great and the gardens a ver peaceful haven.

Once back down at street level we had to retrace our steps to have a closer look at a rather beautiful building we’d noticed on the way. Turns out it was Leadenhall Markets. This place was a meat, fish, poultry and cheese markets before this building was built in the late 19th century. Now it houses boutique shops.

But it is not only the old that fascinates. We passed this very cool modern building too, an office building with all the services displayed on the outside of the building.

I find it hard not to be distracted on my way to something when I’m exploring and so, on the way to Tower Pier, we stopped by what chanced to be two very interesting churches. The first was St Margaret Pattens Eastcheap. Here I discovered that the English made pattens, the equivalent of Japanese ‘geta’.  Patterns were undershoes, designed to keep ladies’ shoes and skirts from becoming soiled in the muddy and wet conditions of old London. The most common patten was one where a platform stood on a steel ring and was tied around the normal shoe with ribbons or leather thonging.

The second church was All Hallows Tower Church, the oldest continuously running church in London and apparently still one of the very few in central London with a vibrant congregation. There was certainly evidence of concern about modern problems there.

This church was severely damaged by nearby bombs and subsequent fires during the war. In the crypt, a painting depicts this quite vividly.

You can still see the smoke damage on some of the internal walls.

What didn’t burn though were most of the church artefacts which taken away for safekeeping during the war. Fortunately, such disparate items as a wooden carving of St Roch, the patron saint of those suffering from the plague, and the crow’s nest from Ernest Shackleton’s boat The Quest, survived. The church is apparently the patron of ships and ships men.

Underneath, in the crypt, there is even old Roman paving from a house.

After being waylaid by looking at churches, we made our way down to the Tower Pier where we caught a ferry to Millstream to view London from the Thames. It was great to get a better view of the many bridges and so see the city from yet another perspective.

From the Millstream Pier we wended our way to Westminster, to the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. Big Ben was on full display unlike 40 years ago when it was being restored and was completely hidden under covers.

We lunched under the powerful gaze of the Abbey then parted from our friend Leanne for a while, deciding to go to Downing St, St James’ Park and Buckingham Palace on our way to the Tate Modern while she went inside the Abbey.

Forty years ago we were able stand outside Number 10. Now the street is inaccessible to the general public.

In St James’ Park, we saw our first squirrels for the trip, albeit the naughty grey ones. They are lots of fun to watch. I also had my first sighting of the English magpie.

Buckingham Palace, without the pageantry of guards changing, is not a very awe-inspiring place.

I did find this statue opposite the palace. I’m not sure what its relevance is though.

Pete and I then finished our trek to the Tate Modern where we wandered through a few exhibitions. Not the best modern art I’ve seen - I think we missed better areas. Oh well - next time. The building itself is interesting - a repurposed old power plant with a new section at the rear.

We caught up again with Leanne to meet an old school friend of mine, Glenys, and her partner Paul. Together, the five of us enjoyed a meal and a catchup at a nearby pub. Funny that we have to come to the other side of the world to see each other. Melbourne and Wooli aren’t really that far apart! But what a lucky coincidence that we were all in London at the same time.

After dinner a walk across the Millenium Footbridge revealed a rather lovely view of St Paul’s.

Day 5 (4th Sept) (13.69 km): This morning we farewelled Leanne who was returning to her current home in England.  It was so good to be able to spend time with her. 

Our plans for this day were to train it to near Buckingham Palace,  walk through Hyde Park,  then visit the Design Museum and the Museum of Natural History.  I had wanted to go to Kew Gardens but the thought of spending at least 3 hours on public transport in our limited time was not appealing. 

There was noone at Speaker's Corner but plenty of other people enjoying the many and various parts of this huge park. The grasses must be fruiting at the moment because the lawn area was covered in pigeons, ducks, geese and starlings.  In fact I had fun trying to find a many birds as I could without going out of my way to do so.  Here are some of them. 

We enjoyed morning tea by the Serpentine Lake, then wandered around to find the 2024 temporary pavilion.  Pete had found out that each year, Hyde Park commissions someone to design a temporary pavilion.  This year it was designed by a South Korean architect, Minsuk Cho, and is called Archipelagic Void. It was rather good.  Five different pavilions were joined together by a steel ring.  There was a reading space,  an eating space,  a music space,  a playing space and something resembling a longhouse.

We continued wandering and finding different things in the park.  Here are two - a sculpture and a water fountain for dogs. 

We also chanced upon the Royal Albert Hall and adjacent edifice.  Albert Hall really is an impressive building. 

Moseying through Kensington to get to the Design Museum was an eye-opener to the other side of London from where we are staying.  The grand houses are just that - grand! We even passed one with pineapple ornaments at the gate - apparently a bygone symbol of wealth. 

The Design Museum was well worth the visit.  The building itself is an interesting modern one and the exhibitions were full of great design,  as you would expect,  ranging from spoons to electonica, to furniture and many things in between. 

Then we made our way towards the Natural History Museum. Well I knew it would be large but I was not expecting how large. This is one almighty building! Just outside the entrance is a dinosaur garden that many children were enjoying.

The entrance hall is big enough to house the skeleton of a blue whale with plenty of room to spare!

In fact, the whole exhibition of mammals was fascinating. A life-size model of the blue whale certainly gave one a better idea of just how huge these creatures are, with elephants, hippos and other whale species alongside it.

Among other exhibitions, we visited the Volcano and Earthquake one that included a cool entrance portal, unfortunately under repair. I didn’t realise that Portugal is yet another country subject to earthquakes. In fact, there was an earthquake just 8 km SE of Lisbon late last month, minor enough that there was little damage but major enough that people felt it in Porto and western Spain.

We need to have more time in London one day. It really is a destination in and of itself. Stepping outside the Museum of Natural History you are gobsmacked by yet another colossus in the form of the Victoria and Albert Museum. We didn’t go in.

It was time to return to our accommodation and get ready for an early start for Portugal. On exiting our train at Whitechapel of Monopoly fame, we found ourselves in the midst of a ver busy and colourful market, consisting mostly of fruit and vegetable stalls, and Islamic clothing stalls.

There was another interestingly named building at Whitechapel but no exterior hints as to what it could be. But of course it is a pub, named after an historic figure (see below).

We received notification from RyanAir, with which we are travelling to Portugal, that Stansted Airport is struggling with security personnel numbers. They asked us to be there 3 hours before our 9:35am flight. This meant a 4 am get-up time the next day…