Day 6 -- Day in London (3) (evening)

21 AUGUST | London: V&A Museum, Out-and-About


Well... today has been an interesting day. I'm on Nicole's laptop, downstairs, while she finishes things upstairs and the couple whose house this is are asleep. Here's a more detailed account of my day. :)

Left the house we're staying at around 2.00pm (didn't wake up until 11.00am--wonderful!); got coffee at Caffe Vergnano (again), and I think the barista was a little annoyed that I wanted take-away, but hey!, it's the whole day, I'm not going to not take my yummy coffee with me. :) Need to buy a can of beans for Stephen. Will go again on... *thinks*, Friday, when Nicole and I get back to London (for the day only, then off to Oxford on Saturday, then back to London for Sunday and the half of Monday that we're here). So yes. I know there was something coherent I wanted to say about the day.

*ponders*


Well, after that was a quick stop at the Internet Cafe (where I've made friends with the guy who works there, only because I smile and am nice and he's nice (but not my type), and sort of remembered me, maybe, from two days ago? either way, I was interested in buying stamps (even though they didn't have any at the time, so I think we bonded :D), near Gloucester Road stop (sw London) and I'd just gotten coffee at Leicester Square stop (central to ne London--and when I say "London", I mean "downtown/touristy/central London"), so it was a trek across town, but worth it because (1) I knew the internet cafe was clean/safe/friendly/good and (2) I knew where it was. :) Always helps! Then over a stop to South Kensington (where the V&A is near), to pop in to the V&A museum. And WHOA. So much stuff, I forgot how much stuff they have. I completely forgot it's separated by continent firstly and time period secondly. The current exhibit (or maybe it's the current "costume" exhibit, because it seems like that room always just has clothes) was New York Fashion, which was inside the main costume collection (okay, that's what it was, I remember now). And dude, did I take pictures! (I took pictures. *nods*) The only drawback is that most of them aren't with flash (flash ruins in my opinion), so Mum might not like it so much. But they're so much more artistic this way! :D Lovely, lovely collection. Popped out to the central garden (named after someone) with bamboo-pole-tent sculptures out on the green--got many pics of those too. Realized that they have a whole 'nuther museum for modern art just after I'd asked an attendant where the modern art was (the Tate Modern museum is superb for modern art), but he smiled and pointed me towards where the 'modern' era section was (third floor, right off the lift), so that was very interesting. Lots of furniture. ;) Wandered through the gift shop but it was closing right to when I would've figured out what I wanted to get people so I'll have to go back on Friday or Sunday. Sunday I'm doing a HARRY POTTER WALKING TOUR!!! (Do I sound excited!) So yeah, I'll have to fit all this stuff in. Want to go to the Transportation Museum of London (north somewhere?), and buy pretty print posters -- sort of like the Train Museum in York, when I came to the UK last time, three yrs ago.

Well, it's been good so far. Mostly just walking and looking. I feel too touristy taking pictures with people about, but I might have to for-go the angst and do it on Sunday as that'll be the last real day to do it right. Monday will be too travel-y to be able to worry about ... taking pictures of 'touristy' things. Pretty architecture, funny signs, people walking, that sort of thing.

OOOO! Guess what I saw today while about to cross the street to the internet cafe?? Guess! I'll give you a hint, it was a special car... and it was a Volvo... and it's not in the states... it was a C30!! Didn't even know they had them here for real, I thought they were concept cars all over. It was awesome! I totally thought it was an S60 and then WHOA! it had no end! :D Just a hatch-back thing, with super-sleek modern lines. SOOOOO PRETTY! :D I wish I'd taken a picture. Goodness, of all the Volvos to see whilst I'm here (excepting a classic 240, which I haven't seen here yet, although London is a little too posh for those), it was the one when I didn't have my camera out! Hehe, oh well. ;) Maybe I'll see another.

Yesterday, when we were out with the girls, going around London, we ended the day in Harrod's, and leaving, I was waiting on the sidewalk by the building while the others finished, and all these cars were blocked in the road (small, between-building road), and drivers and the Harrod's gentleman at the door were directing traffic (all the cars were very expensive, very important peoples' cars, with drivers), I notice there's a new-looking (like recent year) Rolls Royce sitting right in front of the exit, driver sitting on the left side of the car (like in the States), and right before I'd come outside, several very expensive-looking women, all decked-out in jewelry/scarves, had just gone in. The license plate was in a foreign language, and we wondered if they weren't Egyptian royalty or something. Nicole mentioned that's very possible. Also, two Bentleys were hanging out by the curb too. You know, just chillin'. :D

That's not even the half of it, just the interesting parts, but I need to get off at the moment, so I'll have to post more later.

;)

Day 3 -- Day in London (1) (photos)

18 AUGUST | London: St. Mary Abbot Church of Kensington Gardens


PHOTOS!

These are photos of the church park (sorry, I've forgotten the name); let me see if I can 'Google' it. *wanders off*

Okay! So it's the St. Mary Abbot's church of Kensington, thus on Kensington Street (the High Street Kensington tube stop), and the gardens are partially memorial gardens (link). The first time I visited London was in March of 2002, with two friends, and we stayed in a hostel in Notting Hill for part of the week. The Notting Hill tube stop is just a couple stops away from Kensington Street, so I think we were exploring that day or something and stumbled across the gardens. They're in between the buildings, so you're secluded and yet out in the open, with breezy trees above and plenty of air around. You can't see the streets though, or the people shopping. Luckily, for that would seriously hinder relaxing.






Photo 1: Flower Bed
-- This was the bed of various flowers directly in front of where I was sitting. There is a walkway (sort of like a 'thru' sidewalk for pedestrians coming from the main street on the adjacent sides of the buildings/gardens) in the middle of the picture, walking away from me (people are there), and I had come from the walkway in the right of the picture leading to the High Street. The presence of fences possibly keeps the 'garden' area safe from people trekking all over it. And the 'memorial' aspect to it would definitely suggest enclosure. People were mainly just walking through to get to the other street(s) for the time whilst I was sitting there.


Photo 2: Columns and Walkway
-- This is the 'walkway' I came from and in through to get to the bench I'm sitting at. It's a slight incline while just under the columns and cross-beams but then levels out.

Photo 3: Purple and White Flowers
-- These were just behind me, in a large flower bed. The mixture of two different kinds of flowers works well here, I think. The tall, skinny purple ones with shorter, rounder white. Reminds me of a well-decorated, beautiful home for some reason. ;)







Photo 4: Breakfast!
-- I love this photo! Not only for the fact that's it's a 'breakfast' picture (sidenote. check out a 'breakfast'-themed blog called "Simply Breakfast" (here) for amazing food pictures!), but also because the deep, rich colour of the bench accentuates the white of the lid and the tan of the bag so well! Breakfast was a raisin cinnamon roll(?), the equivalent of a raisin cinnamon roll/danish combo, with a latte from Caffé Vergnano. So yummy! :)

Photo 5: Close-up of Flowers
-- Here's a close-up of the first flower bed. The picture is a little blurry, but you can see the intensity of color as well as the variety of colours. France, anyone?

Photo 6: Pigeons
-- These are my breakfast companions. *grins* They were very polite. Not too much graveling, not too much squawking. :D I fed them the bits of danish I didn't want. And the very crumbly bits.

Photo 7: Pigeon #1
-- The BRAVE pigeon who ventured the closest! Eeeee!


Photo 8: The Stone Path
-- Isn't this picture gorgeous! The colouring of the stone is just beautiful. It reminds me of many of the ancient burial sites I visited while in the UK back in 2003, as well as in Scotland that same trip. Very old stone, weathered. Gives it a very attractive green-grey glow. It also reminds me of The Lord of the Rings a LOT, for some, unknown-to-me reason. Perhaps the stone? :D




Photo 9: Memorial Gardens
-- This first picture of the small, circularly enclosed garden area across the walkway from where I was includes the gates out of 'my' garden area because the iron is lovely! The bright green contrasts well with the darkness of the fence.

Photo 10: Gardens, Close-up
-- Here, you can see the circular aspect of the garden itself with the central pedestal surrounded on the bottom with bricks, in a circle, and to either side are stone benches and hanging plants/vines/trees that make this garden in particular, very special.

Photo 11: Gate Top
-- Another shot of the gateway, this time with only the top showing. I like how bushy the green of the trees/plants are in the bottom half of the picture counteracted with the solid black in the top half of the picture.


TOMORROW: Photos of Bath (just a few; will have to find my 'old' ones for some real fun :D) !!!