Upcoming events

During the coming week, I will take my class to the Michael Faraday Museum at the Royal Institution. While this is not a huge museum in the basement of the Royal Institution building, it is a nice introduction to Faraday and his work.

Monday evening we go to see the play "One man, two Guvnors".

Friday through Sunday we head north to Edinburgh to explore the city a bit. We'll have a bus tour of the city on Friday afternoon to orient us and then on Saturday morning we'll have a tour of the Edinburgh Castle and on Sunday we tour Holyrood Palace.

A busy week coming. The following week we see the "Knight of the burning pestle" and Rigoletto at the English National Opera before we pause for spring break.

And for spring break we're off to Marrakech!

Portobello Road Market

The market at Portobello Road in Notting Hill is large, varied, and a fun place to shop and people-watch. On Saturday afternoon, we visited here, taking the bus from Kensal Green. We found, among many other things, a mushroom stand with all sorts of wild and exotic 'shrooms.

Kensal Green Cemetery

Another of the "seven sisters", the cemeteries built to ease the demand on existing cemeteries in London dying the 1830's, Kensal Green is a large facility filled with the great and ordinary. Like Highgate, there are amazing examples of cemetery art and the graves of interesting people.

Columbia Road Flower Market

Every Sunday, the flower vendors set up on Columbia Road, a narrow street near Shoreditch. It is a colorful and crowded event. This is where the flower vendors were moved when it was decided to move them out of Covent Garden (remember Elisa?)

Lots on people, lots of noise from the vendors hawking their supplies and musicians perfuming for donations.

Bunhill Fields Cemetery

The Bunhill Fields Cemetery is the final resting place for several notables, among them John Bunyan. I'm still looking for the grave site of his brother Paul.

Where the oxen ford the Thames

Friday was a long day. We were scheduled to take the train from Paddington Station to Oxford to have a guided tour of the city and university. Nature was not amused. The wind and rain made the direct route impossible. So we took the train from Paddington to Reading and changed for Oxford.

Some basic data

Just for grins, I've done a little checking on Google maps to get a feel for how far I am walking as I run around the city. Starting with the standard stuff, going to the office and back 4 days a week, I find that walking to and from the tube station at each end gets me 1.6 mi/day. This works out to just of 83 mi for the semester.

There there is the obligatory outing each day. Some require significant walking and some don't so let's say this is another 1.5 mi/day for those 4 days each week. This works out to be about 66 mi for the semester.

This gets me to a little shy of 150 miles. This is before I start doing the other things I want to do like Cambridge and Canterbury. Extra trips to Greenwich are not in there. The out-of-town trips to Oxford, Edinburgh, and Paris are omitted. Our spring break trip and our travel after the semester.

I'd say it is pretty easy that I'll top 300 miles this semester. Being the FMIR in London is certainly good exercise!

Tower Bridge and Friends

Today I went on an outing to the Design Museum. It is located on the south bank of the Thames not far from the Tower Bridge. Above is the view from outside the museum looking across the Thames. You can see the "Gerkin" (the pointy topped building). To its left is the "Cheese Grater" and behind the bridge is the 'Walkie-Talkie". Londoners like to give their tall buildings nicknames. There is also the "Shard", the "Beehive" (also called the "Motorcycle Helmet"). Kinda makes the Tower Bridge seem passé as a name.

Although a little cool, this afternoon was the first really nice weather we've had: blue sky that went to the horizon and lasted more than a few minutes.

Meanwhile: the Thames upstream is out of it banks.

Waterloo Station

Waterloo station, on the south bank of the Thames, is a large place with shopping and connection to the underground and the rail system. It has a beautiful victorian facade and ample space for buses and taxis outside. There is a vast array of two-level bicycle storage racks outside that filled to overflowing with bikes.

The National Maritime Museum

Today E and I visited the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich to see the Turner sea paintings exhibition. It was marvelous. Among the permanent exhibits is a section on Nelson, his life, death, and navy. Above is the uniform Nelson was wearing when he was fatally shot on the deck of the Victory at Trafalgar. Note the bullet hole on his left shoulder.

Highgate Cemetery (part II)

We made another visit to the Highgate Cemetery yesterday with Jeanne Solsberry, Elizabeth Niece, who was visiting. We had good weather for a change, although it was still a bit windy.

The Spitalfields Market

The Spitalfields Market is found in modern surroundings with a great glass roof overhead and modern shops and eateries all round. On the Friday we went, there were clothes and vinyl to be found. There were many folks in jeans and business suits rummaging bins of albums and 45's for just the right one(s).

Greenwich

On Saturday the 31st, we went to Greenwich. This outing was led by a guide who took about to get a taste of the important museums located there.  Above is the Old Royal Naval College designed by Sir Christopher Wren. It was built in two parts so that the Queen's house in the distance behind them, could retain a view of the Thames.

Westminster Abbey

As I mentioned in a earlier post, Westminster Abbey is overwhelming. A collection of so many famous people buried or commemorated in one place, so much history spread before you in banquet of intellectual canapés. Kind of like have history tweeted to you by the people who made it.

The Tower of London

 

On 31 January, we had a group outing to the Tower of London. Above you see the the students (with me hiding in the back) on the side of the Thames in front of  the Tower looking downstream to the Tower Bridge. The day quickly turned from cloudy to rainy (surprise?) and we dodged showers and generally got a little wet.

Status Update

Things have been busy and I haven't had time to download photos form the camera to give you a proper update. I home to do this over the weekend. For now, an overview of what's been happening.