The Monument

The Monument, even has a tube station named after it

This is a monument built to remember the Great Fire of London in 1666 and to celebrate the rebuilding of the city.  It was completed in 1677.  The Great Fire burned for 3 days, and whilst not many people died,  a lot of the buildings, including St Paul's Cathedral, were destroyed.

The monument is built near where the fire began, in fact it is 61m away from the site in Pudding Lane where the fire began.  This distance is also the height of the monument itself. There is no lift, only a single spiral staircase, 311 steps high, leading to a, very windy, viewing platform.  You get good views from the top though, and at the end of the climb down you get a certificate proving you climbed it.  At only 3 pounds it's worth it.

That's a lot of stairs

Aaaah Tower Bridge and the Thames

Old vs New in the city. 

English Cuisine

Flowers in Mayfair

Now I'm not going to turn this into a food blog, a not quite nigella I am not, but I've been impressed with the quality of British food here. Steer clear of the Asian except for very particular, well known spots, but the British has been OK, albeit a little salty at times.

The gastro-pub has really taken off here, just around where we live there are a number of good looking pubs/restaurants that I really want to try, and the whole suburb of Farringdon is apparently full of them.

But for now I'm going to mention a place we went to when we first moved here which is really letting down the scene.  The english pig was a restaurant directly below where we were staying in our temporary accommodation.  I think a few people from my work have ended up eating there, as when you first move to London you aren't quite up on the eating scene yet, and you are staying literally above it.  It certainly looks nice from the outside and for the prices it charges you think it can't be terrible.

Their main claim is that they use free-range, organic pork from this particular farm, which is great, but if you go on about how great the quality of your ingredients are you really shouldn't burn your pork belly.  I also couldn't even finish my dessert, the idea itself was kind of cool, a chocolate pudding served in a flower pot, but it was so incredibly rich that you feel like you're falling into a chocolate coma less than halfway through.  It is crying out for some cream to balance it, either that or a portion a quarter of the size.

I suppose it wouldn't be so bad if we hadn't paid full price, I think the vast majority of people eating there were on discount vouchers.  And if that's the case it's probably a nice enough night out.  But if you don't have a voucher and want a place to eat in that area then I would give The Easton a go.  OK so their web site needs a bit of development, but the food was great, reasonably priced and the staff were all super-friendly.  They even checked google maps for us when we needed directions after dinner. 

Water feature in Mayfair

Whilst I was unimpressed with the english pig, I don't think it's the worst place we have eaten at, I think that award goes to Munchkins, and we didn't even end up eating there.   If you ever want to see a tourist trap restaurant it doesn't get any more archetypal than Munchkins.  I think the only thing saving it is the fact that it is directly across from the entrance to the British History Museum, because it is getting zero repeat customers.  You walk inside and there are about a third too many tables, you are shown a table where you literally can't pull the chair out far enough to get in.  You choose another table and then have to move when a larger party turns up and the wait staff wants that table in order to seat them.  We give our order, wait 30 minutes, ask after the food, find out the waitress, who is also the chef, has forgotten to cook it and it will be another 20 minutes.  At that point you pay for your cups of tea and get out as fast as you can!

Basically if you are visiting London then we have found that pubs are good, restaurants are bad.  Stick with that rule and you shouldn't go too far wrong.

London Bits and Pieces - or Our First Weekend in London

Aaah Trafalgar Square, but without the hundreds of tourists who are usually here.  Must have been too early for them

Buckingham Palace with the bike leg in front

The first weekend we were here, we were still struggling with jetlag and so went for a bit of a wander.  Dave wanted to try out the London fashions on Oxford/Regeant/Carnaby streets, but when we arrived we found that most stores didn't open until noon.  As we were in the grips of the Australian jet lag, which results in 6am starts, we had a long wait ahead of us.

This led to a bit of a wander down to St James' Park and Buckingham Palace.  There turned out to be a triathlon on, so we saw a bit of the bike leg, but I think we had missed all the pros.  Turns out Brad Karlefeltd came second for those Aussies who follow triathlon.

Dave on the Mall

Anyway the day was nice, the grass was green and the geese were well-fed.  Certainly a place to re-visit with some bread.

We have tickets to visit Buckingham Palace's state rooms next weekend, so I won't say too much about that.  Just that there are only about 10 weeks in the year which you can visit, as that's when the Queen is up in Scotland, holidaying with her freaky family. 

Posh water features in Mayfair

I think the clothing is definitely cheaper here, particularly for guys.  Though I have to say you walk far enough down Oxford St and the shops begin repeating themselves.  There at least 3 of the same 4 shops within about a kilometre stretch.  I think Carnaby St is perhaps better for the boutiques and less chain-store wear, but perhaps there are better areas in London

Our first squirrel, only a grey though, yet to see a red one

for shopping which we'll have to hunt out.

Fat geese in St James' park.  They were in a separate area so you couldn't harass them

The man : James Cook.  There were a few Aussies taking photos of this statue

What's this freaky bird?  Massive feet

Kew Gardens

The main green house at Kew

We went to Kew gardens the other weekend, I think it was the last official day of summer and it was a fantastic day, blue skies, very slight breeze, not too hot.  We got there on the overground, and you could see the houses get bigger and bigger as we got closer.  People started to even have backyards, very unusual here.  When we arrived most of the houses looked a little like where we are currently staying, just a big manor house, but instead of 17 families staying in the house, there is only one. 

Kew Gardens is a bit expensive, for what is really just botanic gardens, but the grounds are so well cared for and it's such a nice break from the hustle of London that you don't mind too much.  There are also a number of structures in the grounds which have to be maintained, so far enough really.

Kew Gardens actually consists of two gardens, the Richmond estate and the Kew Garden.  When these were combined in 1802 is when what we now know as Kew Gardens was formed.  This is also the reason why it is called Kew Gardens rather than just Kew Garden. 

It was King George II and his wife who really began the transformation of the Richmond portion of the gardens into something resembling what we now know.  Similarly it was his son Prince Frederick and his wife who did the same for the Kew Garden part of the gardens.  Apparently King George II and his wife hated their son Prince Frederick, even though they were living in adjoining estates.  I'm not really sure what the reason for the hatred was, most people seem to think it was fairly irrational.  Apparently when Frederick first arrived in England he hadn't seen his parents for 14 years, since when he was quite young, and he became a sort of figure head for dissatisfaction with the King. 

It was in 1759 that the first botanic gardens were established at Kew and after 1772 Joseph Banks became a sort of superintendent of Kew, and it was then that things really started to happen. 

In 1802 King George III finally united the two gardens of Richmond and Kew, though it was really Joseph Banks' influence which meant that from the 1800's all English ships returning from any of the far-flung colonies returned with some form of specimen for planting in the gardens.

There were some interesting stories to come out from around this period. At this time China was the only place where tea was grown, there were no plantations in India yet. England really wanted to break the strangle-hold that China had on this addiction of it's people and so made many attempts to smuggle out the jealously guarded tea plants.  Eventually one such collector succeeded in smuggling out a vast number of seeds which were then planted in India.  Though perhaps the Chinese got their own back, at one point one of the Kings of England wanted to make his own silk farms, so

Are these fox gloves?

the Chinese sold him 20,000 seedlings of black mulberry.  It was only after these had all been planted out and were growing that it was realised that silk worms only eat white mulberry.


It seemed that there were many such stories of these collectors back then, they sounded a little like Indiana Jones, except plant collectors, which I suppose is no more fantastical than an archaeologist as a super-hero.

Slightly leaning Chinese pagoda

 The pagoda to the left was completed in 1762.  This was during the period of fascination for anything oriental in Europe.  Supposedly it was because these countries (being Japan and China) were forbidden to outsiders at the time.  Though apparently the builders were not completely faithful to tradition, in that this one has 10 floors, when pagodas should always have an odd number of floors.  During the second World War holes were drilled in each of the floors so that bombs could be dropped and their flight studied (I don't think they were the explosive kind)

 

The Chinese pagoda from the Japanese garden

 In keeping with the theme there is also a Japanese garden.  This was built in 1996, and the designer was told to keep the following in mind when creating it:

• people would be able to approach from any direction
• there could be no water features
• not a lot of time could be spent on the maintenance

 If you have ever visited gardens in Japan you could perhaps appreciate that these three rules go against everything they stand for.  But the creator did a good job, and he seems to have certainly captured the spirit of Japanese gardens, even if it does feel a bit like a Japanese-British hybrid.  He also managed to sneak in a water feature, not sure how he hid that one from the curators.

Bluebells!!!!

 There was even a little patch of bluebells in the grounds.  Is it some sort of gardening rule that bluebells can only grow by this particular tree?  I think it's an oak tree.  As this was the only place we saw them growing.  Are they like truffles?

Who can guess what these are?

We saw these trees to the left all over the place.  At first I thought they were conkers, but eventually we found one which still had it's name-plate.  It's actually a really common Christmas treat.

Australia just can't escape it's convict past, even our trees are in gaol

One of the top 10 trees to see in Britain

One thing I would highly recommend is a walking tour, they only go for about an hour and are free, but they give you so much more information.  I think that is what made our visit really enjoyable as we learnt so much about the history and funny stories of past curators and collectors. 

Whilst on the tour the guide pointed out a small ginkgo tree, everyone in the group already knew what they were (except for us) so she didn't go into too much detail.  These trees though, are the only surviving member of a group of trees which were widespread 180-200 million years ago.  This particular one was planted in 1762, less than 40 years after their introduction to England from China.  It is also one of the few remaining trees from the botanic gardens started by King George III's mother.  These trees are pretty amazing, and can live to 3000 years old, which means the one in Kew gardens is actually just a baby.

The Princess of Wales conservatory, had about 10 rooms, all with completely different climates

Venus fly-traps!

 I think some of the best things to see in Kew are in their various green houses.  The Princess of Wales conservatory is particularly impressive in that there are about 10 different climates all housed in there.  So you go from rainforest, to desert, to orchids just by walking through doors.  We even got to see venus fly-traps, though it would have been more fun to see them being fed.


 As well as the Princess of Wales, and the main green house, there was also a water lilly house (extremely popular), bonsai house and alpine house (nice to visit in the heat of the day).

 I would recommend visiting the water lily house in the mid-morning as apparently there are two types of lilies, those that flower at night, and those that flower in the day.  So by visiting then you are more likely to see all of them open.  We went in the afternoon and so some of the flowers were all closed up.

Black plants??

Obviously, being a botanic gardens, there is an active research centre on the grounds, with students studying there.  These lucky students were given a section of the garden to grow whatever they wanted.  I wonder if they were marked on their plants, you would think that as a botanist you wouldn't want to be killing your trees.  Some of the students went for the outlandish, which is were those black plants were.  I would think these must grow somewhere very cool as if these were in the Australian desert I think they would spontaneously combust.

The final thing we visited was a tree top walk, perhaps not the best tree top walk I've ever done and there is no lift access so family members had to be abandoned at the bottom, but it certainly gave you a different perspective on the big trees surrounding you.

I'll just leave you with a whole bunch of flowers.  I hope they turn out alright, I'm using my phone at the moment, so don't think the full resolution is showing up.  Only three more days until broadband!

Freaky flowers

The sensory garden, I think it was for blind people

More freaky flowers

Who says right angles don't exist in nature?

Yet more flowers

 

Water lilies

These could apparently hold the weight of a baby

This should have a name like dragon's breath

Desert plants in the Princess of Wales

Those pebbles next to the stones are plants

Alpine fluff-balls

Australian alpine flowers

The bonsai house

Student plots

More water-lilies

View of the glass house from the tree top walk

Won't someone think of the arteries?

Flowers in Dublin

The food over here is pretty different to Australia, I think that is the thing which so far has surprised me the most.  Sure I was expecting bangers and mash and the occasional warm beer (it's the ale which is warm), but the excessive amounts of salt and the lack of genuine chili has really shocked me.  I really miss chili, we went to a Thai restaurant the other night on a chili-craving outing, and they didn't have laska on the menu, or larb, or even red/green/yellow curry.  Without those dishes I'm not sure you are even allowed to call yourself a Thai restaurant. They had massaman on the menu, of course, the least spicy Thai dish I know, but everything else seemed to be a Thai/Chinese mix with zero chili.  I think I just have to accept that Thai food does not exist here, and I'll have to plan another trip to Thailand if I want to taste genuine larb again.

What London has perfected though is the ready meal.  Literally you can get anything you want in a vacuum sealed plastic bag.  I'm talking prawns and hokkien noodle stir-fry or pea and asparagus ravioli (that's actually pretty good) and don't get me started on their sandwiches.  Seriously, the sandwich must be some ultra-traditional English food that I just wasn't aware of.  They have whole take-away food chains devoted entirely to the sandwich (and I'm not talking subway here).  In fact there are multiple chains whose main product is the humble sandwich.  Though here it is not so humble, avocado, harissa and chick peas anyone?  We went a bit crazy on the sandwiches when we first moved here, until we started checking out the dietary advice, 50% of your RDI of salt in one sandwich!!!! We got a bit freaked out about that and have now started diligently checking everything we buy for it's salt content.  There are loaves of bread out there that literally have 3gms of salt per slice!  For the record the recommended daily salt intake is 6 grams.  And it's not just the pre-made sandwich which is stacked full of salt, eating out at restaurants can be a danger zone, and whilst they may not have any chili, I've frequently finished a meal with my tongue on fire and desperately craving water.

Museum of London

Follow the cat to ....

the museum of London

Statue at the entrance.  Not sure why these were in B&W

The temporary accommodation we were staying at was literally across the road from the Museum of London.  After the frenzied hordes of the Natural History museum the relative obscurity of this museum was a welcome reprieve.  Now that we are Londoners, we can visit the more popular museums in the low season.

There was a good exhibition on London street photography showing photos from the 1800's through to present day.  That was really interesting, but then I like photography, unfortunately photos of the photos were forbidden.

One thing which was cool was seeing the photos of Brick Lane from the 1960's.  Brick Lane is famous for it's food, in particular Indian, but back in the 1960's it was the scene of many battles between the National Front party and anti-fascist protesters, due to the large Bangladeshi community living there.  So there were a number of photos of Bangladeshis walking along the streets with swastikas and KKK and NF slogans painted on the walls.  Let me just say that the Brick Lane of now is completely different, at least in terms of the graffiti and numbers of fascists present.  But it was interesting to see the history of the area I then ate at later that day.

A model of a Selfridges lift, the first store to have lifts in London

Another interesting thing in the photos was seeing how much dirtier children were back in the 1800's and early 1900's.  They were filthy!

There was a lot of stuff in the museum, it was more of a collection of stuff than an in-depth look at the rise of London and it's various events.  One such thing they had was one of the first lifts from Selfridges.  Selfridges is a very posh department store, I suppose David Jones is trying to emulate it.  Apparently they were one of the first stores to have escalators as well.  I think the story went that when the customers first rode the escalator they were given smelling salts at the top by the shop attendants.


They had a couple of quite good sections in the more modern history sections, so from the 1600's-present day.  One section was a

Selfridges lift

recreation of the pleasure gardens of the 1800's.  Here people would wander around gardens and lords would rub shoulders with the peasants.  There was a movie running continuously which was a little strange, of the typical goings on in the gardens at night.

Another section was a Victorian recreation of a town centre.  So they had all the typical shops set up with things they would sell. 

One of the best exhibits was on the suffragettes of the UK.  There were recordings of the women's experiences with the police and government as they were fighting for their rights.  Some of the stories sounded really quite brutal.  Just out of interest the UK didn't give women the right to vote (universally) until 1928, which compared to New Zealand's 1893 was actually quite late in terms of so-called developed nations.  Though all women in Australia didn't get the vote until 1962, which was far worse.

Grocery store in the Victorian-era

It was interesting hearing about those women's fight in the late 1800's to early 1900's and then carrying on through the rest of tthe museum up to the present day.  The suffragettes were certainly not the only group fighting for their rights as time went on, and you got a sense of where the 60's fit into the broader scheme of things.

There was also a section on the very early history, the fossils and prehistoric remains found on the site of London.  There were some more mammoth fossils, which I can't get enough of.  There was even a skull of a cave bear, which to me is another mythical animal. 

Would I recommend it?  Perhaps not if you only had a few days in London, but if you were staying a bit longer I would certainly give it a go.  It gives you a good feel of where London (and England as a whole) has come from.

That's one wide dress

Can't get over my mammoth fossils, that's a tusk and a jawbone and to the left is a cave bear skull