If my last trip to London was a whirlwind, this trip was a gentle breeze. Andreas and I flew from Oslo Thursday night, and stayed at Erlend’s house until the following Tuesday. The four days inbetween were spent wandering about, through mostly sunshine and a few drops of rain, visiting a few cafés and fewer museums, catching lots of tubes and busses, and generally having an utterly relaxing time.
The photos reflect the relaxation, in the sense that I didn’t take very many. But here’s an overview, anyway…
Right by Erlend’s house there was a park, which we visited first thing in the morning. Frognerparken would be greatly improved by a few of these, don’t you think?
Andreas doesn’t like being photographed. He also doesn’t like wasting time waiting for public transport, but on this trip it was not at all a problem- I think the longest we had to wait was 3 minutes. Just enough time for a wornout homeless lady to come over and ask us for money, and then give Andreas a plastic flower. It’s still in my pocket.
A cappuccino and a slice of bruschetta for lunch?
….
No! A macchiato and a nibble! Either that, or Andreas’ hand has suddenly doubled in size.
This was in the National Geographic shop on Regent (?) St. From there we meandered off to gork at the Buckingham Palace (just to check if it was still there. Nothing had changed), and then head to Regent Park. Regent Park is well known for its balancing bowling balls.
Next up:
To prove that we were in fact in London.
The above was all of Friday, Saturday we wore ourselves out in the British Museum, and Sunday therefore had to be spent in, recuperating.
Three sculptures in the living room (/inflatable-mattress-bedroom). One of them is called Bruno.
Apart from hanging out with these three, Erlend and Siri, we took a walk through the park…
to a pub called The Plough for a solid old Sunday brunch, complete with strawberry beer and artistically beframed fence.
Where’s Wally?
Monday, and the view from a doubledecker bus,
…on our way to the…
Natural History Museum!
Which I absolutely loved. How could I not – they have the original Moosecap! (maybe)
And dinosaurs!
I was actually quite surprised at my own excitement at seeing these old skeletons (which were actually just plastercasts of the real bones) – kinda thought I’d grown out of the dino-craze in primary school. In some ways I have grown up though – I no longer found them scary. These, on the other hand…:
So many of them! (They are hummingbirds.) All stuffed, and all flying straight at you! Creepy.
The plan was originally to divide our Monday between the Natural History Museum and Tate Modern, but in the end half a day wasn’t really enough for the NHM. So we didn’t actually end up going to the Tate until late in the afternoon, about 40 minutes before closing time. Ooops.
The (blurry) End.
2 Comments
13/11/2009 at 22:39
Please tell me where to find the yummy-looking food places, like the strawberry beer pub. I’ll be in London in a few weeks…
14/11/2009 at 20:07
Hi! I actually have no idea about yummy-food places; though I can recommend wandering along the Themes and choosing a serendipitously located pub that I can’t remember the name of, for their fish and chips and the news that Flintoff was retiring. You’ll find it between the Globe and the Tate Modern, I think… (Sammi, help!) The strawberry beer pub was somewhere 30 minutes by bus away from Liverpool St, so you’re probably better off trying somewhere closer… I’ve also been to a good, cheap pizza place in London, near The Clink hostel (where I don’t recommend staying), but other than that I can’t actually remember the food very well!
Why are you going to London? How long are you staying there/in Europe? I’m probably going to Amsterdam in the middle of December!