OK, so I've been really lax and I'm still only blogging the start of May when it's the end of June. This one's about the few days after the Royal Wedding and what we got up to. On the Sunday we made a trip out to the Tate Britain, which houses - among other things - some lovely pre-Raphaelite paintings and a large concave mirror that causes extreme disorientation.
After checking this out we headed up along the bank of the river towards the houses of parliament and then across the river to Southwark for the first time. Here we found a lot of tourists as well as an amazing artist who was making giant pastel reproductions of famous art works on sheets of paper on the pavement. It was a very sunny day, one of the many we had over the month of April and the place had a very beachy feel, even though there isn't all that much sand.
We did duck down behind a gallery and find a mecca of food stalls where we were able to procure the most extreme chocolate brownie and icecream experience. From there we walked further along the bank until we crossed over at the Millennium bridge and I believe we limped back home (this version of events is corroborated by google latitude which tracks my every movement).
The next day we got up early as we had booked ourselves on a tour bus! It picked us up from the lobby of the Hilton hotel in Holland Park and it was then that we heard (I think I saw it on Twitter) that Bin Laden had been killed. We were taken to Victoria station where we were ushered onto our particular tour bus.
Our first stop after being guided through the city by our old and rather conservative guide was the castle at Windsor. I work in Maidenhead, which is literally the next town over, so it is funny that I'd not been over that way before. I'd definitely go again. We were only permitted to take pictures of the outside, which is a shame as the inside is the most amazing thing I've seen so far. The dolls house alone is worth the price of admission. It's the size of most bedrooms in London, seriously. Google it now.
Now that you're back, I'll go on. The various rooms of the castle that can be walked through by the public are pretty much all the spectacular ones. There are ornate dinner sets from throughout history, gifted from strange and almost mythical empires. There's a room of paintings that's worth more than it's possible to comprehend. There are halls dedicated to swords, or armour, or guns, or thrones. There's even a couple suits of armour made for two young princes who would have promptly grown out of them. Without a doubt, a must see of England.
But it doesn't stop there, as we drove onwards to Salisbury plain where we began to see strange artificial hills popping up on the countryside. Burial mounds. Then the stones! I'll never forget that moment when we came over the rise and saw Stonehenge just sitting there. Waiting. Just hanging out for the last 5000 years or so. It could be considered a bit boring as it doesn't jump up and leap around or anything. But to me it's just one of those things that has to be seen. One of the earliest reminders perhaps that the most grandiose and permanent structures we build are those meant to outlive our flesh and bear us on the the afterlife? After all, what purpose does a pyramid, a mausoleum, an obelisk, a triumphal arch or a cathedral serve if not to venerate the dead?
Anyhow, I'll stop waxing philosophical as it's late and I still have to cover Bath. The approach to the town is amazing as the terrain is far hillier than expected. Once we arrived, there wasn't time to see much more than just the Roman Baths, but that's amazing enough. They're built on a natural hot spring and the use of them pre-dates the Romans. A lot of excavation has been done under the baths and a lot of the original set up can be seen. It would have been luxurious in its day.
A quite random surprise we found in Bath was the Sally Lunn bakery. To people from certain parts of NZ, a Sally Lunn is a kind of bun with coconut icing on it. This bakery in Bath is the original place where this type of bread was made, although it differs almost completely from what is seen in NZ.
Anyhow, we left Bath and a very full day for the long trip back home.[gallery link="file" orderby="ID"]
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