21st consecutive weekend of hiking!
It has rained nearly every day for two weeks, here in London. So when this morning broke sunny and clear, it was time to go hiking! I headed for Epping Forest, an extensive area of forests and meadows on the northeastern edge of London. The sunny (though chilly) weather inspired many other people to get outdoors – walking their dogs, riding their horses, strolling with friends, or jogging the muddy trails. Two weeks of rain + heavy foot traffic = muddy trails!
Five miles across west London.
It has rained nearly every day for the past week, and the forecast today appeared to promise on-and-off drizzle. At best. Nonetheless, I was determined not to break my streak… and go hiking for this 20th consecutive weekend. I chose to walk end-to-end across the three Royal Parks in London’s West End: Hyde Park, Green Park, and St James Park, on my return from Saturday-morning coffee with colleagues to my home near Victoria Station. It was a surprisingly pleasant five-mile walk, and it seemed half of London was out to enjoy these parks today as well.
Marking history.
London is so steeped in history, it’s hard to go anywhere without running into it. Today I was walking through the London drizzle to an appointment at University College London and passed the Darwin Building. Really. How many universities have a biology building named after Charles Darwin? Wow. Although Darwin apparently never had any connection to UC London, he briefly lived in a home previously located at this site… so there is a historic marker on this building, and his bust is displayed prominently in the entrance.
Continue reading “Darwin again”A visit to the Royal Observatory Museum at Greenwich.
Today we visited Greenwich, and the Royal Observatory Museum that sits atop the hill in Greenwich Park. It has an expansive view across the park, past the Old Royal Naval College and the River Thames, to the skyscrapers in the Canary Wharf financial district of London. This observatory is where the question of longitude was studied – and in particular, a decades-long challenge to find a reliable means for mariners to estimate their longitude while at sea. As a result, it was later selected as the zero point – the reference point for 0º0’0″ longitude, aka the Prime Meridian. Given the importance of measuring time for measuring longitude, Greenwich was also designated as the basis for universal time – hence Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), now known as Universal Time (UTC). We and the other tourists had fun standing on the meridian, one foot in the Western Hemisphere and one foot in the Eastern Hemisphere.
Sunrise split by the London Shard.
I glanced at my watch as I strode out of the Tube station and through the drizzle into the emerging daylight. The time was one minute before sunrise – but would the clouds cooperate? I was heading once again for Primrose Hill, a popular site for viewing the sun rise over London’s cityscape, which I’d first visited on the winter solstice. This was my fifth visit in four weeks, and I was determined to capture a particular scene, a particular moment, that I’d forecasted one month ago. To get the shot, the sun would need to actually show up, and in rainy London that’s never certain. At home in the pre-dawn darkness, it was raining hard and the forecast was gloomy. I need to make a go/no-go decision 45 minutes before sunrise to reach to Primrose Hill on time. It’s always a gamble. Today I gambled and won.
Views from the iconic London bridge.
Although many Americans think this iconic bridge is called London Bridge, it’s actually called Tower Bridge – and is just upstream from its famous and historic neighbor, the architecturally bland London Bridge. Tower Bridge opened to the public in 1894; as a bascule bridge its central span lifts open to allow tall ships to pass, while its twin upper walkways allow sightseers like us to enjoy expansive views of the river and the city. Today we took the opportunity to visit. On this rainy winter weekday, there were few other visitors so we almost had the place to ourselves as we climbed the tower, walked across the high pedestrian bridges, and then down into the depths to view the historic coal-powered engine rooms.
An organ recital in a 13th-century architectural icon.
It is hard not to be moved when the first notes of the organ echo throughout an iconic 13th-century cathedral, especially one with such a storied history like Westminster Abbey. You feel the deeper notes resonate throughout your body as the music fills the hall with an even greater sense of grandeur.
We were sitting near the front row, along with perhaps one hundred other lovers of music, history, and travel, and treated to a 40-minute organ recital by one of the Abbey’s senior organists. These weekly recitals are free and open to the public, as are weekly choral recitals and daily Evensong.
“Although Westminster Abbey was founded in 960AD, the building we see today dates from the reign of Henry III in the 13th century.” You can read lots more about the history of Westminster Abbey, which has been used for 16 royal weddings and every royal coronation since 1066.
Just across the street from the Abbey is Westminster Palace; we crossed the Thames on Westminster Bridge for a good view of Westminster Palace (Parliament building) and Elizabeth Tower (with the bell named Big Ben). Westminster Abbey peeks out from behind the palace, just to the right of the construction cranes.
An afternoon tour of the East Wing.
When offered a chance to tour Buckingham Palace, how can one say no? After all, we live within walking distance, and I often walk past the palace on my way for a stroll in Green Park or St. James Park. Out front, the grand gates attract throngs of selfie-taking tourists, gawking at the grandeur of the palace and snapping photos of the iconic guardsmen. Today, we stood with a small group of others who waited by the front gate for our designated entry time.
To be clear, it’s not like we were heading for an appointment with His Majesty King Charles, or others in the royal family. We’d bought tickets for a tour of the East Wing, along with a dozen other locals and tourists. Our wait, on a chilly gray winter’s day, gave us an opportunity to study the decorative gates and the heavily armed police just behind them.
Unfortunately, photography was not permitted once we passed through the gates, through airport-style security screening, and throughout the tour. Our tour guide walked us through three or four elaborate rooms and along a grand corridor spanning the front of the palace. (The East Wing has over 200 rooms; we saw four.) She explained that this wing had never before been open to the public, having been designed and used primarily as a residence for the royal children. Now, its rooms are used for meetings, and receptions. (They are separate from the State Rooms, which are only open for public tours in the summer.)
Many walls decked with massive paintings of the sort one might expect in the National Gallery, or National Portrait Gallery – depicting famous figures or heroic scenes, like Queen Victoria or the Battle of Trafalgar. Our tour guide, who noted her two art-history degrees, delighted in telling us the backstory on many works of art, including murals, painted ceilings, and exquisite porcelain from China. Indeed, many of the rooms were thoroughly decorated in chinoiserie style, which apparently had been quite fashionable. (Indeed, that Wikipedia link includes an (outdated) photo of the Yellow Drawing Room we visited today; the caption says it is “rife with chinoiserie designs. King George IV was a keen patron of chinoiserie, and had many other rooms created in this style such as the Centre Room, also located in the East Wing.”) Much of it reminded me of the palace we visited in Brighton; no coincidence, because when Queen Victoria sold that palace she relocated most of its decorations to Buckingham.
Many more photos are available on the royal family’s webpage. We visited parts of the East Wing that has just been reserviced (renovated and restored), as described in this short YouTube video from seven years ago when the work began. Other wings of the Palace are currently under similar restoration.
In the final room, we were standing right behind the front, central balcony that looks out on the forecourt, past the grand Victoria Memorial, and down the mall central to St. James Park. The guides excitedly described how, just two years ago, King Charles arrived at Buckingham Palace after his coronation, walked through the same corridors, and waved to the crowds from this very balcony.
Just a dusting here.
I glanced out the window at just the right moment – to see snowflakes swirling madly through the air. A snow squall was passing through our neighborhood in London – the first snow I’d seen in England – so I pulled on my coat and scurried outside. The snow had ended as quickly as it began, leaving only a dusting on the pavements and nearby garden squares.
An extended walk in Chantry Woods with about twenty other Dartmouth alums.
I had my third opportunity to hike, today, in an outing jointly organized by the Dartmouth Club of the United Kingdom and the Tuck alumni club of the United Kingdom, to the Chantry Wood area around Guildford in Surrey. About 20 Dartmouth alums and three dogs came along. The day started cloudy, shifted to hazy, and ended with blue skies, leaving all in a wonderful mood as we settled in for a late Sunday lunch at the Seahorse Pub. As the photo gallery shows, the trees were beginning to show their autumn colors, and the route exposed us to a wide variety of meadows, forests, fallow farm fields, and country lanes.
A beautiful day! [Slideshow]
David Kotz 