London Life, Winter Spring 2015

As we start to wrap up our 'London Life' and begin the phase of moving home to Melbourne, the remaining weeks will be filled with reflection - the places we loved to visit; the non-travel weekend activities and the restaurants and food-related photos that have etched as memories of our time in London.
With a little over four years since we moved to the UK, it is almost surreal that in a little more than four weeks, we will be saying goodbye or perhaps 'see you later London'. Our travels around Europe have opened our eyes to so many new cultural experiences that we are pretty sure we will make it back one day.

The View from Waterloo Bridge 
The cover photo on this blog post is of our favourite view - Waterloo Bridge facing west towards Southbank, London Eye, Big Ben and the Golden Jubilee Bridges over the Thames. Roughly 99% of the time, we see this view from the comfort of the bus, taking us from the restaurants of Soho, back to south-east London. Occasionally, when we are giving visitors the scenic tour of the town, we will walk down from the Strand and Somerset House, cross the bridge on foot (taking plenty of photos) and then head back along Bankside to London Bridge.

View from outside County Hall, Southbank

Iconic Architecture
Over the time we have been in London, the city skyline has been redefined by new buildings like the Shard, the Walkie-Talkie in Fenchurch Street and the Cheese Grater next to Leadenhall Market competing with the Gherkin for most iconic modern building. But our love of all things historical means that we are more likely to remember the silhouette of the Palace of Westminster at sunset; the majestic dome of St Paul's Cathedral (viewed from the Millennium Bridge) and always the favourite - Tower Bridge (that so often confused as London Bridge by tourists).

St Paul's Cathedral

Tower Bridge

And going further south-east, we will miss Greenwich, with our memories of the Sunday market during winter where we made special visits to the stall selling roast beef with yorkshire pudding and melted cheese.

Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich

And after 2.5 years being based at Canary Wharf, Mei is slowly starting to feel a little affection for this part of town, although the best views of it are enjoyed from Royal Observatory in Greenwich Park.

View over East London from the Royal Observatory

Billingsgate Market
Street food in London has a cult following and we have been strong supporters of the food trucks from KERB, Urban Food Fest, stalls at Ropewalk and the Real Food Market outside Festival Hall. But sometimes it is the little know gems that are the most memorable - like the scallop and bacon bagel from Piggys Cafe at Billingsgate Market. Never tried it? You are missing out.

Best snack food in London -
scallop and bacon bagel

Billingsgate Seafood School
January in London can be quite depressing - cold, dark and the festivities of Christmas and New Years have been swept away. This year, we were in danger of a bigger drop in post-holiday blues as we were returning from a two week Caribbean cruise and Miami sunshine break. So on returning back to London, we needed something to distract ourselves. Solution: a day at the Billingsgate Seafood School doing a shellfish workshop.

Learning to cook has been on our 'to do list' for a while. Attending the Billingsgate Seafood School caught our eye because we have an appreciation of the subject matter but are not Masterchef material. Overall it was a fun social day out as the majority of students were attending as a result of a Christmas gift voucher.

On arrival at the school we were allocated to a classroom for induction, then separated into the various course-specific groups. The largest classes were for the Saturday's Catch sessions that focus on fish identification, preparation and cooking skills. We were partnered up with the school's CEO - CJ Jackson and learnt a heap of new skills including: preparation of baked scallops, dressing crab meat, razor clam ceviche, cleaning squid, shucking an oyster, cleaning and cooking mussels. The highlight was being able to eat all the food at the end of the class.

Learning how to properly bash open a crab

Squid ready to be cleaned

Baked scallops

Dressed crab

clueQuest
Another group activity perfect for a cold evening in London is clueQuest - one of the many escape game franchises that have emerged recently. Whilst not giving too much away, clueQuest runs for an hour and involves a lot of teamwork, lateral thinking and is a heap of fun.

Clues to the quest

Spanish Riding School of Vienna

When we first arrived in London, our calendar was filled with nights out at the theatre, watching concerts and just trying to get a lot done every non-travel weekend. Lately, we haven't been as enthusiastic, perhaps a sign that it is time to go home. The last show tickets that we bought involved sitting in an area, watching white dancing horses - the famous Spanish Riding School of Vienna.

We had seen a glimpse of the stallions in Vienna on our first trip and this had fascinated Mei enough to buy tickets, even though our interest in horses are usually only around the time of Melbourne Cup. But we clearly were not fans of dressage - not quite understanding the complexities involved with making the horses dance, jump and even perform on their hind legs. Perhaps a different activity next time.

The riders are introduced to the crowd

Keeping in formation

Horse and rider show their skill

The riders wave goodbye to the crowd

Changing of the Guard

Watching the 'Changing of the Guard' ceremony involves a lot of patience - finding that perfect viewing spot and waiting with the dozens of other tourists to see this London tradition on the Mall. But if you can brave the cold, taking a stroll towards Green Park on a weekend in the middle of winter can sometimes yield an unexpected spotting of the Queen's Guards marching back with their bushy hats and long winter coats.

Marching guardsmen

Hunting for painted chewing gum

We have blogged previously about the Chewing Gum Man - but during a walk around Southbank one cold winter night, we decided to capture more of his mini-artworks that are painted onto used chewing gum.

Hot Cider and Mulled Wine

Another fond memory of Northern Hemisphere winters will be drinking hot cider and mulled wine - usually from a stall in Greenwich or Borough market. We did buy all the ingredients for mulled wine once, in the firm belief that we would transform a good bottle of red into an amazing sweet beverage. However, we always seemed to drink the wine first and now have a collection of spices in the cupboard.

Yummy mulled wine

Warm Beer

After the first couple of English pub experiences with friends drinking pints of ale, we started to no longer dislike warm beer. And in the winter when the weather is freezing cold outside, the least of your concerns is that your drink is at room temperature.

Our most recent trip to our 'local' - the Sheaf,
watching the Champions League final 

Parks and Wildlife

Some of  the green spaces in London that we will miss are: Southwark Park, Greenwich Park (even those tough hills), Holland Park (Kyoto Gardens are a must visit) and Hyde Park for the many concerts and events we have attended there.

Kyoto Gardens, Holland Park

And when we visit each park, we still get excited seeing squirrels - small furry animals that are ever so cute; and we don't have them in Australia so they are still a novelty.

Hunting for nuts

And then there are the white swans - the image from fairy tales and children's books. But if you have visited Australia, you know that our swans look a bit different - black feathers with red beaks. So here is a photo of a swan pair and their 'ugly duckling' cygnet babies at Surrey Quays in East London.

White swans - also still a novelty 

Finding Paddington Bear

As part of publicity for the recent Paddington Bear movie, statues of this well-loved children's character appeared all over London. We followed the trail from the landmarks of St Paul's Cathedral to Trafalgar Square.

Dinosnores - Natural History Museum

Dinosnores is the fun adult only 'night in a museum' event that is hosted by the Natural History Museum and as the name suggests, you get to sleep with the dinosaurs - specifically under the shadow of the iconic - Dippy, the skeleton of the Diplodocus that has graced the Central Hall since 1979. However, on a sad note, he is due to be replaced by a Blue Whale cast, but not everyone is happy about the switch and a petition has been launched to reverse that decision.

Dippy with the sleeping bags of Dinosnore participants

What we did during Dinosnores
Dinosnores isn't just about paying for the privilege to sleep in a large room on a cold mosaic floor in BYO sleeping bags with total strangers. The hosts actually do their best to discourage sleeping by putting on a range of activities including; movie marathons, free entry into the popular exhibits, scavenger hunts, dinosaur drawing classes and talks about the sex life of bugs.

Hintze (Central) Hall at night

Arriving at the Natural History Museum
The night started with a bit of drama for us as a signal failure on the Piccadilly Line meant that we were running late for the registration and dinner. We jumped into a cab and the driver was a little surprised to see us packed with sleeping gear and wanting a drop off at the Natural History Museum at the out-of-visiting-hours time of 7:45pm.

The Natural History Museum at night

Excited about spending a night in the museum
- wearing matching grey hoodies

Listening to harp music before bed-time in dinosaur onesies

Dinner Time
After finding some real estate to lay out our sleeping mats, as we were late all the prime spots around Dippy had been taken, so we found a spot near the entrance behind a pillar. The guards advised us that the front door would be opened occasionally to allow smokers out, so it might get a bit cold.

A three-course dinner was served in the museum's canteen with all participants on long tables where we could introduce oneself whilst eating white chocolate cheesecake - a perfect ice-breaker.  A cash bar was set up outside and there were many people dressed up in animal 'onesie' (one-piece jumpsuits) outfits.

Table decoration fitting the theme of the night

Insect Sex Life Show and Edible Insects

The next activity was to attend a talk or a drawing class hosted by museum staff. We attended a lecture by Dr Erica McAlister who gave has an interesting insight into the reproductive side of insect life.

After the talk (and much laughter), we returned to the canteen for a session of eating insects - an emerging area of interest in the gastronomic world as scientists predict that as the world's population increases and beef / pork / lamb consumption increases - it will become difficult to feed everyone based on the amount of land required to grow crops for the livestock. Instead, we should eat insects, as they are a rich source of protein and easy to farm.

Plates of silk worm casings, fried crickets and ants were passed around. Some had a texture of sesame seeds and with a bit of seasoning would be fine. Others left a strange residual taste and weren't very popular.

Scavenger Hunt and seeing the exhibitions

Day-time entry into the Natural History museum is free, however queues emerge during school holiday season for the more popular exhibits - like the Dinosaurs. Once-off exhibitions such as the Wildlife Photographer of the Year require a ticket to be purchased and can get very crowded.

However as participants in Dinosnores, we had complimentary access on the night to view the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibit and to spend as long as we wanted admiring the photos. We also started playing the scavenger hunt game, but got distracted taking photos.

Creepy Crawlies 

Dinosaurs at night

The eerie empty raised platform through the exhibition

Early mammals

Sabre toothed tiger

Mammoth

Cadogan Gallery - The Museum's treasures
A small room above Hintze Hall contained the most precious 22 items in the museum's collection. A slideshow of the items can be viewed on the website: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/galleries/green-zone/treasures/index.html

Joseph Bank's Herbarium Sheets
Plants collected by pioneer scientist Joseph Banks on the Endeavour voyage (1768-1771), pressed on herbarium sheets.

Archaeopteryx Skeleton and First Edition copy of the 'Origin of Species'
Archaeopteryx is the earliest known bird and the museum has the first skeleton ever found. This fossil was used to prove that birds evolved from dinosaurs and provided support for Darwin's theory of evolution and his book - 'Origin of Species'.

Iguanodon Teeth
The mysterious teeth (141 to 137 million years old) were found by Mary Mantell and her amateur palaeontologist husband Gideon in 1822 and sparked the discovery of dinosaurs.

Piece of moon rock from the Apollo 17 mission and the Wold Cottage meteorite - promoted the first investigation of meteorites

Travel Planning and Next Steps
So what are we doing next? We decided that packing up and just leaving London by plane was a bit too straight forward, so we decided to plan a 5 month detour across 5 continents. Every so often (more likely once we catch up on the backlog of Europe blog-posts), we will be giving updates on our travels (and growing travel magnet collection) as we jump from country-to-country. We will be posting these updates on the page: #5in5months or via Instagram/Twitter using that hashtag.

Next blog post:

Strasbourg and Paris Christmas Markets

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