Our London Trip 2013 Day 6 – Horse Guards and More

On this day we first went to see the Horse Guards.

 

To our surprise we saw that the Mall was flagged on that day, so we tried to find out why which wasn’t easy, but we assumed it was the rehearsal for Trooping the Colour. Lots of people had gathered around Buckingham Palace to watch what was going on there.

In the afternoon we took a little walk from Victoria Station to Sloane Square to visit the policeman bollard in Gerald Road.

Our London Trip 2013 Day 5 – Belmont Hall and Bath

On this day, the weather was a little better again and I was fully recovered from the migraine. At first we attended the Open Door Coffee Morning at Belmont Hall in Harrow. We really like the people there and had some good conversation.

Afterwards we went to Paddington Station to catch a train to Bath where we arrived in the early afternoon.

Hermann is ready to act in a Hitchcock film: 

The Jane Austen Centre was our first destination. 

As we had not been able to visit last year (we had just been inside for a short time and took a photo in front), because of my ill health, now we wanted to take our time. At first we went upstairs to the tea room and were lucky to get a table right underneath the famous portrait of Mr. Darcy :D

After tea and buns - sweet buns served with salty butter – very interesting taste, but not at all bad – we visited the beautiful exhibition.

Here the visitors also have the opportunity to try on some regency dresses and accessories.

When we left the centre it was raining, but that didn’t keep us from taking a little tour.

We arrived at the Royal Crescent which I wanted to see, as it is shown in some scenes of Jane Austen films, like in this one from “Persuasion”:

In the early evening we returned to the train station to go back to London.

Our London Trip 2013 Day 4 – the Jewish Museum, Stitch London and the Thames again

On that day my migraine was gone except for the usual “hangover” which I often have afterwards, so I felt a little wobbly in my legs but otherwise okay.

As it was raining the choice for the morning was a museum. I had read about the Jewish Museum on the About London website and thought that it would be interesting for us. I was right :) The museum shows many aspects of Jewish life mainly in Britain, but also in Europe. Only a small part is dedicated to the Holocaust which was quite an unusual “feeling” for us as Germans. In our country “Jewishness” is so closely connected with the Holocaust that it is hard to think of one without thinking of the other – which is not always good, of course. Therefore this almost “Holocaust-free” Jewish Museum was an entirely new experience for us – and not a bad one!

One big “plus” of the museum is its friendly and helpful staff. These are two of the volunteers who we had the pleasure to meet:

In the late afternoon we went to the Royal Festival Hall and while I took part in the Stitch London meeting …

… Hermann took photos of the area.

To this polite sign there is just one reply … 

“You’re welcome!” ;)