This was to be our last full day in England. To try to cram in two days’ worth of goals? Or to take it easy and enjoy a leisurely visit to a few “must-see” destinations? We opted for the second plan.
I’m glad we did. It was another gloriously sunny spring day. Going back to near the start of the trip, we had regretted not paying a visit to the Greenwich Observatory, so we made that our first stop. After all — a short planetarium feature narrated by Patrick Stewart was going to premiere!
Veterans that we now were of the transit system, we had no trouble getting from Trafalgar to Greenwich. There was still a bit of a hill to climb once we arrived. A co-ed sports team carrying weighted rods was being led in drills up and down the hill — punishing in the warm sun but impressive to see.
Almost to the top of the hill, I spotted this small plaque on a building. It’s quite readable if you zoom in:
February 1st, 1951 – Helena Pare Lydia Mott
The summer’s breath is spent upon the hills
Behold, remember and rejoice
She seems to say
I give you colour
That the dolour of your winter
May be eased
Until I come again.
I can’t quite put into words why, but I found it poignant and fitting at that moment in our trip.
(Note: Apparently I am not the first to be taken with this plaque. In trying to find some information, I didn’t find any — but I found another person seeking information. Short blog and another photo.)
The grounds and view are just lovely.
Views of the grounds
The Honest Sausage — breakfast source.
Cait and Mark at the Prime Meridian.
A vintage timepiece (before I realized that inside photos are not permitted).
There are some very nice displays at the museum, but the planetarium itself was underwhelming — though I had to admire all of that bronze — “one of the largest single uses of bronze in the world.” If nothing else, the presenter said, he didn’t have to caution people about cell phone use, as nothing was going to get through. In fairness, it was the show, “Violent Universe,” that found me dozing off a bit, much as I love Patrick Stewart. As Cait and Mark observed when we exited, they’ve each done quite a bit of reading on the subject just out of intellectual curiosity, and were hoping for some new information. It was a bit frustrating to them to hear a description of a phenomenon or galaxy they were already familiar with — and then not have the narration note its name. But for people hearing of these things for the first time, it would probably be fascinating.
During the course of our exploration, I had been thrilled to spot an old garden below the observatory grounds. It’s not directly accessible from the paths reached after admission, but after the planetarium show, a gate attendant kindly told us how to find the gate that would give us access. I had very much wanted to visit an English garden before we left, and I hadn’t expected to find one right there.
At the garden’s gateway.
We literally had the garden to ourselves.
We wrapped up the morning with a soft-swirl cone from the Honest Sausage (all vanilla, no chocolate? What’s up with that, England?) and headed back into the city for the afternoon.
Lots of time yet, so we decided to check out the British Museum.
Wow.
It is another museum we barely scratched the surface of. Again, I picked out a few galleries of particular interest. Babylonian, Sumerian, Greek, Roman, Egyptian. The Elgin Marbles having been in international news again recently, I wanted to be sure to find those.
Yes. that is the Rosetta Stone.
That was an even bigger rush than happening upon David Byrne’s “big suit” in a display in New York City.
And hurrah for long spring days. There was still plenty of daylight left so we decided to head into the gardens near the Palace. It reminded me very much of the grounds near America’s Capitol — full of families enjoying the lawns and flowers and water and sunshine (though not quite as many runners). I had done my Internet searching again for a restaurant and we had zeroed in on one on the other side of the area, which justified walks through the grounds to and from.
The Admiralty Arch (or, to TerryM, his father’s place of employment) / a distant view of the London Eye
A closer view
And so it was on to Bumbles. The dining experience was easily the best of our trip, and at a reasonable price — great food and excellent service. I even gambled on choosing a wine for the table that met with everyone’s satisfaction. I was glad my Internet intuition had led us there because it was a fitting and relaxing end to a wonderful first visit to England.
On our stroll back —
Park / Statues of King George and Queen Elizabeth, youthful and vibrant
A somewhat irreverent note — when I saw this, I couldn’t help thinking of Monty Python’s “Scott of the Antarctic” bit.
Then it was time to pack …