London, England, United Kingdom
Highlights: The NZ War Memorial and Bomber Command Memorial.
It rained heavily overnight, but was only spitting when we woke. We
pottered around for the morning, hoping the weather would be OK for a planned walk.
By midday it was looking as though the showers were over for the day.
We first wandered around the Shepherd’s Bush market that we had had a
very quick look at early in our stay. We walked through the Green where a fun-fair
was about to begin. Katherine told us this was not uncommon and with it being a
bank holiday weekend this weekend, and the start of the school holidays, the
timing made sense. There were even teacups!! There is a family joke about the
teacups in Disneyland and how I bravely conquered them. These were not the same,
but similar enough to make me smile.
We had Chinese for lunch in a café before taking our standard 94 bus,
this time to get off at Kensington Gardens. We are starting to think Jenner is
haunting us as the one of the first things we saw was a large statue of him. We
took a few photos in the Italian Gardens before walking along the water towards
Hyde Park.
We did enjoy the dozens of squirrels we saw, although a passing
Englishwomen said they are rats with tails. We agreed, but we also all thought
they were cute. There were also rats that fly (pigeons) as well as green (over
size budgie) birds, ducks and swans. The ducklings were soooooo cute,
especially the group huddled together between their parents. One was on its own
at first and then joined the huddle. We also saw swans asleep on the path. I
don’t think I have ever seen that before.
We stopped at the Boathouse as John was tempted to do a paddleboat trip.
I spotted the prices before he did and knew it was not going to happen. Maybe
on a lovely day, but 20 pound for 2 of us was a bit much on a cloudy day.
We hopefully got all the information required
for 2 earthcaches on the way. One was at The Arch in Kensington Gardens. The Arch is a six-metre high Roman travertine
sculpture positioned on the north bank of the Long Water. It was presented by
the artist Henry Moore to the nation for siting in Kensington Gardens in 1980.
The vista from here is the longest uninterrupted avenue view in London. and
Kensington Palace can be seen in the distance. The second, in Hyde Park, was at
a glacial erratic, a rock that glaciers have taken a long distance from where
the rock first was. This had gone even longer because it was a memorial from
Norway. The inscriptions read “This
stone was erected by the Royal Norwegian Navy and the Norwegian merchant fleet
in the year 1978. We thank the British people for their friendship and
hospitality during the second world war. You gave us a safe haven during our
common struggle for freedom and peace.”
And the following
on the reverse side:
“This boulder was
brought here from Norway where it was worn and shaped for thousands of years by
forces of nature – frost, running water, rock, sand and ice – until it obtained
its present shape, untouched by Man”
After a welcome
cuppa, we headed towards the Australian and New Zeland War Memorials. On our
arrival in the area we were followed by 2 policewomen on horseback….. so
London!! I was most impressed by the
Australian one which is a long granite wall that reminded me in some ways of
the Vietnam memorial in Washington DC. Prominent among the wreaths was one from
New Zealand for the recent Remembrance Day. However, I was more impressed by
the New Zealand Memorial. Black and white, with even a rugby ball on one pillar
and the Antipodes standing out on another. It was so different and so right.
Each pillar had different words or designs on it as well.
We then went to the
Bomber Command Memorial. I will leave John to comment here.
[JB] The Bomber
Command Memorial shows a crew returning to barracks after a mission. They are
all in full flying kit and are carrying gear that reflects their role in the
crew. It is on a large scale, in bronze, and is a beautiful piece of work. There
are some words from Churchill stating that while Fighter Command were Britain’s
saviours, only Bomber Command could take the fight to the enemy. As we were
leaving some English gentleman stopped and admired the memorial and I struck up
a conversation with them. We all agreed it was a pity Churchill appeared to
turn his back on Bomber Command after the war, and it has taken until the last
decade for them to be formally recognised. Finally, people can sit and reflect on
the (more than) 50,000 Allied airman who were lost in the skies over Europe,
and pay them the respect they justly deserve.
[CB] We tried to
find a cache on our way back, but had to give up.
This was irritating because we
were unable to look properly at this time (mid afternoon) as there were many
people milling about and a long taxi queue nearby. It will go unfound – along
with millions of others. It did give us the excuse for a coffee and cake and it
was very good to. Then we came back ‘home’ again by our usual 94 bus, before
the rush hour really started.
After tea we were
going to visit one garden for a walk in a new direction to find a cache, until
we found (on-line) that it closes at 5.30pm. So we went in a different ‘new’
direction to a different garden to fail to find a cache, but we did find a nice
Japanese-style garden which was tranquil at 9pm. We are appreciating these long evenings.
Katherine was home when we got back and was getting sorted for her Eurostar
trip to France tomorrow.
2025-05-22