Day 21 - A Friday spent with Arup, the engineering firm for most of the construction that happens here it seems, and Arup & Associates - their architecture counterpart. The presentations are intriguing, they feed us a fabulous lunch (more brie and cranberry paninis for me), and we return home to Passfield Hall to plan our 3-day weekends. Amy, Holly, Jesse and Greg are headed to Dublin; Chris and Greg will spend it in Germany; Keith's doing a solo trip to Edinburgh; Laura and Jessica are descending on Paris; Paul wants to see Dover and Arup Campus; John's hanging with other friends in London; and Heather and Corey are doing their own thing in London too. Satara and I decide to split our weekend, with a chill day in London and one in Kent somewhere as suggested by my pub buddy mentioned earlier, and one at Windsor Castle...
Saturday morning, Day 22, Satara and I sleep in and then go looking for a saturday market. On the way, we decide to stop by St. Paul's since she wasn't here when we had our super tour. She votes not to pay for a full tour, but we walk around it and take pictures on the grand stairs and next to the monstrous columns and the floor plan stamped into the concrete plaza.
A violinist plays some tunes nearby. What a beautiful day!
We arrive at the Borough Market, deserted the last time I was here, and it is completely packed with people! Walking through is a chore, but the food smells fabulous and the atmosphere is full of weekend excitement! A picnic sounds perfect on this sunny Saturday, so we buy some fresh hummous, fancy bread, and grapes and go looking for the perfect place to eat it.
We stumble across a peaceful little place called Cleary Garden, but a couple seems to want the place to themselves so we pick up a map at the entrance that shows other gardens on this side of the river and go looking for another beautiful place.
We end up at Whittington Gardens, which isn't as peaceful but the little kids playing hide-and-seek and the tour buses going by with announcers telling us the history of the church we are near makes it a pleasant place to picnic.
More walking is in order after lunch and we wander down streets near the river that we haven't been on yet. We come across this intriguing pedestrian bridge:
As we climb the stairs to cross it, we see the woman on the bridge is sketching something and then, down below, we notice an artist painting whatever he is seeing in this quiet alley-like street.
More wandering brings us to a street with little shops, and one almost exclusively sold ties. Satara's man loves ties, so we drop in to find him a souvenier. The two fellows working are very friendly and easily guess where we are from. They want to know if we'll be in the neighborhood later and if we'd like to go out clubbing or for drinks. As if we'd be buying ties if we didn't have fellows! We have a laugh about that and go looking for Smithfield Market which shows up on our gardens map. On the way, we pass by a very quiet green space called Postman's Park.
Here, there's a rather touching memorial built in 1899 "in commemoration of heroic self service".
On each of the beautifully handmade tiles is written the name and story of someone who was injured or killed saving the life of another.
Most of these heroes are just everyday people who were at the right place at the right time to help someone who was struggling, and unfortunately gave their all to save them. Satara and I can't stop reading all the examples of selfless courage, and by the time we walk away it is obvious they've had an impact on us. We walk silently for several block to a deserted Smithfield Market (undergoing renovation). Then a sign catches my eye and breaks the somber mood:
Maybe Andy and I can start a business! He makes ales, I make pies and we sell them together...
Saturday morning, Day 22, Satara and I sleep in and then go looking for a saturday market. On the way, we decide to stop by St. Paul's since she wasn't here when we had our super tour. She votes not to pay for a full tour, but we walk around it and take pictures on the grand stairs and next to the monstrous columns and the floor plan stamped into the concrete plaza.
A violinist plays some tunes nearby. What a beautiful day!
We arrive at the Borough Market, deserted the last time I was here, and it is completely packed with people! Walking through is a chore, but the food smells fabulous and the atmosphere is full of weekend excitement! A picnic sounds perfect on this sunny Saturday, so we buy some fresh hummous, fancy bread, and grapes and go looking for the perfect place to eat it.
We stumble across a peaceful little place called Cleary Garden, but a couple seems to want the place to themselves so we pick up a map at the entrance that shows other gardens on this side of the river and go looking for another beautiful place.
We end up at Whittington Gardens, which isn't as peaceful but the little kids playing hide-and-seek and the tour buses going by with announcers telling us the history of the church we are near makes it a pleasant place to picnic.
More walking is in order after lunch and we wander down streets near the river that we haven't been on yet. We come across this intriguing pedestrian bridge:
As we climb the stairs to cross it, we see the woman on the bridge is sketching something and then, down below, we notice an artist painting whatever he is seeing in this quiet alley-like street.
More wandering brings us to a street with little shops, and one almost exclusively sold ties. Satara's man loves ties, so we drop in to find him a souvenier. The two fellows working are very friendly and easily guess where we are from. They want to know if we'll be in the neighborhood later and if we'd like to go out clubbing or for drinks. As if we'd be buying ties if we didn't have fellows! We have a laugh about that and go looking for Smithfield Market which shows up on our gardens map. On the way, we pass by a very quiet green space called Postman's Park.
Here, there's a rather touching memorial built in 1899 "in commemoration of heroic self service".
On each of the beautifully handmade tiles is written the name and story of someone who was injured or killed saving the life of another.
Most of these heroes are just everyday people who were at the right place at the right time to help someone who was struggling, and unfortunately gave their all to save them. Satara and I can't stop reading all the examples of selfless courage, and by the time we walk away it is obvious they've had an impact on us. We walk silently for several block to a deserted Smithfield Market (undergoing renovation). Then a sign catches my eye and breaks the somber mood:
Maybe Andy and I can start a business! He makes ales, I make pies and we sell them together...
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