London Again... Part II

On Easter Sunday we decided to do some touristy type stuff - first stop Monument to the Great Fire of London.

A staggering 202 feet tall with 311 steps taking you to the top, you climb the narrow spiral staircase which runs inside, and when I say narrow, i mean backs against the wall whilst passing people going the other way!
It was well worth the effort (as the steps are harder work than you would think) with amazing views over the city, even though visibility was limited we got some decent photos.
After waving at Ant (who was waiting at the bottom) and snapping as far as the eye could see, we started our decent back down the spiral staircase, this invoked my mild vertigo and it took a wee bit longer to get back down
Once at the bottom we were presented with a certificate congratulating us for climbing the stairs! Here's Jen with hers
After that we headed up towards Camden, which was absolutely rammed with people (more so than usual) making the walk up the main street to the market quite arduous.
Once there we checked out the Proud Gallery which was showing two photography exhibitions, one of AC/DC and one of Withnail & I, there were also some live acoustic acts playing as well. We also stopped in the bar there for some much needed refreshments, before heading back out into the throngs of shoppers and into the markets to find some lunch.
We ended the day by meeting Danielle and her Fiancé for drinks, choosing the wetherspoons pub for it's cheap drinks, room to sit down and cleanliness! We had visited the World's End, but after waiting about 15 minutes to be served, being charged a stupid amount even by London standards for a pint, then sitting at tables covered in pots and food that the staff kept on walking past we left.

Easter Monday we a tootle down Oxford Street and bought a few obligatory souvenirs for family then left for the sanctuary of St Pancras for the train home!

London Again... Part I

Back in April we took another trip down south to stay with Jen in London. We had tickets for a gig/event so it was not entirely through choice we ended up being there over the Easter Bank Holiday (one of the peak times of the year to visit, bar Christmas). As usual we travelled first to my mum's in Nottinghamshire who would be dog sitting for the weekend, and travelled via Chesterfield - high speed train meant we were in London in a little over 2 hours! Upon arriving in London it was time to buy our travel cards for the weekend and to find out that TfL being as clever as usual have chosen this weekend to close several tube lines, which wouldn't normally be a problem except that in most cases they couldn't be bothered to put on rail replacement buses - which when trying to get from areas of central London, the buses became dangerously overcrowded, more so than I've ever seen before.. very surprised there were no accidents!
On the Saturday, Jen being a member of Liverpool FC's London Supporters Club she was going to a pub to meet other members and watch the game, on the spur of the moment we decided to stay on the train to Kew Gardens. only a couple of minutes walk from the train station through very 'leafy suburbs' (think how London is portrayed in Hollywood movies), we found it very easily: entry is £13 adults, £12 concessions and under 17's free when accompanying an adult (entry to the palace is extra). I think we both had no clue how big Kew was and you could easily spend a full day there (we didn't arrive until lunchtime). Although it was overcast most of the day, there was plenty to see indoors as well as in the grounds

One of my favourite parts was the Japanese area with the pagodas and cherry blossoms, although the tropical/rainforest areas was a close second

There is also a Sky Walk which is basically a rather large platform that you climb around 180 stairs to reach the top, then walk around in a circle ish shape near the tree tops, this is where you might notice that Kew is under a flight path, with incoming planes being so low down you can see the wheels lowering!
We ended up spending a good 4-5 hours at Kew including lunch time - if you're on a budget avoid the 'restaurant' and head for the Café - we paid about £4 for a jacket potato the size of a small melon - very tasty and great value!

Later on that evening we went to the Ether Festival at the Royal Festival Hall to see Royksopp supported by Fever Ray. Absolutely amazing, mind blowing gig - once again Royksopp did not disappoint live, the amazing energy they throw into their live performances always impresses me. They played a selection of tracks from each album, including all the favourites such as Eple, So Easy, Sparks, 49 Percent, Remind Me, Only This Moment - but the gig really got going once the newly released single Happy Up Here was played, it's worth noting that this was a seated venue, but all it took was one man on the front row to start dancing and gradually the whole crowd was up, the security towards the middle and right of the stage were really chilled and people were allowed to get up and walk to the front to dance and take photos, but on our side there was some jobsworth usher who's sole intent that night was to try and ruin the gig for a handful of people. Long story short she kept trying to stop my friend and I from taking photos when Royksopp had specifically asked the fans to take photos and upload them to their website! I'm a reasonable person but when she then happily let the men in front of me take photos and the guy sat behind me film it I was non impressed to say the least! So towards the end we decided to ignore her as it seemed very much like victimisation when at one point I could count 20+ people within 10 feet of me openly photographing the show and still she only singled out us! This was the biggest let down of what was one of my top 5 gigs of all time.

Anneli Drecker joined Royksopp on stage for most of their set and was crazy, really working the crowd up

They were also joined by Swedish singer Robyn who is very popular from what I could tell by the crowd reaction.

One of the support acts Fever Ray were also amazing with some very weird costumes and a great light show

Definitely worth checking out if they come to a city near you!

London part 1

Made a visit down south a couple of weeks ago to visit my best friend Jen, and of course to do some shopping and sights. I'm honestly not going to mention the farce that is East Midlands Rail Replacement service - just that it should be avoided like the plague.
First stop was Tate Modern, we got off the tube at St Paul's to walk over the bridge and I was amazed at how gleaming white the building is now after all the cleaning work that has gone on (there are some parts still left to do)

Once we got to the Tate, I called up my friend Julia who works there and we got to see a couple of exhibitions gratis. First up was Cildo Meireles who created some quite bizarre and intriguing installations that you walk through - including a floor made of cracked panels of glass that crunched under foot with various other materials on top including barbed wire, metal chains, and scrunched up plastic.
Another installation consisted of a white room with the walls covered in clocks

with thousands of rulers hanging down in circles clacking as you couldn't avoid touching them as you walked through.
Also included was a what looked like a tree on a field of coins with bones for leaves but turned out to be something completely different "Mission/Missions(How to Build Cathedrals)"

"the work comments on the human cost of missionary work and its connection with the exploitation of wealth in the colonies: the ceiling is composed of
2,000 bones, while the floor comprises 600,000 coins. Symbolically joining these two elements is a column of 800 communion wafers."
After this we also briefly checked out the Rothko exhibition but weren't that impressed in all honesty.
Then feeling rather tired we headed back to Kilburn stopping off at Papa John's for pizza, which was nice.