Three Walks in London

Walk I

Ben and Isabel in Hyde-park with all the snow

The front of Saint Pauls

Two Saturdays before Christmas we took a fun walk.  Our first stop was a chocolate festival at South Bank Centre where we tasted delicious chocolates.  Then we walked through an old market full of tasters and interesting plus good shops (called Borough Market -- a market has been on this spot since 1300, ed.).   Things like odd mushrooms, dead game birds hanging, and an animal skin with meat on the back were there!  Next we went to nearby Southwark Cathedral and then visited the market some more.  Last but not least we went to St. Paul's Cathedral.  It was grand looking.  There we sat through a service and heard choir boys with high voices sing difficult songs by Benjamin Britten.  It was wonderful!

Isabel and game birds in Borough Market

 

Walk II

A week later we took a hard, snowy walk to the British Museum.  It was snowing.  We stopped at a British department store called Selfridges.  Next we reached the British Museum and went to the Book of the Dead exhibition.  It had different rooms like "the Burial" and "the Judgment" which was my favorite room, where they weighed a heart against a feather, and if a heart is heavier, it gets eaten by "the Devourer," a monster with a crocodile head, a lion's body, and a hippo rear.  Then we walked home.

"The Devourer" and the weighing of the heart from the Book of the Dead

A dining room circa 1745: "Two Jellies and a glass of wine"

Walk III

The next day we took another snowy walk but a lot less snow.  We walked through a different route through different neighbourhoods, but my favourites were Clerkenwell and Shoreditch.  On the walk we went to another museum, the Wallace Collection.  There I sketched one painting of a dead wolf and dogs by Jean-Baptiste Oudry.  It was cool!  Then we went finally to the Geffrye Museum which had an awesome display of house interiors at Christmas from 1630 to 1990.  It was EXCELLENT!