The best things in life are free (London)

Welcome back dear reader to learn about our day attending free attractions, but first some general observations about London.

General impressions

This is the second occasion I've spent time in London, outside of Heathrow at least, so it is interesting to make the comparisons between Sydney, London, Paris and New York.  I know I am supposed to feel an affinity with London, but, no, it's New York all the way - after Sydney and Paris of course. It's only been a few days but London is just another city.  Paris is ... well, special.  New York is alive and brash and pumping and London is just a more aggressive version of Melbourne with worse weather. No, maybe that's harsh, London is just grey.  The sky, the pigeons, the clothes.  I crave sunlight.

I'm sure I've written about this previously, but you don't understand the parochial perspective we have in Australia until you've spent time outside looking in.  For all the frothing at the mouth about Sydney house prices, what has really happened is that a city that wants to be tagged international has just caught up with New York and London.  We need to grow up in Australia and realise that we can't keep adding to the population and living in free standing houses - and changing housing density means altering the nature of community. There are other differences of course, like the cost of living, and in that area London wins hands down.  Everything here is expensive, food, clothes, the lot and it is a stark contrast to New York and Sydney.  For example: fish and chips at the pub - about $24, a small pizza around $28 and let's talk not about the price of wine, it just makes me cry - and sadly, I can't turn water into into wine.  We looked at furniture in a BoConcept store today that we put into our apartment last year and it was twice the price that we paid.  I can only marvel at what the pay rates must be here.

Despite New York having a reputation for being aggressive, I think London wins that prize.  In New York, cars are driven more slowly and drivers blast their horns more often, but they are not as fast or as angry as London drivers.  Londoners may not vent their feelings like New York drivers, but they channel their frustration into the speed and the reckless way they drive. Stiff upper lip you know, grin and bear it as you aim your car at that hapless pedestrian who doesn't understand how the crossings work. Blinkers? Why bother. I'm sure some of them feel the same way about brakes.

To smoke in London one needs to be very dedicated.  The side-walk cafés might have outside tables, but what price a cigarette?  It's cold and uncomfortable out there in the breeze and street grit.  I have come to the conclusion that Londoners are dedicated, lots of them smoke and at about £6 a pack, why not?

One commonality between Sydney, New York and London is the sight of a trashed bike still chained to a post somewhere.  I have a photo of that, but not of the next similarity.  All three cities require people to clean up after their dogs.  In Sydney people can be seen bending over scooping up the warm droppings in a black plastic bag.  This is true of New York and London.  What is also true is that in each city you can easily locate any number of small plastic bags full of droppings under a tree, in a park, on the kerb-side.  I don't get it.  If you have the moral fortitude to bend down and gather up your doggy's do-do in a plastic bag, and feel it warm against your hand, how can you just drop it under the nearest tree?

RIP.

Do you suppose Jane Austen would have suffered such calamity in her world?

The British Library - free entry

After being so amazed by the NYC Library, we were looking forward to seeing what the Brits had instore for us in their library.  We were not disappointed.  Although many Brits were when the building was completed.  The heir to the throne described it's walls as being close to resembling the HQ of the secret police.  I found the straight lines and the steep slate roof akin to Chinese temples.

Clean straight lines

Part of King George's collection

The King's Library, as in library of the former King George III, 85,000 volumes in a 17 metre glass bookcase was most impressive.  And difficult to photograph given the dim lighting in some areas, back lighting in others and the flood lights from above.

There were cafés inside and out.  Open spaces for people to sit and work and a constant flow of people. Downstairs from the King's Library was a display based on animals.  This included exhibits from George Orwell's Animal Farm, Ted Hughes' poetry, Rudyard Kipling and Beatrix Potter to mention a few.

From the animals it was straight to the Sir John Ritblat Gallery - what a treasure trove!  A Gutenberg bible, early editions of sacred writings from all the major religious traditions through to manuscripts written by Beethoven, Bach and Chopin.  There was an original hand-written copy of Persuasion by Austen (including her writing desk and spectacles - if only someone had broken those .... ahhh, I can dream) and lyrics of songs by the Beatles (ask your parents kids or Google it).

We spent quite a time in there, being buffeted around like flotsam in the shore break as people came and crowded us, bumped past us, stood in front of us or cut us off as we moved to the next exhibit. The student groups came and went as flocks of seagulls chasing the stroller with the chip.  The more amusing were the older couples who haven't acknowledged their hearing impairment and persisted in talking to each other in a whisper that would read like this: NO, IT SAYS 840AD IN GERMANY.

As ever Jayne kept me under control. I did not trip any child over, nor did I accidentally bump into a blind, deaf geriatric tourist - I wanted to, oh, did I want to.  Then it was out into the sunshine.

The building next door was this massive, impressive gothic structure.  It turned out to be the Renaissance Hotel in a shared space with St Pancras Station.

Wouldn't mind staying there.

The Wellcome Museum - free entry

From the ceiling

Initially I thought this was a mistake, who spells 'wellcome' with two 'l's?  The dude whose last name is Wellcome.  This museum is a hybrid between a regular museum and something like the a new generation hands-on interactive version.  Just wow.  Again, café and a restaurant as well as the usual gift shop.  The concept is that much of what is on display came from the collection of Dr Wellcome. It will come as no surprise that there is a healthy focus on medicine.  However, it goes beyond this.

One room focused on medicine today and a medical issue - obesity and diet.  There were talks to listen to, art works to admire, displays to explore, presentations to listen to, drawers to open ... it was interactive, it was informative, it was interesting.  One of the audio-visuals recorded kids at 7 or 8 years of age for 15 seconds - they were told to show who they were using their faces, the split screen showed the same person 10 years later after they had viewed the original video.  Most amusing.

Does my bum look big in this?

Another room contained a sort of medicine down through the years exhibition combined with curiosities that Dr Wellcome had collected. For example, in no particular order: Napoleon's toothbrush, Japanese sex-aids from the 1930's, medical instruments from the 1800s till today, a medieval chastity belt, a collection of faith-healer's masks, a mummified body, pieces of skin with tattoos on them ... and so on, well worth a visit.

Upstairs again, (I think the stair case was trying to channel the Guggenheim) and there was a medical library that was in use. More of the bizarre exhibits that Dr Wellcome had collected over the years. There were desks, discussion tables, bean bags and other comfortable spaces to interact with the material on display.

The last exhibit was an installation by the artist Ann Veronica Janssens cunningly called yellowbluepink.  Here's the concept, a room is filled with mist (no I don't know what sort of mist or how), the walls are painted white, I couldn't see the floor, the ceiling had fluorescent tubes, yellow to begin, then pink, then blue.  It was like being in the thickest fog, you could barely see half a metre.  It was a surprise every time a person appeared through the mist.  It was meant to be a disorienting experience and it was.  We held fast to the outer wall and edged our way back to the door.

The upstairs room.

What a great day and it was free!  Although we did make a donation to the library.