Life in London – May 2010

Moonwalkers Bags

The Moonwalk is an overnight marathon and half marathon walk for over 10,000 brave souls around the streets of London and this year is was a very cold night in May. This is a major problem as the walk is in aid of Breast Cancer research and many walkers bare their specially decorated bras for the walk! I was volunteering not taking part so spent the night taking in and handing back bags to weary walkers which is no easy task as we had thousands of bags to sort through at one point – see the iphoto evidence!

A huge ship in a bottle is not what you expect to see in Trafalgar Square but the empty Fourth Plinth continually delivers the unexpected.

The Ship at Trafalgar Square

Last year saw ‘One and Another’ a 24 hour a day, one hour per person, public access to the plinth to do anything they wanted (legal and decent of course) and it was amazingly varied with some incomprehensible ideas and some poor folk getting the wet 3am slot.  This year has a massive ship in a bottle which is Victory, Nelson’s ship from the Battle of Trafalgar where he died in 1805. The ship has fabric sails in African batik style to remind us of the complex and rich history between Britain and this wonderful continent.  It’s a beautiful and striking sight.

Now what’s this about elephants in London? We have over 250 life sized baby Indian elephants all over town bringing joy through these wonderfully decorated beauties as well as raising awareness of their plight in their homeland.  They move location so you just never  know where they may pop up but the ones that stay still are mapped and you can see Londoners wandering around with their maps and cameras trying to track each one – that’s a big job!  Hard to chose between them as to which ones to show you but here are a few examples to enjoy.

Elephants in London

We’ve had some fabulous summer days as well as the cold weekend of the Moonwalk and one fine Sunday we were by the Thames when a sailing ship pulled up to Tower Bridge which obliged by opening up to let it through.

Tower Bridge

It’s amazing to see this machinery at work and the whole opening and closing process takes about 5-6 minutes before the road reopens and everyone is on their way. It’s been doing this since 1894  when this revolutionary bridge idea was conceived to enable a bridge to built far upstream without stopping the river traffic – so clever and such a good looking bridge, well done those Victorians!

Richmond feels both part of London and a little bit out in the country and we went there on another fine day to have a wander along the river and a good lunch. Richmond is famous for its huge park with herds of deer which I’m hoping to photograph soon but this visit was just a stroll along the towpath which was beautiful – see this photo.

Canal Boat Cavalcade Little Venice

We had drinks at the Bingham Hotel which is stylish and has a great riverside location and then nipped through their back garden to Gaucho, an Argentian steak group of restaurants where the quality of the meat is guaranteed to be good and we could watch the passers by – on foot and those in boats too.

One more fun thing to mention – the canal boat cavalcade in Little Venice. Every May Day hundreds of long boats gather on the Regents Canal just by the Paddington Basin for a festival of all things boating.

Canal Boats in Richmond

It’s an amazing sight and huge fun to find out more about the extensive canal network in England and the boats you can hire for a holiday trip.  This photo shows the boats all lined up for inspection as there is a competition of some sorts they all go in for.  Well worth dropping by.

June’s looking like a top month so come back in a month’s time to find out – Wimbledon and World Cup fever will hit town so big screens will be out and pubs will be full!

Sue
www.itsyourlondon.co.uk

Related posts:

1. Life in London… a look back at 2010
2. Life in London – June 2010
3. Life in London – July 2010
4. Life in London – February 2010
5. Life in London – August 2010