London post
Me and Pat are back from London for a couple of days now and of course I have to post about it here or it didn't happen. ;)
Monday: Travelling, Nijmegen & Florence
We arrived at the hotel around two 'o clock in the afternoon. Because we still had some time left for that day, we decided to stroll around a bit. Via Trafalgar Square (pretty) to Downey Street (well-guarded, can't see a thing) to Houses of Parliament/Westminster Abbey (shiny).
At Trafalgar Square, there are three columns with statues and a fourth empty one. So, as part of an art project, anybody can apply for standing on the fourth column for an hour and do whatever they want. (The column isn't that very high btw and there is a safety net). However, the only people we saw there seemed to have no idea of what they wanted to do & it was impossible to hear what they were saying. So, not as fun as I thought it could be.
On our way to Downey Street, we also came across the Queen's Guard. Sure, guys in funny uniforms on horses are always nice for tourists. But what it really memorable was the simple A4 paper stuck on the wall showing the program for the month of August and its mention of the "Nijmegen Company Grenadier Guards".
What on Earth does Nijmegen have to do with the Queen's Guard? Pat made a photo of it, so I would remember to wiki it when we'd get back. However, Wikipedia doesn't mention why it's called that way. I'm therefore still baffled, yet I continue to find it awesome.
On to Houses of Parliament/Big Ben/Westminster Abbey. It all looked very pretty & shiny and also very busy. Since we had recently got of the airplane & everything, we decided to avoid the crowd and keep walking.
Instead, we crossed the Thames and went to the Florence Nightingale Museum. It's nice, small & quiet. It is also located sort of inside a hospital, which made it a bit tricky to find.
The museum actually showed a lot of quotes from Florence instead of the usual objects. But I'm fine with that, because Florence was a kick-ass woman. In fact, I'm positive that she would've made an awesome business woman in modern times, because she:
1. was great at project management
2. understood humans and was great at managing them
3. was excellent at statistics & numbers
4. had good presentation & writing skills and was therefore able to persuade others (she invented a type of pie chart, which really helped to get her point across)
5. cared about efficiency and achieving her actual goal, instead of worrying about what "proper" behaviour is
So yeah, Florence Nightingale rules.
We continued walking next to the Thames back to the hotel and, after a short break, had dinner at J Sheekey. Quite frankly, the food wasn't worth the price. It was the most expensive dinner we had in the whole week, yet it wasn't really good.
That's Monday done, so I only have 5 more days to go. I'm sure I'll be able to get around to them eventually.
Lonneke
Monday: Travelling, Nijmegen & Florence
We arrived at the hotel around two 'o clock in the afternoon. Because we still had some time left for that day, we decided to stroll around a bit. Via Trafalgar Square (pretty) to Downey Street (well-guarded, can't see a thing) to Houses of Parliament/Westminster Abbey (shiny).
At Trafalgar Square, there are three columns with statues and a fourth empty one. So, as part of an art project, anybody can apply for standing on the fourth column for an hour and do whatever they want. (The column isn't that very high btw and there is a safety net). However, the only people we saw there seemed to have no idea of what they wanted to do & it was impossible to hear what they were saying. So, not as fun as I thought it could be.
On our way to Downey Street, we also came across the Queen's Guard. Sure, guys in funny uniforms on horses are always nice for tourists. But what it really memorable was the simple A4 paper stuck on the wall showing the program for the month of August and its mention of the "Nijmegen Company Grenadier Guards".
What on Earth does Nijmegen have to do with the Queen's Guard? Pat made a photo of it, so I would remember to wiki it when we'd get back. However, Wikipedia doesn't mention why it's called that way. I'm therefore still baffled, yet I continue to find it awesome.
On to Houses of Parliament/Big Ben/Westminster Abbey. It all looked very pretty & shiny and also very busy. Since we had recently got of the airplane & everything, we decided to avoid the crowd and keep walking.
Instead, we crossed the Thames and went to the Florence Nightingale Museum. It's nice, small & quiet. It is also located sort of inside a hospital, which made it a bit tricky to find.
The museum actually showed a lot of quotes from Florence instead of the usual objects. But I'm fine with that, because Florence was a kick-ass woman. In fact, I'm positive that she would've made an awesome business woman in modern times, because she:
1. was great at project management
2. understood humans and was great at managing them
3. was excellent at statistics & numbers
4. had good presentation & writing skills and was therefore able to persuade others (she invented a type of pie chart, which really helped to get her point across)
5. cared about efficiency and achieving her actual goal, instead of worrying about what "proper" behaviour is
So yeah, Florence Nightingale rules.
We continued walking next to the Thames back to the hotel and, after a short break, had dinner at J Sheekey. Quite frankly, the food wasn't worth the price. It was the most expensive dinner we had in the whole week, yet it wasn't really good.
That's Monday done, so I only have 5 more days to go. I'm sure I'll be able to get around to them eventually.
Lonneke