Family Circle

[2007.07.08] Just two blocks away from the hotel I am staying in, sits the remarkable grand building - the Natural History Museum. It has great coverage of everything on earth, revealing how the jigsaw of life fits together, from the delicate to the deadly, the grotesque to the gorgeous. I would say the Dinosoaur section is most impressive. They show many life forms on earth in a very easy-to-understand categorization, and all visitors, children and adults can easily follow the subjects. The mineral hall shows all type of elements in the raw “stone” forms inside earth. A section of wood shows the age of oldest trees - California Sequoia, at about 1500 years. I plan to have most tours done today, so I can concentrate on some work next week. And today I plan to visit a couple of places. So I quickly moved on to the even grander palace on next block - the Victoria and Albert Museum. In the history of England, the period that Victoria ruled was the most properous time. His husband - Prince Albert had his own great accomplishment - the magnificant palace that is now Victoria & Albert museum.

Just as impressive as the grandeur facade outside, the museum is indeed the world’s greatest museum of art and design, with collections of furniture, glass, ceramics, metalwork, fashion, sculpture, textiles and paintings, spanning more than 3000 years of history and across all continents. Really it needs at least one full day time to explore the displays, and I could not make my way out of the museum. I will post some pictures later because it is simple too hard to describe so many artifacts.

When I finally got out the VA museum, it was too late to go on Westminster Abbey and others around Westminster area. So I just continue to next block, which is the Brompton Oratory. If standing alone, the Roman Catholic church is a grand landmark. But next to V&A mesuem, it just looks like an extension. When I stepped into the church, they were singing Solemn and Benedictions. The music/song is the type shown in the movie “Face Off” when John Travata walked around in a church. The smoke illustrated the afternoon sunlight, as it poured in from the high windows. Mixing with the music/song and people’s serene mode, it was really like in heaven. I think one would quickly believe in God if staying in that environment. I sat there for an hour, not understanding much but followed other people pray.

After that, it is almost evening time; but of course it still has day-light for another five hours. So I decided to tour as much as I can, and I took the Tube to Hyde Park. Situated just north of South Kensington, Hyde Park together with Kensington Garden forms the biggest green area in city center of London (in fact, each of them individually would be the biggest park in London), connecting the West End and Notting Hill. It took more than one hour to cross the park.

The Serpentine, a long lake inside Hyde park, is the main attraction of the park. People are walking along the lake, and people are floating in boats on the lake. And of course in the park, a Frencho-English festival market is attracting large crowd because the Tour de France 2007 started here yesterday. I bought some French biscuit and is so yummy.

Cross a bridge over the Serpentine, I got in the Kensington Garden area. The Diana - Princess of Wales Memorial fountain is a very unique fountain. It is not really a fountain, but a circular river/stream. Many people sat around the stream, some of them were washing their “duck” feet (they should really keep their dirty feet to their own dirty shoes). The water however still appears very clear.

Continuing on a vast more natural park area, where the grass and trees seems to be in the wild, there is another lake - round pond. Looking over the pond, the Kensington Palace was showing its outline in the sunset. Kensington Palace is rather moderate, which gives people a slight feeling of home (just can not image how it feels if living in a grand palace). Princess Diana was once living in this palace for most of her time. Well, I have visits most of Queen’s residences. The Queen’s House in Greenwich was the residence for most of kings and queens at Tudor time. After that, most royal family lived in Kensington Palace (and is still true today). After Queen Victoria, the Buckingham Palace became the main residence of her Majesty.