Dinosaurs, insects and the lot

While the sun was shining brightly, I went to the National History Museum. It's in the most beautiful, huge building you can imagine, built in 1880 in Romanesque style. The walls are decorated with lots of terracotta animals and plants.

Kids-magnets are a great dinosaurs exhibition (and shop) as well as Creepy Crawlies, an exhibition about insects and arthropods. They even have a colony of leaf-cutter ants from Trinidad which feed on an fungus that they grow on the leaves they gather before the eyes of the visitors.

I went onto a tour through the museum's large collection of animals preserved in spirit. Some weren't very nice to look at. Just imagine a fox, a sheep or a giant squid in alcohol.

At the end of the tour I asked my guide if they display "a partially digested human head from a perm whale's stomach", as my guide book says. She just shook her head and led me to a jar with a poor squid that lost its life after having been swallowed by a whale. So don't believe every word your guide book says!

In the evening I, again, went to the theatre. This time I saw Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris at the Royal Court Theatre. Seven great actors and actresses, among them Martin Freeman (The Office) and Sophie Thompson (younger sister of Emma Thompson), made this excellent satirical play on race and hidden racism a unique experience.

Carnival in Notting Hill

A little bit too crowded, by far too loud and interupted by long pauses between each parading group - that's Notting Hill Carnival. With other words, I was a bit disappointed by the event I had been very much looking forward to.








Some costumes were awesome and must have taken a long time to produce.

This street scene, photographed at 2pm, I found quite disturbing. While most of the participants of the parade drank water, these two female spectators were very well equipped with alcohol - each girl carries a bottle of Amaretto resp. Batida de Coco. The guy behind them is emptying a bottle of wine, observing the girl beside him with high interest but he's obviously too shy to approach her.

My camera is still not working properly, but I managed to make some photos before I left the scene to stroll through Europe's largest shopping center, Westfield. Although it's Bank holiday Monday today, Westfield was crowded with people and all shops were open.

So I soon retrieved and, again, ended up at the Serpentine Lake, having a nice cup of "latte" and a muffin.

British weather in the Docklands

This is what I call a British stil life.

Today we had sun and some clouds in the morning, pouring rain at lunchtime when I had a Sunday roast in the pub Prospect of Whitby, out comes the sun again and I continue my stroll through the Docklands.

The Docklands consist of two different areas. The Western part boasts some old wharfs, the Southeastern part is very modern and home to Canary Wharf financial district.

I walked all the way from Tower Bridge to the very South of the Isle of Dog where I went into the tunnel to Greenwich just to turn round and come home with the bus.

By the way, Günter is recovering fast, will see his physician tomorrow and might leave the hospital either tomorrow or on Tuesday. And could you imagine, he already considers a break from riding his bike on racetracks.

In the UK it's Bank holiday weekend, which means that tomorrow is another day off. And as it's Notting Hill Carneval, I know where I'm heading to already.

Unfortunately my camera allows me to take pictures in wide angle or close-up only. I'll do my best to get some impressions for you from Europe's largest street festival.

Curiosities in Bloomsbury

Bloomsbury is characterised by beautiful squares like this one, was home to many intellectuals like the Bloomsbury Group and its mayor tourist attraction is the British Museum.

On my way today through Bloomsbury I visited the Wellcome Collection, a stunning exhibition of historical health- and healthcare-related objects, among them Peruan mummies, a shrunken head, Inuit snow googles, Florence Nightingale's moccasins, a curl of George III and one of Napoleon Bonaparte (in both samples the scientists found traces of arsenic) and many more curiosities.

Unfortunately, Napoleon's toothbrush was on loan to a museum in the Netherlands for an exhibition called Say cheese!

Another collection of curiosities can be found in the window of the bookshop Jarndyce. It's well known for its display of bizarre antiquarian books with titles such as Correctly English in Hundred Days, Fish who answer the telephone and other studies in experimental biology, How to loose 30,000,000 Pounds, You can make a Stradivarius Violin or How to be happy though married.

The Good Samaritan

The Good Samaritan in the Grand Staircase of St Bartholomew's Hospital, painted by William Hogarth (as it doesn't look so, the photo was taken without using flash)

Main message first, Günter's operation went well this morning and his voice sounded quite cheerful on the phone. He seems to think the accident and his hobby over, though.

Thanks to Eckart, Günter was visited in the hospital already and got some reading matter.

Meanwhile I visited St Bartholomew's Hospital, Englands oldest hospital, founded as part of a priory in 1123. I took part in the weekly guided tour and therefore gained access to the Grand Staircase and the Great Hall.

William Hogarth offered to paint the staircase free of charge as he hoped that he could build up a new reputation as a painter of large scale paintings. His idea failed and he's still best known for his satiric drawings on every day life, busily propagandising against the drinking of gin.

In the priory's former Romanic church, St Bartholomew-the-Great, many film scenes were filmed. Among others, the scene in which Hugh Grant didn't marry his girl friend in Four Weddings and a Funeral.


In its 58th year, The Mousetrap by Agatha Cristie is the World's longest running theatre play. I was lucky to get a cheap ticket for tonight's performance. During the applause, the actors pleaded everyone in the audience to keep the knowledge about who committed the murder to ourselves, and so I will.

Shared interests

Showcase on Joseph Merrick, the "Elephant Man", in the Royal London Hospital Museum

Isn't it nice when a couple share their interests? While I visited the Royal London Hospital in the Eastend to get to know more on its history and its most famous patient, Günter visited Erler Klinik in Nürnberg to get everything prepared for tomorrow's operation on his collarbone.

I learned interesting facts on Joseph Merrick, better known as the Elephant Man, who was exhibited in the window of a shop opposite the London Hospital on Whitechapel Road and got in contact with Dr. Frederick Treves, a physician at the hospital who did intensive research on him. Merrick later spent his last few years in the hospital. Some years later, in 1890, he died in his room at the age of just 27. Until today, scientists don't exactly know what caused his deformations.

Meanwhile Günter is back in the profound hands of Prof. Klaus-Dieter Haselhuhn, head of the accident surgery of Erler Klinik. Günter will get a metal plate implanted tomorrow to stabilise his collarbone which has been badly damaged in an accident on the racetrack. Intense physiotherapy will follow; the metal plate will be removed next year. Simular procedure as last year.

Hope soon we also share our opinion about how much risk there should be involved in our regular activities...

About a smile

Smile - just one of the many topics Richard and I talked about. Seen on a wall in the Eastend

It rained all day long yesterday. Great day to spend time inside, and so I did.

In the morning I was admitted to the public gallery at the London Metal Exchange, where dealers trade with metals (except gold and silver) in a ring. It's so busy and the proceedings are so complicated that I didn't get a sufficient knowledge about it. Will have to read a bit more about it on the LME's website, I guess.

For lunch I met with Richard who'd taken the train from Poole to spend a day in London. Afterwards we went to the National Portrait Gallery to see an exhibition of photographs of Camille Silvy, had a cup of tea at the museum's Portrait Café and discussed about everything and anything and strolled through the BP Portrait Award 2010 exhibition.

The evening we spent at the National Theatre, watching The Habit of Art by Alan Bennett.

Thanks Richard it was a great day despite the poor weather.

Illusions in concrete

This ugly concrete complex is the Barbican, built in the 1970s in heavily bombed Cripplegate area.

It's the City's only large residential complex and home to the Barbican Arts Centre consisting of concert and theatre halls, cinemas, a library and an art gallery.

By chance, as so many things happen during my sabbatical, I ended up at the Barbican today to watch The Illusionist, a beautifully drawn and sentimental film about a magician and a girl that believes his magic is real.

The film is based on an unproduced script of the French mime, director and actor Jacques Tati. Beside the lovely story, it catches the atmosphere of London and Edinburgh wonderfully.

Just one photo of a diverse day

This photo of two policemen on horseback with the traffic lights at Trafalgar Square just turning green for them is the only one I took yesterday.

This is how a Monday of a person on a sabbatical in London can look like:

11am Got my hair cut at an Italian-owned shop by an Mongolian stylist after the washing was done by a French girl
12pm Sat in the sun on Trafalgar Square, observing tourists and reading
1pm Bought a sandwich and ate it under my umbrella in pouring rain on my way to meet-up with Sandra
1.30pm Got Westminster Abbey and many of the more than 3,000 memorials explained by Sandra on an excellent tour, squeezing ourselves through masses of tourists
3.30pm Had a pot of tea and interesting conversation with Sandra in Wesley's Café in the basement of the Methodist Church
5pm Had another pot of tea in the BFI at Southbank Centre, sitting comfy in a wing chair, reading my Rough Guide
7pm Visited The Press Photographer's Year 2010 exhibition at the nearby National Theatre
7.30pm Saw that Earthquakes in London at the National Theatre is sold out, knew instantly that I should see it, got the very last return (standing) ticket and had one of my best theatre experiences ever

White Cliffs in the rain

It's all Sandra's fault. She brough me into contact with John and Elaine who organise various hiking and biking events.

So whilst the whole lot of rain the sky had to offer poured onto the white cliffs of Dover, we walked all along them.

Wonder why we still had so much fun.

Typical for England: At the end of our walk the sun came out and we had a pint or two in Deal, before we took the train back to London.

Gave my hiking trousers a wash today and although the washing machine did its best, they don't look as they should.

See more of Elaines phantastic photos on her facebook page.

Graffiti art

Today I walked through Brick Lane and the adjoining streets, had a bagel (1,50 Pounds) and a wonderful apple strudel (50p) and took some photos of graffitis. I even saw a man who was just finishing his work and then quickly disappeared.


Graffitis are quite common here in London, especially in certain areas like the Eastend. The photographer of this couple even used them for a pre-wedding photo shoot.

I'm a big fan of Banksy since I've seen some of his works in his home town Bristol and a huge exhibition in Bristol Museum. This picture shows that some house owners value a graffiti of Banksy very highly, some, like the one of this house, even cover the work with acrylic glas to protect it.

But graffitis follow their own rules. The pictures often don't last long. An graffiti artist who calles himself Robbo often adds his comments to Banksy's work. And here another "artist" just sprayed his tag onto the acrylic glas.

Battle of Britain started 70 years ago

70 years after Churchill's wartime speech "Never was so much owed by so many to so few" on 20 August 1940, Günter and I visited the War Rooms and Churchill Museum.

The rooms look pretty much the same as they did in 1945, when just the lights were switched off in the Map Room and people left. For today's blog, Günter, who took all the pictures during the last two weeks, pictured a model of Churchill who's on the line with the American president Roosevelt. The sign on the door says "Engaged" so everyone in the bunker thought this was the only flushing toilet specially reserved for the Prime Minister.

In the rooms underground, Churchill's War Cabinet operated from the beginnung of the war in 1939 to its end in August 1945. It was very impressive on how little room a highly efficient team worked round the clock. Churchill himself must have been a real man of power although the exhibition said that even he showed some signs of burn out when the war came to its end.

It was Günter's last day here in London and I didn't want him to leave at all.

Unfortunately, his plane is late and while I'm publishing this blog he's still at Stanstedt airport. Hope his plane is able to land that late in Nuremberg.

Enjoy your time on the racetrack and come home safely, darling!

Touristy photos

During his two-week long stay in London, Günter took a lot of pictures - of scooters, traffic signs, people in museums, and of Bettina as a tourist.

Before I can only publish photos I took of London's sights again, I use the opportunity to publish this one, picturing me as a guard with jug ears. Just Paddington Bear, whose hand I'm holding, isn't complete...

As this blog is so very short, I use it to let you know that the flat I'm staying in is fully occupied now. Andy and Mirko, two friends of Tony, have moved in to stay here for the next few weeks.

I quite liked having had the flat for myself, but on the other hand it's nice to have company again, although they both work hard and we hardly see each other.

On two different hemispheres

Yesterday, Günter and I were in two different hemispheres. On this picture, he stands on the Western hemisphere whereas I'm in the Eastern hemisphere.

The picture was taken on the yard of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, a World Heritage Site. We took the Thames Clipper from Houses of Parliament, got off the boat in Greenwich, then strolled through the Old Royal Naval College and climbed up the hill to where the Prime Meridian is marked with a metal strip in the floor and a sculpture.

We spent the evening with Thomas and Kathrin in one of Greenwich's many nice pubs and a Vietnamese restaurant, before returning to the Eastend with Docklands Light Railway and the tube.

You learn something new every day

Although Günter and I know London quite well, there's always something new to us.

On a very informative and entertaining guided tour through St James's and Whitehall yesterday, we learned that the statue on Piccadilly Circus is in fact a fountain and the figure on top of it is Anteros, Eros' brother.

On Monday, we very briefly visited the National Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery and Günter was very surprised about how much the exhibition has changed since his last visit. We came across one picture of his favourite Giotto only compared with a whole room dedicated to this 14th-century painter.

Monday was Valentin's 12th birthday, so we met with him and Ursina for the second time to have a propper afternoon tea at their hotel. They'd had an extremely eventfull three-day break in London and enjoyed the city throughout.

In the evening we met with Tony, my landlord, and had some ales in two pubs in Pimlico. Until late we talked about ales, motorbikes and Asia, where Tony has lived for nearly a decade.

Shakespeare's Globe

To be honest, I understood not even five percent of Henry IV, part two, in The Globe, the reconstruction of Shakespeare's theatre at the Thames, but the visit was very much worth it.

The theatre has been rebuilt close to the site of Shakespeare's original thatched roof playhouse. Sitting on the benches isn't very comfortable, neither is standing in the arena in the middle for the whole length of the bard's plays. But it's a unique experience. For both of us it was a great experience not only because of the location itself but also because of the authentic performance.

A day earlier, on Saturday, Günter and I went to Victoria Park to meet an old friend from my university days in Münster, Thomas and his wife Kathrin. They took part in Pride Run 2010, a 10-kilometer run supporting the gay community.

On Sunday, we were invited by Sandra, sister of our friend Bridget in Nottinghamshire, for a wonderful Sunday Roast. She introduced us to her hiking friends Elaine and John and we spent a very funny afternoon together.

I'm supposed to join Elaine and John next Sunday on a hiking tour starting in Dover, and Sandra has promised to show me around Westminster Abbey the following Monday. Unfortunately Günter will be gone by then.

Two Swiss in London

When I got to know that our friend Ursina and her nephew Valentin would come to London for a long weekend, I did my best to find a suitable place for dinner. Ursina is the sister of Anina, a friend of us Günter met in Mannheim during the Schiller Festival in 1990.

On Friday, Günter and I met up with them in an Italian restaurant offering great views onto Tower Bridge, The Tower, HMS Belfast, the City and Canary Wharf.

We were pretty much impressed by that 11-year-old who's so keen on getting to know the city and its museums, who's also brave enough to go on a trip with his aunt despite his upcoming birthday and who even had a chat with the waiter in Italian.

We just had a couple of wonderful Luxemburgerli for tea, Ursina and Valentin had brought with them - handmade by Sprüngli in Zurich.

We are sailing

Günter and I went to Poole to visit Julie and Richard, two former colleagues of mine and now two friends of ours.

Poole boast a huge natural harbour and Richard is the owner of the Crevette, a sailing boat that moors right in the heart of this most beautiful landscape.

Richard took Günter and me for a sailing trip on Thursday and although the weather wasn't perfect, it was a perfect day out for us.

We needed this relaxing day more than ever as I had led us around the Isle of Purbeck the day before and we ended up with sore feet, but well fed by Julie that night.

Got it

A great surprise awaited me at the London School of Journalism yesterday when I went there to pick up my results. I not only passed but just managed to get the honour of a Merit Diploma.

Just see how I smile holding my diploma in my hands - and I didn't even liked the idea of Günter taking a picture of me in the school yard. But then I remembered a guy telling us at Siemens "Work hard and play hard."

Afterwards, Günter and I looked around Maida Vale, took pictures of the barges in Little Venice, walked along Regent's Canal, took a break on Primrose Hill and overlooked the city and finally ended up at Camden Lock Market.

Günter in London

Have you already wondered why I didn't post a blog this weekend? Günter arrived on Friday and I'm busy showing him "my" London.

It all started with a pint of ale in a pub on the way home on Friday. On Saturday we walked along the canals of the Eastend and looked over the fence of the Olympia 2012 building site.

On Sunday we went to the Colombia flower market and met with my former course mate Rose. Afterwards we went to a food hall in Brick Lane and had Ethiopian and Sri Lankan food.

Günter was very keen on taking a lot of pictures in the City and along the Thames at Tower Bridge. And that's where we took this picture of us.

Today we're taking the tube to Maida Vale, fetching the results of the exam...

Size matters

The sculptors of these two objects have something in common. In the public opinion they were too generous with the boy's best part and gave it a size that was able to annoy their contemporaries.

Both, Eric Gill and Jacob Epstein, had to cut the organs down to size. Eric Gill's sculpture Prospero and Ariel (left) can be seen at the Broadcasting House; Jacob Epstein's sculpture Day (below) at Broadway House.

I publish these pictures today as I observed a group of grown-up (sic!) Italian tourists today taking pictures at the banks of the Thames. One guy laid down on the wall at the river bank and another took a picture of him arranging the Gherkin accordingly.

Reminds me of my first holiday with Italians in Ireland, when the boys draw a huge penis into the sand and pictured themselves with it. Today my prejudices of Italian machos have again been confirmed.

Bangers and Mash

I've always liked eating in pubs when in Britain, but during the past decades the quality of pub food went down. More and more pubs are in the hands of chains, offering the same boring menu and use convenient food delivered to them.

Some days ago I re-discovered pub food at lunchtime again. I had a wonderful steak and ale pie in St Stephen's Tavern close to Houses of Parliament, enjoyed this plate of bangers and mash in The Angel and had another bangers and mash in The Duke of Wellington yesterday before heading to a concert of the Soweto Gospel Choir in Cadogan Hall in Chelsea.

Bangers and mash are a typical English dish consisting of sausages, mashed potatoes and gravy. Wikipedia says: "The term bangers is attributed to the fact that sausages, particularly the kind made during World War II under rationing, can explode under high heat if not cooked carefully. Modern sausages do not have this attribute."

Will continue to favour vegetarian dishes, always with a pint of good ale, again after these intense meat feasts over the last few days.

Boris' bikes

This is now a common sight in the city of London. Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, has initiated the Barclays Cycle Hire, a self-service public bicycle scheme for short journeys in central London.

The aim is to make London a cycle-friendly city and my impression is that it's on a good way. Thousands of people have already signed up and you see quite a few bikes on the move.

There are 400 docking statins throughout the city with 6,000 bikes. You just have to sign up as a member and pay 3 Pounds. For 45 Pounds you can use the bikes every day of the year. Or you pay as you go. Journeys up to an hour cost 1 Pounds. The first 30minutes of every journey are free.

I haven't signed up yet as the press mentioned some teething problems of the scheme. So it might happen that you don't lock your returned bike properly and get charged for late return with 150 Pounds. Furthermore they had problems with their webpage. And, last but not least, I'm not sure if I'd survive the traffic in London.

From the inside

Today you can glimpse into the flat I'm staying in. It's the ideal place for me and to plan my next excursion into town. Pictured are the hall, the living room and my bedroom. It's a former council flat in which Tony's grandfather lived. Tony did the complete renovation of the flat himself. Very impressive, especially when you consider how neatly everything is done.

During the last days I met two people for a coffee or a pint. The first one is Sandra, sister of Bridget I went to see in Nottinghamshire recently. She's extremely well informed about London and gave me many valuable tips. She also animated me to join a hiking tour to Dover at the end of August. And she recommended a hiking tour I could do with Günter during his two-week long visit from Friday onwards.

The second is Thomas, whom I met at university in Münster. He has lived in London for nearly ten years now and also gave me some tips. We might meet again with his wife and Günter as he's going to take part in a 10 kilometer race in Victoria Park.

A flat with a view

I’m a East Ender now. Yesterday I moved into Tony’s flat and already feel at home. For most of the time I’ll be in this flat on my own with occasional visits of Tony. We’ve already agreed upon a common visit to one of the pubs close by.

The flat is very spacious and so is my room. It’s very quiet so far and very close to Victoria Park. Furthermore, the area is much nicer to live in than many people from the West of London think and would tell you.

A nice bonus is that we have a great view onto the City with the Gherkin. It's wonderful to see how the skyscrapers light up as the sun goes down.

Goodbye Kilburn

Alex's flat in Kilburn. It's the first flat from the left in the first floor

Today I'm moving out of Alex's flat and say goodbye to Kilburn. I'm heading for the East End today where Tony, a friend of our friend Barbara, has offered me to stay in his flat.

I'm very much looking forward to my third home during my sabbatical and exploring the city from the opposite direction.

By the way, just to make you envious, look at the blue sky. Even if the day starts with some showers like yesterday, so far it has always cleared up before noon. That's the way I got to know England and it's even better here in the Southeast.