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.