Mark & Tracy's Travels 2024

This is the third of three posts for today and the last of our trip as we head home tomorrow. We spent our last full day at Kew Gardens, the royal botanic gardens just outside London. The gardens date to 1759.  Beautiful vistas in every direction. The Hive is an art installation with lights and a  soundtrack based on bee vibrations and buzzing. Did you know honeybees buzz in the key of C? Looking up in the Hive. Part of the one of the arid rooms in one of the conservatories.  The rock gardens were amazing.  The Japanese garden.  We enjoyed being here at the cusp of autumn. There were still tons of blooming flowers but it was also cool and breezy with leaves falling and blossoms decaying. We look forward to returning! 

Westminster Abbey was our first stop on our tour of all things royal.  Lots of history (and history makers) memorialized here. It's pretty much a massive cemetery where they also hold weddings and coronations.  These windows adorn the chapel where Oliver Cromwell is buried.  Mark prefers this pose for his tomb. Note the smaller person at his feet.  This pose will do for me.  A view through the cloisters.  Buckingham Palace is nearby. As is this amazing bronze statue on top of Wellington arch, commemorating Wellington's victory over Napoleon.  We ended our royal tour at Kensington Palace. We didn't go into either palace but did enjoy their lovely grounds. 

We spent an afternoon enjoying the street scene in our neighborhood, including art, markets, and people watching. This sculpture is in a small park right outside our flat. We saw a fox there the other night from our window!  Mostly we were on Brick Lane, long a neighborhood of immigrants, most recently Bengali. Now hipster/creative types or so we read. And see.  There is a nearby flower market on the street.  Another touching piece on our way home. Then we headed out to visit Geoff, Silvia, and Leo. (Geoff is Dick's son.)  It was great to see them! 

It turns out that doing a multi-day walk is great conditioning for exploring London on foot! On our first day around town we start out with a foggy prospect.  We pass through this little garden situated next to some ancient parts of the old London wall. We love the combinations we see everywhere of old and new.  We pass through the Barbican, almost a city within London. Built in an area decimated during the Blitz, it was meant to take advantage of an opportunity to create a comprehensively planned urban environment. More than 4,000 people live here and there are restaurants, performance spaces, etc. We make our way across the river and visit the Tate Modern for a couple of hours. The scale!  Here's just one piece we liked. We walk along the Thames and appreciate the continual evolution of the city.  Big Ben! The Houses of Parliament.  An average government...

We did not go to Scarborough fair, but we did see many fishing boats lined up on this rainy day.  Walking along the beach promenade offered many opportunities for arcades and beach chair rentals. Also donkey rides. We kept on walking.  "Freddie Gilroy and the Belsen Stragglers" depicts an average Joe who went to WWII as a young man and was forever changed. Freddie was a real person and member of the Royal Artillery who participated in the liberation of the Bergen Belsen concentration camp.  The beach around Scarborough goes on for miles. It felt quite incongruous to come upon this golf course because it was raining and it seemed like they were all just standing around. The rain stopped and we enjoyed our beach views. This is looking back towards Scarborough where you can see the town as well as the castle on the headland. And our cliff views.  After what seemed like a very q...