Odds and sods

Brendan and I recently spent a day sight-seeing in London, visiting places I'd yet to see. This included a trip to Crystal Palace, once home to the famous Victorian glass building that gave the area its name. We also visited Hyde Park, enabling me to finally see the popular Peter Pan statue I've always heard about.


Our day of sights began with a train ride to Crystal Palace. Here a large park spreads across a hillside overlooking South London. It was also home to the cast-iron and glass building built to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. Originally erected in Hyde Park, it was later moved to the park that now bares its name. It's main entrance was dominated by two water jets shooting 76 metres into the air.


Sadly the structure burnt down in 1936. Today, the only visible remains are a series of brick terraces, grand staircases and a few surviving sculptures. We found a small reproduction of the facade in one corner that simply hints at the grandeur that once dominated the hill. Today, the site's most prominent feature is London's main television transmission tower.


We later tried to visit the Victorian dinosaur park, but the gates were closed thanks to a local government strike. Instead we made our way back into town, stopping to walk the banks of the Thames. I took Brendan on my tourist river walk past the London Eye, over Westminster Bridge, past Big Ben (stopped for the classic red bus and clock tower photo) and along Embankment to Cleopatra's Needle.


We then made our way to the Science Museum. I'm always fascinated by the Apollo 10 capsule displayed in the main hall. I still marvel at the thought that this machine once orbited the moon. Equally fascinating is the world's first MRI scanner.


Our final stop for the day was Hyde Park. We stopped to watch the locals paddling in the Diana memorial fountain, before wandering along the Serpentine Lake to the bronze Peter Pan statue. Unveiled in 1912, the statue depicts Peter Pan standing on a tree trunk watched by woodland animals and fairies. We also encountered an unusually friendly rat who had absolutely no qualms climbing onto my shoe.