Kenna in Kensington: Week 2 London: Exploration

The V&A or Victoria & Albert Museum

Hello, Lovelies! Thank you for reading and following my blog! I do so appreciate it and I hope not to disappoint.

So, what have I been up to this past week? Well, I've decided with the free time I have before school starts on September 30 that I would explore the city I now live in. On Wednesday, I explored the museums close to Imperial College of London, mainly the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The nice thing about these museums is that all of them have free admission. In the Science museum, I found myself reading about the early clockmakers of London, from medieval times all the way up to the 1960s. The museum had another exhibit on the famous Royal Society (actually known as the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge), of which Robert Hooke (inventor of the microscope), Christopher Wren (architect of St. Paul's cathedral), and Isaac Newton (if you don't know what he did already...then...) were all members. Original oil paintings of most of their members were displayed on the walls, with their posh wigs and disapproving stares. I, of course, bought a few books at the gift shop, including one titled Unnatural Causes, which is all about forensic pathology. Stay tuned for a later book report.

An astrolabe plus a globe

Isaac Newton

Building for a lightning strike

The Natural History Museum from the outside

The Natural History Museum was smaller but impressive, with an exhibit about volcanoes and earthquakes that included an interactive shaking floor, mimicking the famous 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. I was tempted to buy a bunch of geodes that I, of course, didn't need in the gift shop, but instead purchased a copy of Sapiens by Yuval Harari. It's been on my list for quite a while to read, as it's a bestseller. I'm about 2/3 of the way through now and it is impressive, describing a sweeping span of human history, from the beginnings of evolution to the future eras. If you're into social sciences, technology, or current events, I highly recommend for a good read.

Portrait of young Marie Antoinette

The Victoria & Albert Museum (started in 1857 as the South Kensington Museum, until Queen Victoria expanded it in 1899), was an impressive multi-building structure, housing artwork from all over the world. I found myself following a trail of medieval art leading to a Renaissance sculpture wing. I didn't get through the entire museum, as my feet were killing me by the end, and I desperately wanted some dinner. But I am determined to go back this week and finish the rest! There's always too much to see in so little time.

Sculpture of the Greek myth "Leta and the Swan"
(Hint, the Swan is Zeus seducing Leta...as usual)

On Thursday (yes, sorry this'll be a long post if you can't already tell), I picked up my visa card from the post office. As the Sherlock Holmes museum was only another 40 minutes away I decided to walk. What a mistake! I walked all the way up to Paddington, which is at least 5 miles north. By the time I reached the Sherlock Holmes museum, my feet were killing me! The museum itself was somewhat disappointing. It was a flat that someone had converted into a museum, so there were only four rooms to actually tour around in. And each room was reached by narrow, steep, creaky stairs. Still, the study was nicely Victorian, with the chairs and doctor's desk looking as I imagined it would in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous stories.
However, what was interesting is that there were portraits of famous criminals during the time that Sherlock Holmes would have lived, stuck up on Sherlock's bedroom wall.

Sherlock's Criminal Wall

One of the portraits contained the mug-shot of famous serial killer Lizzie Borden. I asked about Lizzie's picture for two reasons, firstly, she came after Sherlock Holmes' time period (so strike one for inaccuracy), secondly, she was from America (strike two for inaccuracy, Sherlock rarely left for America), and thirdly, the jury is still out as to whether she actually was a murderer! The tour guide gave me some measly excuse about the study of criminal psychology (which wasn't invented until the 1960s, not the 1890s). It's sad to say that I spent more time in the gift shop than the museum itself. I took an uber home, not wanting to walk another 5 miles. I also promised myself that tomorrow would have a more fun venue.

Beautiful window!

Friday, in fact, did have a more fun venue as I had booked a bus trip to travel out to Warwick Castle, Stratford-Upon-Avon, and Oxford. Warwick Castle lies in the county of Warwickshire and was strategic in many battles.

#library goals

The castle was first a fort created by William the Conqueror. Later, it was visited by the Prince of Wales and by a very young Winston Churchill for a party one-weekend in the early 1900s. I climbed three out of the four towers of the castle (the fourth being off-limits), and surveyed the countryside below, noticing the old drained moat, and the river Avon flowing next to the castle.

Bear Tower of Castle Warwick, added by King
Richard III

The River Avon with a beautiful broken bridge in the middle

Enjoying the countryside view from the castle

Shakespeare's early house

The bus then brought us to Stratford-upon-Avon, which I was extremely excited about, is the home of one of my favorite writers, William Shakespeare. Unfortunately, the house that Shakespeare bought after making loads of money in London was destroyed in the 1800s, but his parents' house still stands. The tour through his parents' house is rushed and somewhat disappointing.
There isn't a lot to see in the house, with mainly just some props lying around in different rooms. However, I did find out that Shakespeare has a Chinese contemporary that wrote plays during the same period. Tang Xianzu also wrote drama and has been dubbed the "Shakespeare of the East." I'll definitely have to read some of his plays and see how he compares to our famed playwright.

Shakespeare's parents' bed

Shakespeare and his Chinese contemporary

The Reading Room building of Oxford

We then moved onto Oxford. It was a very cute town, as each building is made of the same Oxfordshire stone, a honey color. Our tour guide showed us around campus, explaining that the tuition for international students can range from 30,000 to up to 50,000 depending on which country you're coming from. So much for cheap education, although the campus was pretty enough to tempt me to consider doing a Ph.D. just to live there. I'm totally against that idea now, but it still lingers in the back of my mind.

Another Oxford building

I didn't return to London until about 6:30 p.m., after taking a bus trip of 300 miles.
Saturday was Kew Gardens. It was also my first time taking the tube, so I was quite nervous. I managed okay and made it to Kew, where everyone and their second cousin had planned to visit for the weekend. The gardens are around 860 acres, with conservatories, palm houses, and temperate houses dotting the parks.

The tropical house at Kew Gardens

There were so many things to see I had a hard time keeping track of how many photos I had taken, though I did recognize many plants, just due to my internship at the Denver Botanic Gardens. I had hoped to visit the famed Kew Gardens Herbarium, which keeps thousands of dried specimens collected from all over the world, including some by Charles Darwin. However, entering the Herbarium is by appointment only. I will be trying to make an appointment and keeping my fingers crossed that they let me in.

Carnivorous Plants!

Lovely Hibiscus

One of the famed Chihuly glass sculptures

No idea what these are

#plantception

Part of the famous Tower of London, plus the original stone
wall in front of the building

Sunday I visited the Tower of London, the Globe theater to watch a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and the Jack the Ripper museum. I took the tube again and arrived at the famed Tower around noon. I climbed a couple of the towers within the Tower (which is really more like a large stone fort),
including the tower that held the famous poet Sir Walter Raleigh. He actually named the state of Virginia, after the virgin Queen Elizabeth I. Guess she didn't really like that...no, there were other reasons Raleigh was imprisoned, including having a secret marriage to one of Elizabeth's ladies-in-waiting. Whoops. He was later executed within the Tower. Anne Boleyn, one of King Henry VIII's wives, was also executed within the Tower. Two princes during the time of King Richard III's reign were supposedly buried in the walls of the Tower (or so two skeletons found in the walls tell us). The list goes on an on of the Tower's bloody history.

The spot where Anne Boleyn was beheaded...yikes

Prison graffiti

What most people, myself included, come to see in the Tower is not the etched graffiti of terrified prisoners (though there is that too), but the Crown Jewels. Noon was the worst time to see the Jewels as it took me a whole half an hour just to get into the exhibit, and then elbow my way to the glass boxes. Of course, no pictures were allowed, but I can tell you that they're very sparkly.

Of course, I had to take a picture

The stage of the Globe Theater

I then rushed over to the Globe theater, trying to avoid the slight drizzle of rain. I made it with plenty of time to spare before the performance. The play ran for a good three hours, during which the actors dutifully ignored the rainy weather and performed wonderfully. I can't say I've seen a better version of A Midsummer Night's Dream than that. I will return to the Globe this coming week for a performance of King Henry V, which I'm excited for as it's a nationalist play and one of Shakespeare's best-written ones, in my humble opinion.

Bloodstained desk of Jack the Ripper with replicas of the actual
letters he supposedly wrote

I then left the Globe and walked to the Jack the Ripper museum. Like the Sherlock Holmes museum, it was a flat that someone had converted into a museum, complete with rooms of props and wax figures. The eerie thing about the museum, besides the fact that it dove into the mind and madness of a serial killer, was that I was one of the only people there. The floors creaked hideously, and I couldn't help but glance over my shoulder multiple times, especially while I was in the proposed study of Jack the Ripper. The museum had you climb from floors one to four, then end in the basement. The basement was posed as the mortuary, where each of the five canonical (and I say canonical because there's still debate about how many women were actually killed by Jack the Ripper, but most experts do agree on five actual killings) victims were processed. The fluorescent light of the room, plus the body drawers and grotesque pictures made me shutter. I soon left the museum with a feeling I couldn't shake off...a feeling like I was being watched.

A proposed study for the famed serial killer Jack the Ripper

Oh well! I wasn't.
Monday was actually a fairly normal day, as I registered for classes and got coffee with my friend Mariana, who also is in my program of Science Communication. She's from California, and we chatted for quite a while about what to expect. It was nice to finally meet up with someone and discuss things.
Today I went to the British Museum, right as they opened (I've learned my lesson by now, with the 12 million people living in London). I wandered through the halls of mummies, Assyrian etchings, Chinese calligraphy, and other breath-taking pieces of art that have been housed for decades in this building. I did end up elbowing my way to the front of the display case of the famed Rosetta stone, that had such a dark color it was hard to get a good picture. But I did take pictures of nearly everything else. After spending three-plus hours in the museum, and way too much money in the gift shop (my mouse pad is now an oriental rug instead of my to-do pad), I headed home. I reached the tube station only to be caught in a downpour, having to shower when I reached my flat.

So my only question after all these adventures is: where to next???