The Adventures of Lorie and Brian Groth

One of the things I love about London is that there is just so much here to see. Today I had planned to walk to the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square. But I got distracted…

On the way though, I ran across the London Canal Museum. The building used to be an ice house that was originally built to store ice from Norway, which is what I was curious about seeing. I also learned a bit about the canal boat industry that was interesting (horses used until 1950, etc.). When we went on our canal boat trip in Yorkshire the other year, we noticed that there were worn out spots on bridge supports from ropes tied between the boat and the horses pulling the boat. Today at the London Canal museum, I learned that the ropes were made from cotton so they could sink when meeting or passing other boats, thus allowing the boats to go over the rope. By doing this though, the ropes would get sand and dirt embedded in them from sinking to the bottom of the canal. These gritty ropes would then easily grind down the edges of the bridge supports when the horse would walk around them.

After leaving the canal museum, the British Library was on the way so I decided to go to see Robert Scott’s diary that I missed when I was there a couple of weeks ago. (Alan told me about it) Click here to see the last thing he ever wrote, highlighted by a cool feature of Microsoft’s Bing search product. :-) I also took the time to look at “A Dictionary of the English Language” written by Samuel Johnson. He made the comment to a friend trying to decide to move to London; something along the lines of “to grow tired of living in London means you’ve grown tired of living.” After leaving the library, I went through Covent Garden and saw an entertaining street performer (pictured) swing a very long rope that a little girl tried to hang on to. It doesn’t sound funny, but it was good to watch.

I then finally made my way to The National Gallery where I came across a few paintings of Venice (among thousands of other paintings). The ones of the canals in Venice by Canaletto and Guardi really grabbed my attention. The one pictured here is by Canaletto.

So today I learned about the canal boat industry, the early ice industry, the most influential English dictionary, saw Robert Scott’s last hand-written words, and saw some good 18th century paintings. That’s not bad for a day of walking! 

Today I took the London Underground and the Docklands Light Rail to the Isle of Dogs (Island Gardens DLR Station) so I could walk under the Thames river via the 107 year-old foot tunnel (opened in 1902). Once in Greenwich, I decided to spend the day walking around their Saturday market, Greenwich Park (saw a black lab named Milo) and the old Royal Naval College. (see a map)

I spent quite a bit of time at the Royal Observatory looking at and reading about John Harrison’s clocks, which I’ve been fascinated with ever since I read the book “Longitude” a few years ago. Click here to see H1, H2, H3, and H4 (his clocks). He built H4 in 1760, which solved the Longitude problem and is one of the most important machines ever invented since it made travelling by sea much safer and more predictable.    

In Greenwich park, the Chestnut trees were dropping chestnuts all over the place and people were crushing them with their foot and collecting the nuts. No, I didn’t do that since green chestnuts didn’t look all that appealing. Fish & Chips at a pub for lunch on the river near the park was good though.  

Walking back, I went through Mudchute park & farm on the Isle of Dogs. I had no idea it even existed, but sure enough, there were plots of little gardens, people riding horses, and a variety of animals (I only saw sheep though). And yes, I saw a few dogs on the Isle of Dogs, since people live there and I walked through three different parks, which were perfect for dogs.

After a very tasty lunch of fish & chips (just fish today though – cod) and Italian ice cream, I walked up to the British Library, but on the way I also went through the British Museum (as a shortcut, since it was in my way) and through the grounds of the University of London (Birkbeck), which was a nice little area to walk through in the middle of the city.

While walking through the British Museum, I saw a citole, which was a predecessor to the violin. That’s what’s pictured here. 

If you go to the British Library, make sure to visit the Sir John Riblat Gallery, which is where you can see these and much more. Here is what I enjoyed:

• Sheet music written by Beethoven, Handel, and others
• Hand-written lyrics to the Beetle’s Help, Yesterday, Ticket To Ride, and others
• The Magna Carta, with an explanation of it, which was useful for me (history-challenged) 
• The first copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which was called Alice’s Adventures Under Ground and explains how the book came to be (read about it here)
• A few pages from Leonardo da Vinci’s Notebook (I’ve seen most of it in Seattle though, but still cool)
• The Gutenberg Bible
• I also listened to a short speech by Amelia Earhart on aircraft safety and technology and to Neil Armstrong’s comments before and as he made the first step on the moon. (yes, I had heard the famous line before, but not the entire thing)

We saw Ed Byrne last night at the Vaudeville Theatre in the West End of London. Lorie and I missed him when he came through London last time as part of the post-Edinburgh Festival Fringe tour (he has sold out 6 times at that festival), so we were happy when Anne suggest we go see him. If you ever get a chance to see him, I think you’ll enjoy it.

The Seattle Post Intelligencer’s globe has been in Seattle since 1948, and now it is the latest to be honoured in Milo’s iconic tour of Seattle. Notice the Space Needle is in the reflection of the windows too – two landmarks at once!    

Milo and I ran across the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile today. We can say that the Wienermobile is truly famous now that it has been photographed with Milo.

Update: A friend of mine just told me something funny enough that I had to share it: “Milo seems unfazed by a one ton hot dog bearing down upon him. Clearly that dog has spent his life in the city.” I couldn’t agree more!

I posted new photos that Geoff and Silvia took when we were together in Thailand and Vietnam. The one here is me jumping off the roof of the boat in Halong Bay in Vietnam. It’s 3 photos put together to make a little animation. I didn’t dive since it was high enough up that I figured I might hurt myself. Since there were no hospitals anywhere near us, I figured I’d play it safe.

The pictures are in the Vietnam folder and the Thailand folder.

I have been running/jogging for about a week now, since I decided I needed some form of affordable exercise – so far my knees are holding up. Today was an interesting run (only my 2nd in London) as I ran to and through Primrose Hill (pictured) and Regent’s Park. The highlights enforce my appreciation of London:

1. I ran over the famous Abbey Road crosswalk – I was sort of lost at the time, so it was a nice surprise
2. I saw circus training with people swinging on a trapeze and falling into nets
3. I saw eight kayakers in Regent’s Canal in short river kayaks, but it’s not like they will find any whitewater on that canal
4. I saw a giraffe which was a little surprising to see when not expecting it – I was running past the London Zoo
5. I saw a woman with five pet guinea pigs on leashes on Primrose Hill, which is crazy since there are dogs running around there too

Yes, the Honda Element looks weird. It’s a box with a rubber floor. But, the rear seats can be removed, bicycles fit inside of it, there is tent attachment if we want to buy one, and our Zune can plug into the stereo via an auxiliary-input. Plus, Milo fits in it and likes riding in the back seat.

So when I’m in Seattle, I can be seen in an orange car. Otherwise, Lorie and Milo will be cruising around in it. 

 

 

Skookum is near the farm/dog-training place where we send Milo in the US and is where our other dog Ripley now lives full time. The pub is also on a farm, down a long driveway, off of a small road about an hour+ north of Seattle. Gretchen from the dog training place organizes a pub night on Friday evenings after normal pub hours for a bunch of dog owners to get together and learn more about handling their defence-breed dogs. Notice the size of the dog attempting to sit on my lap. He is easily twice the size of Milo and still thinks he is a lap dog. Proof that gigantic dogs really are friendly!

Now if we could only find something within walking distance of our place in Seattle, then we’d be all set. I don’t expect that to happen anytime soon though, so I guess we’ll be making the drive every once in a while for dog-pub night.