5 May 2016 - Crystal Palace Caravan Site, London

We woke to sunshine and the honking of geese at the ungodly hour of 5.30 which meant there would be no excuse for an untimely departure. To our credit we did not take too long to strike camp and start out on the road despite the fact it was the first time we had set off in the Kia towing our Eccles Sterling, but then  years on the road touring in our Lotus caravan in Australia has given us good experience, albeit rather different. Our Lotus had solar panels, loads of battery storage, water and waste capacity; this one functions best plugged into power at a more formal camp ground.

Ready to roll from Onehouse

 We knew we were too early on the road given that we were not welcome at our next destination until after midday, so pulled into the last service centre on the A12 before joining the outer London ring road, M25, and at once realised that we had made a mistake. This one was a tight turn service station with little else and we found ourselves boxed in by a great number of motorists who no doubt cursed us under their breathe for invading their limited space. We escaped without disaster and instead sought a Parking space beside the busy highway in a line of big “lorries” (trucks to you and I). 

After an hour or more drinking coffee and doing puzzles, we set off once more on the very busy road, soon heading south over the River Thames on the tolled Dartford Bridge. Our Tomtom, which we have left with a female voice, contrary to all past bias, guided us sensibly to our campsite, where we were made very welcome. 

Once fed,  watered and well set up, we spent the afternoon exploring the adjacent Crystal Palace Park, the train and bus stations and the service station across the road which will meet our daily milk, bread and newspaper needs. 

We have booked for nine days here and in that time hope to see all, or at least most of the attractions we did not have time for when we were here last time. Yesterday on arrival, we acquired Oyster Cards which we found last year to be the best way of facilitating public transport. At £38 each plus the cost of the card, a total of £43 each (a total cost of about $192) it does seem enormously extravagant but I am sure we will make the most of it all, and be glad we have forked out so much.

Crystal Palace’s fame had preceded our plans to stay here; I had read much about this place or rather the history of this 19^th century brainchild of Queen Victoria’s husband, Albert. I had not however realised that the original Crystal Palace was built in Hyde Park, and this is the site of the reconstruction.

The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and plate-glass structure, designed by Joseph Paxton, built to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in its 92,000 square metres exhibition space to display examples of technology developed in the Industrial Revolution. It was then the greatest area of glass ever seen in a building and astonished visitors with its clear walls and ceilings that did not require interior lighting.

After the exhibition, the building was rebuilt in an enlarged form on Penge Common, at the top of Penge Peak next to Sydenham Hill, a smart part of London. It stood here on the hill from 1854 until fire destroyed it in 1936. 

The televison transmitter at Crystal Palace

The landmark construction lent its name to the nearby residential area including the park which surrounds the site and the park where we are temporarily resident. As we wandered through the park on down toward the railway station yesterday, we noted the remains of the palatial columns, retaining walls and statues. A Rasta-locked black man was cocooned into the pawed-lap of a huge concrete lion, head phones on, eyes shut and in a world of his own. A Middle Eastern couple were playing shuttlecock on an expanse of lawn, he in the loose pants and tunic vest of a Pakistani or Afghani and her in a full burka; now that was indeed a sight and would have even startled the open minded consort of Queen Victoria. This is a very cosmopolitan area, but then so it seemed of all the areas we passed through as we drove westwards from the M25 yesterday.

We set the alarm for 7 am this morning, deciding we needed to be away from camp by about 8.30 to make the most of the day. Instead we woke well before 6 am and were away on foot soon after 7.30, out to the bus stop for Bus #3, less than five minutes from camp.

On arrival at camp yesterday, we received an excellent little information pack, three maps showing the layout of the camp, a mud-map of  Crystal Palace park and another of the immediate streets about. Included with all this was a little gem: “We have a fox on site who likes to eat shoes, food and rubbish, plus birds and squirrels who will also eat food and rubbish. Please do not leave anything outside your unit.”

This morning Chris came back from the amenities with news he had just sighted a fox; I reminded him I had read about this last night, however in normal fashion, he had only half heard me and decided what he thought he heard was merely a tantalising possibility to excite the inmates of this camp. I shot out immediately to see the fox for myself, but returned disappointed; perhaps tomorrow morning. I had wondered what time of day foxes ventured out to do their secret business; apparently it is after sun up but before the masses head for the showers and such like.

Included in all the information about the camp was advice about transport into London, and the piece about the buses had suggested that the trip would take “approximately one hour”. This morning and probably because of the very early hour which coincided with the commuters, the trip took nearer one and a half hours, but unlike the apparent faster rail route, this did give us an opportunity to see the area from a more attractive view point. We passed through Herne Hill, Brixton and Lambeth, crossing the River Thames just west of Westminster, finally alighting at Trafalgar Square which was still devoid of the tourist masses.We wandered about this very beautiful Square, then on up under the Admiralty Arch along the lower section of the Mall, which, had we continued on, would have lead us to Buckingham Palace. Instead we were distracted by a series of statues and squares honouring the heroes of Crimea and explorers, finally leading us instead to Piccadilly Circus. There we popped into the Tesco Express and bought snacks to carry us through to a late lunch, given our early start.  

 

We were among the first to enter the National Gallery, one of the many free attractions available to tourists here in London.

According to the guide whose free tour we joined at 11.30, the director or curator of the gallery in the 1850s travelled to Italy and coerced a number of private people and churches to divest themselves of their old and valuable artworks, and it is these that make up the massive Italian collection, primarily 15^th and 16^th century works. 

I was not really interested in the Dutch Flower exhibition although was amused by the title of one of these very clever and beautiful works, “Fruit, Flowers and Dead Birds”. Stills are not really my cup of tea. 

 The building in which the gallery is housed today, was designed by William Wilkins from 1832 to 1838. Only the façade onto Trafalgar Square remains unchanged from that time as the building has been erratically expanded over the intervening years.

Joining the throngs on the Gallery steps

The free tour we chose to join was an hour long and while led by a true art appreciator, was a little more like an art class than the overview  we had expected. We were glad to escape at the end of it and adjourn out onto the Square to eat our lunch. By this time, the thousands of tourists had finished their hotel breakfasts, their lattes, or rid themselves of last night’s hangovers and were all congregated in the Square. Such an incredible change from the earlier morning state; now vibrant with life! 

We spent half an hour soaking up the atmosphere before returning to the gallery for a further two hours, still not completing our exploration but by now weary and over saturated. We found our way to the Charing Cross Underground Station, travelled through to Waterloo, changing at Canada Water to the Overground Rail and on to Sydenham.  We realised before arriving that we needed to alight there or we might find ourselves far south of our camp, the Crystal Palace on a side line which does not enjoy such a regular rail service. Luckily we had only another six minutes to join the next train on to our destination, and from there we walked up the hill to the township where we were able to buy a few more apples to supplement our lunch planned for tomorrow.

A cup of coffee was called for after such a long day; I filled the kettle and tried to light the gas. We had cooked with gas quite satisfactorily last night and now suddenly there was none. Chris switched bottles and still nothing and yet it was evident that there was still plenty of gas in the bottle. When all else fails, read the instructions, so they say, and so we did, pulling out the manual, but there was no obvious fix suggested here. Chris took the part full bottle up to the camp office and had it refilled, at a cost far greater than we would pay in New Zealand; this like accommodation and fuel is expensive here, but partly offset by the savings in grocery costs. We were delighted to find the refilled bottle solved the problem, but also realised that there obviously is a problem with the regulator which needs to be dealt with sometime soon.

So as I type this, and the television flickers and flashes, as was warned in yet another welcome memo in the camp notes, I look forward to an early night because we have another full day ahead to “do” London. The problem with the television and internet is apparently due to the transmitting station that towers 219 metres above us. Built in the mid -1950s among the ruins of the Crystal Palace, it is the fifth tallest structure in London and is best known as the main television transmitter for the London Area. For all this, we seem to be doing better than expected with reception, so I am not complaining at all, am I?