10 May 2016 Crystal Palace Caravan Site, London

Sunday was every bit the lay day we had planned; we managed to catch up with two of our “children” on line, this time using Messenger which seems to be a little more effective than Skype used to chat with my parents earlier in the week. I did two machine loads of laundry and monopolised the one clothes line for the day. It is quite amazing that this seventy one pitch (60 hardstand) camp has just the one facilities block, the one laundry with two machines and two dryers, and the one rotary clothes line. One could surmise from this that the campers are all too busy to deal with such mundane matters of life, however most of them are French, or other than English, and one would assume, need to catch up with their washing as they travel about, just as we do. But this is all none of my business; our own linen and clothing was washed and dried and lets leave it at that for now. 

Before lunch we managed to drive to the local Sainsbury supermarket a kilometre away without getting lost, actually walking distance unless you are purchasing bags of potatoes and apples, bottles of red wine and other provisions that come in weighty packaging. This little adventure was a bit of an anti-climax; this particular Sainsbury has plenty of parking and does not charge its shoppers for the first three hours which served us well.

Our lunch should have been a real treat, French bread and cheese rather than the plain sandwiches of the past few days, but alas it turned out to be a major disappointment; Sainsbury‘s bakers are as bad as those at Countdown in New Zealand. Our first taste of French bread in England will most likely be our last. 

Our camp

Mid-afternoon we wandered through the Crystal Palace park, this day full of picnickers and those lounging about on picnic rugs, most in various states of undress to either expose their tattoos or catch the warm sun. We had swapped our jeans and long sleeved tops for shorts and short sleeves, socks and shoes for sandals, a concession to the improved weather. We wandered up and down the streets travelled earlier in the day on our way to and from Sainsbury, the bars and cafes now packed with young and trendy people, the streets packed with smart convertibles and the like, and the boutiques and speciality stores open to serve the likes of us. We popped into a couple of them and bought more bits and pieces for the caravan, then returned via the park, having enjoyed our leisurely hour long walk in the sun.

The rest of the afternoon was spent dealing with the sun dried washing and cooking up a large batch of bolognaise sauce for dinner and freezing for future meals. 

I had imagined that we would be heading back into the city tourist centre early on Monday morning but my dear husband had better ideas; practical matters superseding sightseeing. His brother John had given us a backup gas bottle to assuage our concerns about running out of cooking fuel at an inopportune moment, however it was smaller than the other and as such did not fit well into the appropriate bracket. He had decided to swap it for a larger bottle and the people up here in the camp office made it clear they were not licenced to do anything but swap like gas bottles with like.

The V&A

And so we headed off to the Calor Centre in Wandsworth, apparently within a five mile radius of our camp here at Crystal Palace, in reality nearer eight miles. Our Tomtom took us through a labyrinth of streets, zigzagging this way and that, an absolute nightmare had we been towing, this day simply an adventure. Interestingly the return journey was simply back around the A205, that which we had travelled on Wednesday, although this day in the opposite direction from far further afield. The final outcome of the morning’s challenge was a new bottle complete with a couple of pages of bureaucratic waffle, filled with gas of course, and the opportunity to drive almost to Wimbleton and the nearby River Thames and experience the stress London drivers deal with every single day.

Eventually we did resume our schedule, onto the Overground train through to Canada Water, then  the Underground to Waterloo for Charing Cross, whereupon we found ourselves back at the National Art Gallery and the throngs of tourists enjoying the last of the sunshine for the week.

I had glimpsed a Gustav Klimt on the wall as we had been led from one artworks to another by the analytical guide of last week, and was keen to check it out further. The first gift Chris ever bought me was an illustrated book of Klimt’s work, and I have been enamoured ever since (with Klimt’s work, I speak). We did track it down; his 1904 portrait of Hermine Gallia, not my favourite but stunning no less.

Outside we lunched in the sunshine before catching a series of trains through to South Kensington. From there we walked to the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), the main object of our day’s sightseeing. 

This museum is mooted to be the greatest museum of applied arts in the world. Now that is a big claim, but after having spent several hours there, I would have to concede it is superior to the British Museum visited a few days ago.  All is housed in an imposing building, although lacking the architectural grandeur of the other institutions recently visited. I read that there are seven miles of halls and corridors spread over the four floors, and even now, further extension is being undertaken.  One guide we spoke to told us it took her a couple of months to learn her way around!

Natural History Museum

We had allowed the afternoon to slip away given our later start, and found ourselves heading home on the train rather then the bus with the returning commuters. The forecasted rain arrived just as we emerged from the Underground at Brixton, but eased a little while we walked from the Crystal Palace bus stop back to camp. 

Today we woke to the sound of rain on the roof, but undeterred and more to the point, aware that there were few remaining London days on our calendar, and fewer on our Oyster card, we set off with our packed lunch, umbrellas and coats and a positive attitude. Today the combination of the bus to Brixton, and the Underground through to South Kensington, brought us to the queues winding their way into the Natural History Museum. Chris had vivid memories of being brought here on a school trip when he was quite young, although he did not remember the very long wait to enter. These days all back packs and hand bags are searched on entry, and this coupled with the fact the day was too inclement for outdoor exploration and all tourists not targeting the National Art Gallery or the V&A Museum were here, we spent at least half an hour inching forward in the rain before gaining shelter inside this incredible museum first opened to the public in 1881 but its origins go back to 1753 and the generous offer of a renowned doctor, Sir Hans Sloane. Sloane travelled widely and had a passion for collecting natural history specimens and cultural artefacts along the way.

The exterior, or at least that viewed from the front, is quite splendid and the main hall, the Hintze Hall’s ceiling is quite breath-taking.

Hintze Hall

We wandered about from one “zone” to another, admiring the exhibits and reading the very informative and educational interpretative panels, but I could not help thinking that the museum was directed mainly to the many school parties making their way around as we were, and that the exhibits were all rather old fashioned. While I had to concede the gallery had been updated since Chris’s own school days trip, I suspected little had been done in the last twenty years. We were considering leaving after having spent at least four hours exploring the many halls, when I suggested we check out the Cocoon and the Darwin gallery, and I was so glad we did.

The Darwin Centre opened to the public in 2009 and houses the Museum’s historic collections as well as its working scientists. The structure is in the shape of a giant, eight story cocoon, quite apt as the store for the entomology and botanical collections and is equipped with state-of-the-art research facilities used by more than two hundred scientists. The exhibits are all super modern, the explanations help one understand how very important this facility is in recording and holding the world’s precious natural treasures for all of us and those in the future. We were also delighted to have the opportunity to spend twenty minutes or so discussing all of this with one of the very passionate scientists who has had a wealth of collecting experience. I came away with a reviewed opinion of the museum, but still exhausted from yet another day in galleries and museums.

The rain eased a little until we arrived back at Crystal Palace, but it is evident that it will be still around for tomorrow.