Hammersmith

Weather - Cold, overcast, rainy at midday - Min 3, Max 13. 

The only plans we had when we set out was to visit the Science Museum and keep indoors as much as possible due to another drop in the temperature with the forecast of some rain. When we arrived at the museum at ten o’clock there was quite a queue so we headed to a nearby cafe and indulged in a Portuguese Tart. 

Our favourite part of the science museum was the Clockmakers of London Exhibition which is a collection of watches and clocks and is the oldest collection in the world having been established in 1813 by the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers. This is an old guild in London.

Amazingly it had John Harrison’s 5th marine timekeeper which changed the navigational world as it was the first to measure longitude accurately. For such a significant piece of history the timepiece looked quite insignificant.

From the Science Museum it was a short walk across the road to the V&A Museum. It was lunch time and we were feeling peckish and headed for the museum’s exquisite cafe. It’s listed as one of the best cafes in London and is the world’s oldest museum cafe. It was built in 1856. The cafe was busy but we were lucky as when we walked in someone was leaving their table. We had tomato and basil soup with a baguette and it hit the spot. 

There is so much to see at the V&A so we selected only a few areas. The one we really enjoyed was the Cast Courts which has three galleries housing copies of sculptures, columns, reliefs and objects from around the world and all are made from casts from the original. Trajan’s Column dominates the main gallery and is in two pieces as the original is 35m tall.

We also recognised the Portico de la Gloria from the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela which was the end of our Camino in Spain. It was good to see it close up rather than high on the cathedral. Many of the casts are in better condition than the originals or are now the only one in existence due to destruction in wars.

The funny part was the statue of David. Henk and I can’t remember it being so big when we saw it in Florence. The cast was given to Queen Victoria by an Italian Archduke.  Behind the statue is a glass case with a plaster fig leaf. According to a popular anecdote the fig leaf was made to reduce any embarrassment for Queen Victoria and other royals. The fig was hung on the statue with some hooks when royality visited but has not been in use for quite some time. 

When we left the V&A we could see it had rained quite heavily but it had cleared. We walked passed the elegant Natural History Museum building (we’ll visit it on another day) and made our way to Paddington Station via Hyde Park. 

It was a thirty minute walk. When we arrived at the far end of the park there was a cafe so we indulged in an afternoon tea break. Henk had a double scoop of salted caramel icecream whilst I had yummy pistachio cannoli. 

We arrived home at 4.30pm after leaving at 9.30am so it was another long but enjoyable day. Once again we walked a great deal. We rested before heading out to dinner at 6.00pm. A late sun had emerged and although cold it was a lovely evening. We walked along the Thames esplanade to The Rutland Arms which is a pub located near to The Blue Anchor. Most were eating and drinking outdoors on the picnic tables but we retreated to the cosy River View Room on the first floor and looked over the Thames River and the Hammersmith Bridge. The tide was coming in and there were many rowers as the pub is located next to the Auriol Kensington Rowing Club. 

We were home in time for the ‘1% Club’. We are yet to decide what we are doing tomorrow. It will depend on the weather.