Without Lifting A Finger

The Crystal Palace   was a   cast-iron   and   plate-glass   structure originally built in   Hyde Park, London , to house the   Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in its 990,000-square-foot (92,000 m 2 ) exhibition space to display examples of technology developed in the   Industrial Revolution . Designed by   Joseph Paxton , the Great Exhibition building was 1,851 feet (564 m) long, with an interior height of 128 feet (39 m). [1]   The invention of the   cast plate glass   method in 1848 made possible the production of large sheets of cheap but strong glass, and its use in the Crystal Palace created a structure with the greatest area of glass ever seen in a building and astonished visitors with its clear walls and ceilings that did not require interior lights. The name of the building resulted from a piece penned by the playwright   Douglas Jerrold , w...



A zoo (short for zoological garden or zoological park and also called an animal park or menagerie ) is a facility in which animals are housed within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also breed. The term "zoological garden" refers to zoology , the study of animals, a term deriving from the Greek zōon (ζῷον, 'animal') and lógos (λóγος, 'study'). The abbreviation "zoo" was first used of the London Zoological Gardens , which was opened for scientific study in 1828 and to the public in 1857. [1] The number of major animal collections open to the public around the world now exceeds to 1,000, around 80 percent of them are in cities. [2] In the United States of America alone, zoos are visited by over 180 million people annually. * The Zoological Society of London was founded in 1826 by Stamford Raffles and established the London Zoo in Regent's Park two years later in 1828. [15] At its founding, it was...

At this moment I do not remember anything that interested me except a sick monkey,--a very large monkey, and elderly he seemed to be. His keeper brought him some sweetened apple and water, and some tea; for the monkey had quite lost his appetite, and refused all ordinary diet. He came, however, quite eagerly, and smelt of the tea and apple, the keeper exhorting him very tenderly to eat. But the poor monkey shook his head slowly, and with the most pitiable expression, at the same time extending his hand to take the keeper's, as if claiming his sympathy and friendship. By and by the keeper (who is rather a surly fellow) essayed harsher measures, and insisted that the monkey should eat what had been brought for him, and hereupon ensued somewhat of a struggle, and the tea was overturned upon the straw of the bed. Then the keeper scolded him, and, seizing him by one arm, drew him out of his little bedroom into the larger cage, upon which the wronged monkey began a loud, dissonant, rep...

Concealed beneath my marble cloak, I lapsed from these lofty thoughts into my naïve impressions of place and time. My anxiety mixed with pleasure, was similar to that which I experienced in winter in my tower at Combourg, when I listened to the wind: a sigh and a shade are of like nature.    Gradually, I accustomed myself to the darkness, and made out the statues placed on the tombs. I gazed at the corbelled vaulting of the English Saint-Denis, from which one would have said past events and vanished years hung in a Gothic light: the whole edifice was like a monolithic temple of petrified centuries.    I counted ten hours, eleven by the clock; the hammer which rose and fell, on the bronze, was the only ‘living’ thing beside me in the place. Outside, a vehicle passing by, the cry of a watchman, that was all: those distant sounds of earth reached me in a world within a world. The Thames fog, and the smoke from the chimneys, infiltrated the basilica, and spread seconda...

Millenium Bridge, London , a photo by sypix on Flickr. Don't think I ever crossed it. Another "next time" thing. Picked up another Julian Barnes book for my b-day: The Sense of an Ending . Veronica meets Tony on the "Wobbly Bridge."

London eye , a photo by ÅßÐÜLMΔJΣΣÐ on Flickr. This one I rode. It gives a great view along the Thames.

Our hotel was near Heathrow. We tried to drive in to London by car and had only moderate success. After circling around in some British labyrinth we finally found ourselves driving along Bayswater Road, north of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. We parked along Bayswater and ambled in near the Italian Gardens. We walked as far as the Peter Pan statue before turning back. Apparently we were walking along The Long Water and not The Serpentine. The two bodies of water are separated by The Serpentine Bridge (see photo below). It was getting dark. On the way back I saw a great bird I couldn't identify. Others were looking too; I tried to get a good photo but failed. It was out in the middle of The Long Water perched on some raised, circular pad. Staying along Bayswater we moved closer to a street humming with pedestrians and lots of eateries. It took us a while to agree on a place. We finally settled on Chinese noodles. They couldn't take a US credit...