Around London Town III

For the past few weeks I’ve been hosting family who were visiting from out of town. I love when family visit, not only because it’s lovely to spend time and catch up with loved ones but also because it’s a great opportunity to show off all the great things to do around London. They’ve been here before, so we skipped the usual tourist attractions (red bus tours, etc) and checked out some of the fun shows and events that have been going on around London this September!

Hampton Court Palace

Being slightly obsessed with English History – The Tudors and War of the Roses – I’ve been wanting to visit Hampton Court Palace for ages. Having family visiting was the perfect excuse to spend a day poking around Henry VIII’s old stomping grounds! So much history to explore, stunning gardens and incredible artwork and tapestries – we all thoroughly enjoyed it!

 

Book of Mormon & Chinatown

Book of Mormon was hysterical! We all laughed so hard our cheeks hurt! Highly recommended as long as you aren’t easily offended or shocked. Before the show we headed over to China Town for some Cantonese food at Plum Valley in Chinatown. The food tasted lovely, however the chef was a little heavy-handed with the cooking as the meat was a little tough. The salt & pepper squid was almost un-chewable. The spring rolls were delicious though!

Museums & Exhibitions

The weather was extremely hot and summery for a few days when the family first arrived, but it quickly turned autumnal and a bit drizzly. London has so many fabulous museums and apart from offering refuge from the wind and rain – they are full of fascinating things to explore!

The first exhibition we saw was at the V&A, my favorite museum in London. So You Say You Want a Revolution? Record and Rebels 1966-1970 was incredible! The exhibition explores the revolutions taking place in fashion, music, society, sex, war and race throughout the late 60’s through propaganda, photography and media. You walk through the exhibition wearing headphones – listening to music and recordings from the era. It ends with a room carpeted in faux grass where you can fall into a beanbag and watch recordings of Woodstock on massive screens!

On Saturday we headed over to the British Museum to see the Sunken Cities  exhibition which explored the union between ancient Greece and ancient Egypt through artifacts recovered from the submerged ancient cities of Canopus and Thonis-Heracleion. It’s amazing to explore these once great cities through the artifacts – jewelry, inscribed stones and statues – however we were disappointed that they didn’t share more about the story of the actual recovery. Interviews with those involved in the project, videos of the salvage efforts or visuals of how the artifacts were preserved would have been much appreciated. All in all, an interesting and enlightening exhibition which begged for a little more excitement.

Lastly we visited the Natural History Museum – one of London’s most entertaining museums for people of all ages! I have loved coming here ever since I was a little kid and still enjoy it just as much to this day. We saw Colour and Vision which takes you through a “565-million-year journey through the eyes of nature”, exploring how vision first evolved and how color in the natural world can be the difference between life and death – hues and pigments used as warnings, invitations or disguises. This beautifully written review in The Guardian captures the essence of the exhibition perfectly!