So, to recap; I've been spending the weekend in London, visiting friends and soaking up the Olympics atmosphere. Day One is chronicled here (http://vikingbay.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/a-weekend-visit-to-london-day-one.html) - but certainly didn't take the strange and unusual turns that Day Two (aka Saturday) took. Photographic and video evidence can be found at www.facebook.com/matthewmunsonauthor (see the end of this blog for details).
We spent some time at Borough Market in the morning; I'm a sucker for a good market, and Borough is one of the best that I've come across so far. Do go and visit - it's thriving and busy, and the one food stall I go to has always run out of my favourite food whenever I get there, dammit!
Afterwards, we found a bit of a gem in the remains of the Rose Theatre - the website (http://www.rosetheatre.org.uk/) does it more justice than I can, but the remains of a pre-Globe Shakespearean theatre was discovered in 1989, and they're raising money to rebuild it. I can't recommend it highly enough; if the energy and commitment of the volunteers was gold, then they would be rolling in cash. As it is, they are organising small-scale Shakespeare plays, actor talks, etc to raise money, and I intend to return as often as I can. Honestly, go visit.
Have you heard of the BodyWorks exhibitions? Gunther von Hagens, a famous German anatomist, is involved, and it's about breaking down those taboos about how the body works, and I think the concept is brilliant. The Natural History Museum is currently hosting a BodyWorks exhibition on animals, and it was blooming brilliant; intelligent, well-presented and fascinating, I could have stayed there all day - as it was, an hour went by in a flash, and it was fairly cheap too!
My friends and I then spent some time mooching - not a scientific term, granted, but we're on holiday! We spent some time in Hyde Park, visited Harrods (posh chocolate and marshmallows - I was practically in heaven!), Knightsbridge and then onto the Whole Foods Market in Kensington High Street. It's a supermarket, deli, take-away food hall and more first floor restaurants than I could count. I love it there, and we ended up having dinner in the food court - honestly, I could eat there every day and never get bored!
Now, that's where our day out was due to end. We had intended to then go back to base and watch the diving finals at 8.30pm. We left the tube at Embankment and headed towards the nearest Overground station. But we got waylaid.
By Wendel and Mandeville.
Not, I've not been drinking. Wendel and Mandeville, in case you don't know, are the official mascots of the Olympics - and 84 life-sized statues of them have been dotted around central London. We'd come across a couple of them earlier in the day and had photos taken with them - and commented that we should do a couple of the 6 W&M routes that take in all 84. When we came across 3 inside the park's grounds, a demon seemed to take root inside our minds ...
... and before we knew it, we were following a route via Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square and London's West End, chasing down some of these brilliant statues, each one different and unique. We found quite a few, and we had such fun searching for them; it inspired us in a strange way, which is what they were meant to do, I suppose, as well as prompting random - yet fascinating - conversations with strangers. I took some video footage of our search (only about ten minutes worth) and it's broken down into five segments on my Facebook page - www.facebook.com/matthewmunsonauthor - so go and have a look. Ignore the slight incoherence on the odd occasion due to the traffic - hopefully, you'll see how much we enjoyed it, and you'll find the photos there too.
An excellent weekend - and we're going back in a few weeks for some more Wendel & Mandeville hunting. I'm such a big kid sometimes ...
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