Guy Fawkes

On Saturday, it was Guy Fawkes day. Guy Fawkes (with a conspiring group of Catholics) plotted to blow up the houses of Parliament in order to kill (the protestant) King James so they could replace him with his daughter, princess Elizabeth. He was discovered and arrested on 5 November and this is still remembered and celebrated by fireworks and bonfires all over England. So we were expecting fireworks in the evening and we were not disapointed!

But first we met Sean in front of the Queens Gallery. The Queens Gallery is part of Buckingham Palace and it has themed exhibitions of artworks and other memorabelia wich are mainly owned by the Royal family. There are about 3 exhibitions each year, which each are open for 3 to 4 months. In May we saw the 'Dutch Landscapes' and currently they have an exhibition of original photographs of the Antarctic exhibitions of Scott (who missed out being the first man on the South pole by 35 days, the Norwegian Amundsen was there first) and of Shackleton (who planned to cross Antactica but his ship got caught and eventually crushed in the ice). Both expeditions had a professional and official photographer as part of the team and they provided a very interesting and complete 'pictorial report' of the expeditions. Remember that in those days, pictures were taken on glass plates, not easy to bring home!

In front of the Queens Gallery with Sean

Mount Erebus in the backgound. Taken during Scott's expedition. Note the man with the sled in the foreground, clearly showing how enormous 'nature' is.

Two pictures of the Shackleton's ship stuck in the ice.

After visiting that exhibition, we walked through Green Park to see Sean's office in Jermyn street (he showed us his desk). Of course Green Park is not all that Green at the moment, with the leaves all turning yellow and brown and dropping off:

We had a pizza near Trafalgar Square. That is also the address of South Africa House, the SA Embassy which is surely the most valable piece of real estate the SA state owns (even after the 'renovations' on all of President Zuma's residences).

The Springbok above the entrance to South Africa House. Why has it got wings? Looks like an advert for SAA (the old logo was the 'flying springbok).

Finally, we went into the National Gallery. This is quite amazing, it is full of paintings from between 1500 and 1850, Rembrands, Van Goghs, Matisses, Renoirs, it's all there! As it is considered a 'National Treasure', the entry is free (they do like a donation, but no-one pushes you to make one). We just spent an hour or two there, but one should go back there time and again, it is massive!

To end off, here are two pictures of the fireworks that evening, taken from the back garden in Kew. It must have been many thousands of Pounds worth going off, just in the close behind us. As Gwilym remarked: "The bonuses of the lawyers (there seem to be quite a few lawyers in that street) must have been good this year"!