Springwaters' Wanderings

[springwater]

Well after 8 hours to Singapore then 14 hours to London in at times a violently shaking flying sardine can 30,000 feet above ground we thumped down with a lot of relief at 5am. When I find all my faculties I'll try and post some pics.

[springwater]

Found myself wide awake at 1am so still some adjusting to the ebbs and flows over here. Also some adjusting to do to my coordination after fumbling a milk container and dropping it on the floor causing the top to pop off and spilling most of the contents before I could right it :doh:

We're staying in a little cozy house for a week in Hammersmith organised over the Internet at the 'flat club' the works out to be about $100 a day. The owner seems to be a writer as there's books of many descriptions arranged in every nock and cranny, some contained in some very old beautifully inlaid cabinets crammed in around the rooms.

Yesterday was mostly spent stocking up on food arranging an Oyster card for local travel, the inevitable shopping with the girls, getting some travel info books and maps, generally stretching the legs and taking in the surrounds along some inner london streets and lanes. It's cold, damp then wet then damp and gray but the stars are out tonight so maybe we'll see the sun shining in the morn'.

[Dalboy]

It's cold, damp then wet then damp and gray but the stars are out tonight so maybe we'll see the sun shining in the morn'.

Well welcome to England this is not unusual for here could have brought some nice sunshine with you:U:U:U:U:U.
Hope you enjoy your stay

[springwater]

Well welcome to England this is not unusual for here could have brought some nice sunshine with you:U:U:U:U:U.
Hope you enjoy your stay

Thanks Digger :2tsup: Apart from being really out of kilter with time at the mo' we've been having a great time. Yeah it rained most of the day except for a very brief time while walking along the banks of the Thames we basked in the warm sun for, oh, about 5 seconds :U We went to the Tate British and Tate Modern today, both being brilliant with a lot of art works on display that I'd only seen in books before, couldn't believe I was actually standing only a foot away from works of artists too numerous to mention, just awe struck to see them in the flesh.

[raav]

Springy

Looks like you've become one of those installation type artists.
So hot right now!

[springwater]

Springy

Looks like you've become one of those installation type artists.
So hot right now!

:U Yeah I just need to get one of those carousel slide projectors and I should be pretty well right :2tsup:

[copeau]

Hi,
I really like the head of your monster, shapes and colours...

tate modern has great pieces of art, I remember. Also liked a lot the V&A.
If you hang around Liverpool Station, have a coffee at the English Restaurant on Spittalfields market. Best coffee in London and the owner is from Australia. He loves wine and woodworking. You'd also see my first commission as woodcarver.

[raav]

:U Yeah I just need to get one of those carousel slide projectors and I should be pretty well right :2tsup:


Yes - and some TV screens showing a home movie slowed right down...and heck, anything analogue.

[springwater]

Went to the Victoria and Albert Museum for 4 hours or so but prolly needed a week to take it all in, we'll definitely try to get back there as it's just amazing. Also went to the Saatchi Gallery whoa :o exhibiting are a number of Russian artists whose depictions of life there is very dark and gloomy, very disturbing stuff! If art's a reflection on the human condition then peoples lives in Russia can be very deprived and sickly and you prolly don't want to see the pics I took nor would they be allowed on this forum.

Here's a few pics from the V & A, sorry about the order, still got my L plates on this iPad :-

[springwater]

Some more from the V & A:

[springwater]

And more:

[springwater]

And more:

[springwater]

And more:

[springwater]

I could go on and on as there's so much at the V & A, I really came away with visual sensory overload :rolleyes:

[springwater]

Hi,
I really like the head of your monster, shapes and colours...

tate modern has great pieces of art, I remember. Also liked a lot the V&A.
If you hang around Liverpool Station, have a coffee at the English Restaurant on Spittalfields market. Best coffee in London and the owner is from Australia. He loves wine and woodworking. You'd also see my first commission as woodcarver.

Thanks copeau, I've admired your work so much but alas have remained quiet about it, just feel unqualified or something or other :- I think I may have passed or gone very close to the place you write of the other day but will be going back that way soon as my daughters speak fondly of the market at Spittalfield, I'll see if I can find it as it'd be good to talk to another Aussie for a change, think I'm getting a bit of withdrawal symptoms:U

[raav]

Thanks Springy....I feel so small.

[springwater]

Thanks Springy....I feel so small.




Yep, I fell through a hairline crack in the steps on the way out :U

[springwater]

A lay day was called for today which seemed a good idea as Mon and I have been feeling the effects of what we think is jet lag. Although a means to an end the long plane trips are hidieous and I'm sure not good for ones health. We'll definitely take the long hauls in shorter stints next time, in fact I'd rather take a boat.

Anyway I couldn't sit still all day and took a walk heading for the river Thames about 20 minutes away by foot. I broke through the crooked streets of endless side by side brick houses to find a bend in the Thames which is not unlike the Yarra at home only wider and more greenish in colour. I came across a little old pub called the Dove and had a few ales over looking the river and watched life about it go by.

I noticed the tide was out so I eventually found a ramp down to the stony bank and fossicked along it. Most of the rubble is covered in a brown sediment but broken bits of mostly green glass and broken decorated blue china stands out of which I picked up and bought pack for keep sakes. Mon and I plan to go back and do a more extensive scavenge and hope to bring back more of the broken china.

There are a few groups of river boats moored together, some seem permanently stuck in the mud but others more free and all seemed like they're lived in even having gardens on top with daffodils in flower.

Tomorrow we look forward to going to market, I think it's the Spitalfield one but it could be the Borough one or even the Portebello, I can't remember :-

[Dalboy]

Sound like you are having fun here in England. Hope you enjoy the rest of your time and find many more interesting bits and pieces.

[springwater]

Sound like you are having fun here in England. Hope you enjoy the rest of your time and find many more interesting bits and pieces.

Yes, thank you Digger we're having a good time and plenty more to look forward to.

Another thing that happened today that I enjoyed was while having lunch in the pub up the road called the Andover Arms in came a lady with a fairly large dog, before she sat down she took off her overcoat and layed it on the wooden floor then her dog promptly layed down on it a nestled in. Seems that dogs are quite welcome in the local, around these parts anyway :)

[springwater]

I would've liked to get more pics but got sprung too many time by the security guards, they do a pretty good job. Please Make of them what you will :cool:

[springwater]

This is not art apparently, it's just some of the gallerys' Oak(?) flooring being replaced. I asked if I could have a bit of the old stuff...afraid not.

[springwater]

Food glorious food and other things at the Borough market today

[springwater]

Wish I could've recorded the sounds around the place to, it was nearly as rich as the produce.

[springwater]

259357
Have to get up early tomorrow for another market and it's going to be snowing :o

[enelef]

Looks fantastic.
I always love going to local markets when travelling - the sights, smells and sounds of local life can be quite enthralling.
The contents of them are sometimes astonishing and always amazing.:o

Makes me pine for another trip - but i just started a new job - so will have to bide my time and build up some corporate equity - so to speak.:D

bugger...:;

[Sturdee]

Love the travelogue Craig, keep it going.

Peter.

[underfoot]

Love the travelogue Craig, keep it going.

Peter.
Yep Spring...keep them coming :2tsup:..great stuff
I'm getting itchy feet...(and I only got back from NZ last week)

[springwater]

Thanks fellas, I wasn't quite sure if should post up the pics, thought it may come across as like a slide night but it's hard not to share the sights of all the wonderful things we're experiencing. So it's off we go again today through a light sprinkling of snow, more pics tonight :)

[springwater]

Ok here we go down Portobello Road in the snow which you can't see in the pics for some reason and because it melted the instant it got anywhere near the ground. So so many nicky nacky things to see layed out in little stalls within shops and under temporary covers. Boy oh boy it was cold but there were heaps of things to keep ones mind off it.

[springwater]

Really difficult to move around the narrow surrounds but apparently it gets alot more crowded when the weather is better.

[springwater]

Unfortunately pics weren't allowed to be taken in the majority of the more interesting places :?

Last pic is yours truly freakn freezn

[springwater]

I've been up since 5am, why does it take sooooolong for girls to get goin' :no: Good news is the weather's warmed up to 0 and it's going to rapidly climb to 3 :U

[Sturdee]

why does it take sooooolong for girls to get goin'

If you don't know by now there is no point in enlightening you. Btw I love your wet weather gear. :U


Peter.

[dai sensei]

great shots, you obviously take a lot more photos than me :-, luckily :U

[springwater]

If you don't know by now there is no point in enlightening you.

:U Yeah I know but :doh:

Peter.


great shots, you obviously take a lot more photos than me :-, luckily :U

Thanks dai sensei, the pics are just evidence of skimming over the top really, I'm finding there's just not enough time in the day to record all of this wonderful experience but it's fun trying though.

[springwater]

Righto, finally got my preciousnesses moving again and we all headed off to the British Museum among other things (one has to balance things out to be fair :cool:)

This place is a must see and deserves a lot more time than the three hours we devoted to it. Unfortunately, I'll have to mark this down as a DNF together with the Victoria & Albert but hopefully I can find the time to get back to both to see all the things that were missed first time around.

You may find it interesting to read about the museums origins here:
British Museum - General history (http://www.britishmuseum.org/about_us/the_museums_story/general_history.aspx)
And:
British Museum - History of the collection (http://www.britishmuseum.org/about_us/the_museums_story/the_collection.aspx)
(http://www.britishmuseum.org/about_us/the_museums_story/general_history.aspx)
So without further ado, here's a little show of an amazing place with a few other pics of bits and pieces seen today, in no particular order.

[springwater]

Mind you, entry is FREE!

[springwater]

Hope you can see past the glare from the glass case in some of the pics :-

[springwater]

The Egyptian room was by far the most crowded with people so I only got a few pics, anyway got a strange feeling in there and got outa there.

[Mutawintji]

http://www.woodworkforums.com/attachments/f125/259337d1363988427-springwaters-wanderings-image.jpg



How good a shot iz this !!! Just love it.

Greg

[springwater]

Sorry about the order of the pics, I can't seem to control it so it' a bit of a hotchpotch :-

[springwater]

:doh: Hotchpotch continues, the strange looking thing is a Chinese crossbow mechanism :cool:

[springwater]

259754Last ones :-

[Chesand]

Thanks for the photos. Museums are definitely on our "to do" list for the 3 days we have in London before heading home mid June this year.

[Dalboy]

Its a good job you have a Digital camera just think of all the film you would go through, I know because before digital cameras the wife and I went to Germany for 10 days cost a fortune on our return I had gone through 18 rolls of film.
Last time I went up to London I was in St Thomas's Hospital opposite the Houses of Parliament.

[springwater]

Thanks for the photos. Museums are definitely on our "to do" list for the 3 days we have in London before heading home mid June this year.

I highly recommend the British and the Victoria & Albert museums, you'd be flat out seeing everything that's in both in say a day though depending on how absorbed you are in things. We've been told the London Natural museum is just as good too. Let me know if I can do any ground work here for anything you may be interested in and I'll try and help out.

[springwater]

Its a good job you have a Digital camera just think of all the film you would go through, I know because before digital cameras the wife and I went to Germany for 10 days cost a fortune on our return I had gone through 18 rolls of film.
Last time I went up to London I was in St Thomas's Hospital opposite the Houses of Parliament.

Yeah I wouldn't think I'd be so Pappazzi if I had to pay for prints, we've taken over 700 hundred shots already :o Just have to remember to charge up overnight and off load on to dependable media x 2 for backup.

[springwater]

Ok, that's enough of dear old London for a while, in twelve hours we'll be in Marrakech where we'll start a wander around Morocco :cool:

[Big Shed]

Ok, that's enough of dear old London for a while, in twelve hours we'll be in Marrakech where we'll start a wander around Morocco :cool:

Looking forward to pics from there!:2tsup:

[Chesand]

I highly recommend the British and the Victoria & Albert museums, you'd be flat out seeing everything that's in both in say a day though depending on how absorbed you are in things. We've been told the London Natural museum is just as good too. Let me know if I can do any ground work here for anything you may be interested in and I'll try and help out.

Thanks for your kind offer. My wife is well on the way with organising our itinerary so I think she has it covered. It is not our first time in London but just never been to the Museums.
Enjoy the rest of your trip. Those 13 to 14 hour flights are a fair b****r and I don't look forward to them at all

[springwater]

Looking forward to pics from there!:2tsup:

Thanks Big Shed, The camera is charged up to the max but I'm not absolutely sure of wi-fi coverage at the mo, anyway we should be back here in about a week, that is if I can pull the camel up and don't end up in Algeria or somewhere :U


Thanks for your kind offer. My wife is well on the way with organising our itinerary so I think she has it covered. It is not our first time in London but just never been to the Museums.
Enjoy the rest of your trip. Those 13 to 14 hour flights are a fair b****r and I don't look forward to them at all

No worries Chesand, we'll be back in a week or so, if you think of anything in the meantime give me a yell.

Better go pack my Kaftans and get some sleep :D

[springwater]

Touched down from a three and a half hour plane ride from London to Marrakech in the afternoon.

[springwater]

Prolly best to let the pictures tell the story, spice filled the air, predominately curry but also many others.

[springwater]

Marrakech is a maze of dazzlement, we found our way out (just) but only saw some of it really. If you go, be prepared to be harassed by the shop owners and to say no as politely as you can a lot.

[springwater]

Being bewildered by Marrakech mayhem for four days was enough.

261765261764261763261766261767

[springwater]

So we headed for Essaouira on the Atlantic coast.

[springwater]

If you ever need to raise your heart rate I suggest a white knuckle trip through the High Atlas mountains. Meeting a tourist bus coming the opposite way on a hairpin bend with a 3000' drop, on the wrong side of the road going around a Berber man driving a laden donkey in the snow was, well, interesting :o

I'm finding it difficult to manage the pics, so sorry the order doesn't follow the way we went about Morocco so I'll just throw them up ok.

[springwater]

We spent a lot of time travelling in a 4wd but it was worth it in the end.

[DJ’s Timber]

Some interesting sights there, the goats in the tree :2tsup:

And it'd be a bugger if the boat you need to take out first is one of those closest to the dock :doh:

[springwater]

Thank you very Marrakechy :U

[A Duke]

Wow!
Thanks for putting all the effort into sharing all of it with us.
Regards

[Big Shed]

Looks like you guys had a great time over there andyou certainly put up some great shots, thanks for that, really enjoyed looking at your photos.

[tea lady]

Brilliant pics. :U

[springwater]

Thanks for sharing this trip with us. A couple more days in England and we're off to Paris by train then car down south to reach Marseille...I hope :wink:

This is definitely not Morocco :rolleyes: No pics allowed inside and was asked to take my hat off!

[springwater]

I wish I could show you what was inside but security was tight, let's just say it was pretty well decked out :o

[springwater]

We spent about four hours roaming around, could have done with another four though. Jaw's still saw from dropping it so much :o

[springwater]

Just a little bit of History lying around the place :p

[springwater]

There were a lot of "KEEP OF THE LAWN" signs but I forgot to take a pic off one :doh:

[springwater]

If only the walls could speak :rolleyes:

[springwater]

A few more

[springwater]

Just a couple more and that was the great Windsor Castle.

[RETIRED]

Very impressive.:D

[springwater]

Some pics from the Natural History Museum

[springwater]

Another place that I didn't have enough time in, oh well what I saw was amazing.

[springwater]

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[springwater]

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[springwater]

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[springwater]

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[springwater]

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[springwater]

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[springwater]

Au revoir pour l'instant :D

[tea lady]

That turtle is a bit fascinating. and yuck. :C:D

[springwater]

We arrived at Gare du Nord station Paris at 9.30 am after a 3 hour trip by train from St Pancras London. First contact with people here was via some adolescent Gipsy kids wanting money for the blind :rolleyes: They all disappeared like the wind when the police appeared from around the corner.

We caught a taxi to our sixth floor apartment in Rambuteau Street where we're catching our breath after climbing the winding 6 flight wooden staircase :oo:

Here's a few pics of in and around; the street view, apartment garden opposite and some of the exposed roof trusses in our apartment.

[springwater]

Some pics from today before we go out into the wilds of a Paris Friday night :cool:

[springwater]

@

[Grumpy John]

Excellent images there Craig :2tsup:, my feet are getting itchy. Too bad the wallet's empty :(.

You'll have to include some of you photo's in this (http://www.woodworkforums.com/f122/world-doors-159483/) thread.

[springwater]

Some from the streets of Paris

[springwater]

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[springwater]

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[springwater]

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[springwater]

Some pics from the Seine

[springwater]

and Notre Dame

[springwater]

@

[springwater]

and a few odd bods :D

[Sturdee]

Craig,

The 3rd picture in post 85, being the black man with a clock face. How tall is that statute?

Peter.

[springwater]

Craig,

The 3rd picture in post 85, being the black man with a clock face. How tall is that statute?

Peter.

It's around about 120 cm

[Sturdee]

It's around about 120 cm

Thanks Craig,

I'm showing the photo to a mate at the Men's shed tomorrow as he is an clock repairer. Interested to see his reaction.


Peter.

[springwater]

Thanks Craig,

I'm showing the photo to a mate at the Men's shed tomorrow as he is an clock repairer. Interested to see his reaction.


Peter.

That's all right Peter, sorry I can't give you and your mate more details about the piece, it's in a Carnavalet Museum just up the road but I've run out of time to make it there again. Early tomorrow we hop in a car and head south, that is if we survive getting out of Paris first.

[springwater]

So good to get out into the country at last. We stayed around the Provence region in a small town perched on a hill named Bonnieux.