Easter Sunday | Domingo de Páscoa

We woke up and saw... | Acordámos, e vimos...



Although I was ecstatic at the first proper snow since I'd been here, when we reached Hyde Park we discovered a downside to it... the bunnies on rollerskates parade we had been planning to watch (and photograph) was postponed!

Embora eu estivesse eufórica com a primeira neve a sério desde que cá estou, quando chegámos a Hyde Park descobrimos-lhe uma desvantagem... o desfile de coelhos em patins a que tínhamos planeado assistir (e fotografar) foi adiado!



So we had a walk around the park, and went on to the only other Easter event we could find in London: a ukulele workshop at the Southbank Centre. What Hawaiian shirts and ukuleles have to do with Easter we have yet to find out, but there was a giant Lyndt bunny near the London Eye... at least the publicity said it was giant...

Portanto demos um passeio pelo jardim e seguimos para o único outro festejo de Páscoa que descobrimos em Londres: um workshop de ukulele no Southbank Centre. Ainda estamos para descobrir a ligação entre camisas havaianas e ukuleles e a Páscoa, mas ao pé do London Eye havia um coelho gigante da Lyndt... pelo menos segundo a publicidade...

People, people everywhere!

Saturday we figured it might be time for a more cultural, non-animal related outing. However, the queues at the entrance to Madame Tussaud's led us to consider the value of a few hours of our lives, and we therefore made do with Sherlock Holmes' metal sculpture and headed off to the British Museum instead.

The ticket office is circled in the distance... and yes, the queue was 3-4 people wide!

"Elementary, my dear Watson!"

Even there, the crowds took us by surprise! We knew it was Easter Saturday, and everyone was on holiday, but even so... the British Museum is huge, and it still managed to feel packed! The Egyptian and Greek galleries on the ground floor were the busiest. After a look at some Abissinian murals, we squeezed a peep at the rosetta stone between the camera-pointing throngs, explored one of the larger Egyptian rooms, and then found ourselves in a room with sarcophagi and mummys, but almost no breathable air! We escaped the pressing crowds via the first door that presented itself, and after briefly consulting the map decided to head upstairs to an exhibition of Japanese artifacts. This was finally quiet enough for us to be able to fully appreciate its contents, and we spent a happy hour wandering around statues of dragons, miniature good-luck gods, samurai armour, swords and Japanese paintings...

"No, Hugo, you can't take a sword home with you!"

As we were being ushered out of the Museum at closing time, we passed an Easter island statue in a strange room we couldn't quite work out the theme of: hanging above the Easter island statue, for instance, were flying machines... I'll report further on this room once I've gone back and looked at it properly.

Notice the people actually have space to move...

Before we left, we spotted a mini terracota army, made by schoolchildren who had visited the exhibition before Christmas:

Aren't they cute... errr, menacing, I mean, menacing!

Ducks and water...

Friday morning was bright and sunny, so we headed off to the London Wetlands Centre, where we spent a happy day birdwatching and where Hugo got in plenty of photography practice... with moving targets!

I love the sculptures at the entrance!

A fast-moving Coot, and a still one

The ever-present Moorhen and a flesh-and-bone Wood Duck, in spite of its name

A resting Smew and a talkative Mallard

Mr. & Mrs. Shoveler demonstrating their namesake, and a flying Shoveler

A view of the main lake, with a Lapwing on a sandbank and Ravens on the lawn


A Cormorant flying over the main lake


And the goose that tried to attack me!

At the end of the day, we discovered the Centre's tactic for ensuring all the visitors leave promptly at closing time: they cause a thunderstorm with heavy rain! At least we assumed that must be the case, as said storm, though heavy, coincided exactly with closing time, and lasted only about 20 minutes - just long enough for everyone to run back to the exit for shelter!
We dried off on the train home...

Inevitably...

The weather appeared to be keeping ok next day, so we decided to go for another outdoor trip. One which might be considered an occupational hazard, but considering how much we enjoy it, such a description would probably be missing the point. Our destination was, of course, London Zoo, where our letters from Lisbon Zoo granted us free entrance. The nice boys at the ticket office did try to extend their hospitality and get us into the official (VIP) opening of the restored Blackburn Pavillion (containing the only hummingbirds in the UK), but unfortunately they didn't quite manage to convince the big bosses... well, it was worth a try!

In the meantime, our weather prediction abilities had failed us somewhat, and the day turned out to be rainy, so our route was defined according to two criteria: what haven't we seen yet, and does it have a roof over it?

With these considerations in mind, we deemed fit to start off at the reptile house, where we spotted a real-live Gaboon Viper (as opposed the skeleton we knew from Lisbon Zoo) and a Black Mamba.

A live Gaboon Viper

And, of course, we played the traditional game in these places: find the animal! This was especially complicated in the frog section - yes, I know it was supposed to be a Reptile house, and I know frogs are amphibians, but they need similar care and conditions and are therefore housed together - finding tiny frogs through misty glass in the middle of dense foliage is not easy... even when they're bright-coloured! A few, however, such as the Yellow Poison-Dart Frog, we had no trouble finding! Unlike this gecko, hiding in the most inaccessible corner of its enclosure, above the glass... and therefore "spottable" only by shorties such as myself... being 1.5m tall has to have some advantages!

The spotting game: the conspicuous yellow poison-dart frog, and the hidden Madagascar gecko

After a brief detour via the Komodo Dragon enclosure, currently on loan to Matilda, the Aldabran Giant Tortoise, we visited the Pigmy Hippopotamuses in their heated winter pool. They seemed to be enjoying their jacuzzi, I must say!

The shy Matilda, and the warm hippos

Next, following advice from our friends at the ticket office, we went to watch the clock outside the Blackburn Pavillion strike the hour. It is a wonderful tin contraption honouring the Victorians and their love of birds, with two toucans making the pendulum swing between them by pecking it, and a Victorian couple holding cages. On the hour, metal birds fly out of the cages and around the couple, while others appear on the roof of the building, amongst the lettering. It is glorious to watch, but as we had to do so from the shelter of my umbrella, I have no photos to illustrate it... yet!

We did have a wander around the walk-through Squirrel Monkey enclosure next door while waiting for the clock to spring into action, but the monkeys were obviously more intelligent than us, and were all huddled up inside their house!

Next stop, Africa! First, the African bird safari, where we were made to realize just how big the Hammerkop's 1.8m tall and wide nest actually is:

The Hammerkop, and its nest

Next, the African mammal area, with its Giraffes, Okapis, Zebras, African Wild Dogs and Warthogs, plus an antelope whose name I'm affraid I can't remember...

Finally, we visited the aviary and the owls, including the Burrowing owls, which must have a personality disorder - they all appear to think they're flamingos!

Even the photo on the information board showed the Burrowing Owl standing on one leg!

Kew Gardens... but no Borka!

After a lie-in to recover from the Sci Comm celebrations, we had a late breakfast and caught a train to Kew, where we found the Royal Botanic Gardens in their full spring splendor. We had a nice walk among the flowers and around the lake, admiring the pansies & primulas, tulips and daffodils, as well as the coots and moorhens, ducks... and even a goose in a flowerbed!

We found a nice bench under a tree to enjoy our pasta lunch, and discovered it was such a nice spot that this jay wanted to share it with us:

After lunch we headed for one of the hothouses, which started with a desert clime. I've never seen so many different cacti! From tiny to huge, including this one which looked like it had tentacles:

The next section - forest - had a little side-room with carnivorous plants, such as these venus fly-traps and some pitcher plants.

After walking past a waterfall and a cocoa tree, we entered the orchid-rooms: apart from a whole array of different orchid species, there was a creeper-sculpture the Gardens received as a gift from Easter Island and a little nursery which usually houses the species of orchid which are flowering at that time of year - even though it was out of service due to some technical problem, I still liked the idea...

After the hot-house, we passed a lovely area with flowering almond and magnolia trees, took the mandatory romantic photo, and moved on in search of a cup of tea, but arrived at the café doors just after they'd been closed. As it was nearing closing time for the Gardens themselves, we made our way back to the gate, via a scenic little wooden bridge over a creek and a speedy walk next to the rock garden. Also en route, Hugo spied his first squirrel of the trip.

We decided to go back home via Kingston, since Hugo wanted to check out a photography shop there, but upon arrival in town discovered that not only was that shop closed, so was every other shop, including the shopping mall - at 6p.m.! The timetables in this country I still can't get used to... Eventually we found a café which was still open, and managed to have tea before heading back home...

Hugo and the unforgettable Sci Comm presentations

Hugo timed his visit so well, the day after he arrived his cruel girlfriend dragged him to Imperial College for a whole day's worth of Science Communication Group Project presentations! This was the end of a term's worth of work in groups of 3, responding to a brief which basically said "take what we discussed in last term's academic modules and produce something creative". So, from a soundscape+visual display based on BBC Radio's Shipping forecast to an elephant representing science or a doll's house incorporating science, the media, the public, and the relations between them, there was plenty of variety... including my group's Bumper Book of Science Parties: our presentation involved decking everyone (including the teachers) out in brightly-coloured mortar-board hats, having them play Searching for the Truth (a.k.a pass-the-parcel), and... we had fairy-cakes and apple pi to go with the end-of-term drinks!

Funny how no audience can look bored wearing these hats!

So, on his second day in London (this time round), Hugo got to see some wacky presentations, and discovered my colleagues learned two new concepts in this course: paradigm and metaphor (apparently no group managed not to mention either, and most mentioned both)!

But, on the plus side, he did get to join in the aforementioned end-of-term drinks & snacks, the ensuing trip to the pub, and the pizza&partying at Kamini's place!...

The next day marked the start of my holidays, and of our tourist trips... but there'll be more about them in the next post!

What I like best about London: | O que mais gosto em Londres:

The concept of back gardens.
Suzanne came up to let me know there was a woodpecker in ours, so I leaped to the window to investigate, and spent the ensuing half-hour staring out the window at a green woodpecker, a blackbird, two great-tits, a robin, a squirrel and a jay, each minding their own business and getting on with their lives in our and the next-door-neighbours' gardens!

O conceito de jardim-das-traseiras.
A Suzanne veio cá acima avisar-me que estava um pica-pau no nosso, de um salto pus-me à janela a mirar, e passei a meia-hora seguinte a admirar o dito pica-pau (que em Português se chama Peto-verde, aparentemente), um melro, dois chapins-reais, um pisco, um esquilo e um gaio, cada um a fazer a sua vidinha nos jardins - o nosso e o dos vizinhos do lado!