Visiting the London Aquarium

During my trips, I love to spend a lot of time visiting Zoos and natural science museums and Aquariums. I feel it relaxing and interesting and always an opportunity to learn new things. My latest love is the London Aquarium where I've been at least four times this year. There it is a similar place in Berlin that I visited in my first year in Berlin, but I rarely go in that area more than once the year. I do not like too much the neighbourhood.   

The big advantage of the London Aquarium is the great location, minutes or Tube stations away from London's big attractions. From the London Eye to the Big Ben, everything can be seen and if you look carefully, you would love the view as much as I do. 

My usual schedule of a day at the London Aquarium is to try to be there around mid-day - especially during the summer expect some waiting time and a lot of tourists, but everything goes quite fast - spend there a couple of hours - I want to be in time for the penguins' feeding time, around 3pm. If I am lucky, I can get some special presentations, as it happened today, when I'd learned about sharks. After I have enough of observing the fish and taking pictures - without flash - of the lovely creatures, I usually stop at the Marriott for a cup of tea or a fresh juice and I continue my journey for the evening meal. Besides the interesting show of the nature, one will always have the feeling of being part of a global world, with lots of languages spoken by the tourists from all over the world. 

One of the reasons I like to go there very often is that it is always some piece of information I miss before. I love the way in which the short presentation texts are written, in a language easy enough to be understood by people without any science background. 

The price is relatively high, of around 20 pounds. There are many information for children and some special playgrounds, besides quite a bit of kitsch and touristy stuff. But one can ignore that and be pleased by the incredible colour combination of the fish or of the grace of the swimming sharks. There are life lessons that both children and adults will always enjoy. 

You can also watch The Jellyfish show on YouTube.

Discovering London: The Royal Opera Arcade

After I visit a city more than once, I like to get lost on the streets and let myself surprised by new corners that are not necessarily in my 'books'. It happened recently with the Royal Opera Arcade in London.

 Situated between Haymarket and Lower Regent Street, it is the first arcade of London, inaugurated in 1818. It is considered one of the first works of Sir John Nash, the mind behind many modern constructions of the city, such as Regent Street or the Marble Arch. It survived dereliction, blitz and fire.

 Shortly after the war, the Government of New Zealand leased the site and built what is still today the New Zealand House. Nowadays, the Arcade hosts also a couple of art galleries, a flower shop or a Koh-i-Noor Diamonds representation. The entrances leading into the theatre from the arcade are no more, but the shops with the bow-fronted windows, as in the initial plans of Nash, are still maintained. The Royal Opera Arcade is situated very close to Trafalgar Square, and to a lot of traditional centers dedicated to the arts, such as Christie's Royal Academy of Arts or the National Gallery.

Visiting the Kew Gardens in London

There it is something special about the English gardens: in addition to the beauty, rich vegetation and geometry of the alleys, at the end of almost every visit, it is something new I learn about history, geography or arts. I find the German parks unexpectedly chaotic and the French ones too romantic, regardless of the occasion. The English gardens are for simple people like me in love with learning in the shortest possible time as much as possible. 

Exactly one week ago, I was visiting for the first time the Kew Gardens where I spent more than three hours admiring flowers from all over the world and learning about spices and types of trees. After every glasshouse we visited - due to the high temperatures, it was not always very easy to resist the extra heat inside and I left some places for a next time - we stopped for a little while on a bank to have a fruit snack or to rest before the next destination. The distance between places of interest could be of around 15 minutes, but especially the last Sunday, there were a lot of people around so being able to see everything takes more time than usual. 

I enjoyed the Palm House and the rich vegetation of the tropical rainforests and spent more time than usual at the Waterlily House trying to learn more about the origin of spices. The cacti area was another favourite of mine, but did not feel as I am in the middle of the desert, as a fast squirrel run from a part of the street to another and did not stop till she reached the top of the next tree. After visiting the London Aquarium the local collection of fish was a bit disappointing, but was a good opportunity to move fast forward to the next green corner. Such as the oldest Corsican pine in England, that reminded me a lot of my wonderful 1 week of hiking in Corsica a couple of summers ago.   

For more organized people and with a cleared agenda, there are many activities taking places at the Gardens, including talks and courses summer programmes, movies projected at the open-air cinema and cookery demonstrations at the Kew Palace. The Palace, the smallest of English royal palaces built in the 18 century, can be visited at no extra charge. The children will enjoy the 'climbers and creepers' space, an interactive area where they can wriggle through tunnels and slide down a giant pitcher plant. I will recommend a full day at the Gardens. There are also a couple of restaurants as well as enough spaces for pick nicks if you are brave enough to carry the basket with goodies with you! 

Boats are available to rent, but as usual, I rather prefer to walk on firm land than to put my non-existent navigation qualities at trial. The souvenir shop offers not only many interesting books about gardening and healthy cooking, but also beautiful flowers to buy - orchids and cacti mostly. For a complete tour of the Gardens, mini-cars are available, but I wanted rather to return in the foreseeable future than to see everything at once. Expect more Kew Gardens posts soon!

The Japanese paradise on Regent Street

As I was wondering without an aim on Regent Street - nothing new for me; no wonder that I am very often late to appointments while in London - I recognized a familiar logo: Mitsukoshi, a store that I did not see since I left Japan, more than 5 years ago. And, as a kitsch version of Alice in Londonland, I opened the door and entered the department store.

Mitsukoshi Department Store was opened in London, on Regent Street, at the end of the 1970s. In 1985, a restaurant was opened at the same place, the first such big Japanese restaurant in England at the time. The prices are both in pounds and yen. At the ground and first floor the most famous fashion brands that are so much appreciated in Japan. At the basement, one can buy English tea and cookies.

 

The explanations are carefully elaborated for the use of the Japanese tourists. When I paid the unannounced visit at the Department Store, on a Monday afternoon, the only customers present were Japanese.

 

One of the main attractions is the JP books sections where you can find the latest manga news and magazines, visual English books in Japanese and lots of colourful magazines. For someone looking to improve or learn Japanese from the scratch, here is the best place to refresh the language. 

The following stop was the Japan Centre nearby, with a lot of traditional restaurants - not the usual 'Asian deli' that I can find in Germany replicated under different names. I did not have too much time to explore the sorts and brands in the supermarket, but I did not see too many green tea cookies so I took some more pictures and ran away.