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headed back into melbourne to catch a restaurant tram- but the pick up was right next to the queen victoria markets. well, i needed to see what that looked like on a weekend, and good thing i did. the place was in full swing, bouncy castles for the kids included. even though i was about to eat, i needed to walk through the deli section again. i could tell you it's because i became enthralled with the fonts used in their signage (which i was). . . but how could i pass up another chance to walk through the most amazing deli market i've ever seen!
btw- here's a brilliant gizmo in the queen victoria market bathroom- press on the circle with your knee to start the water.
"hello, would you like to try our sample cheese today?"
"yes, please."
"which one there's a lovely blue cheese from-"
"ALL of them."
ahhhhh. . . . K-I-L-L-I-N-G me!
is a tofu deli an oxymoron?
took this one especially for mom. . . a creme brulee vendor cart!
they had australian bbq, texas bbq, south american bbq, and sicilian bbq. . . so unfair to be born with only one stomach.
his name is uptown brown- he's a one man band and his gear looked all kind of steam-punkish. i seriously wish i had more time to see him in action, or get a better shot because i think he had a lotus looking light hanging from the back of his gear. . . but i had to run to catch a train.
the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant- how touristy can you get? i can get exactly this touristy.
the food was wonderful, don't get me wrong, it just happened that we had a transcendent thai meal the night before and everything paled in comparison.
a lovely way to end a fantastic vacation.
we must've approached this lovely park from three different angles before understanding where the corner of it was- along with the museum at the corner of it which we wanted to visit. charming park with some cute and playful dogs running around.
this is the exterior of sir john soane's museum. we knew it was closely located to our hotel, but we didn't know it was a mere block away until we found a hidden gem of an alley that we were smacking our foreheads for not finding early in our vacation. sadly i can't include any pictures from the interior, they aren't allowed. if you are familiar with the isabella stewart gardner museum in boston you can use that as a jumping off point. take that museum, add a compulsive desire to collect everything everything possibly and display it in your house, then possibly ramp it up with some crack. . . that was what this museum was like.
could a more stereotypical british store exist?!
so, i decided to head over to Pollock's Toy Museum. i don't think i could've counted the rooms if i tried, and i'm not talking about a big building. but the oddly shaped rooms, the twisty stairs, and the onslaught of toys turned this place into a practical maze for me. lots of fun!
attack of the matryoshkas!
where else are your dolls supposed to get their doll clothes cloth, but at a doll drapery shop?!
shelves and shelves, cabinets upon cabinets, and room after twisted room of toys.
obligatory creepy doll room.
later in the afternoon i got back to the british museum where mom, dad, and dan had been for a few hours. i opted for the special highlights, hour long tour. i was nearly speed walking through the exhibits in order to hit all the star attractions in an hour. i kept getting sidetracked by egyptian artifacts and shiny timepieces.
i guess we could start a conversation about why the british museum has so many things that don't come from england (and i guess that could be said for so many museums.) i get that they are trying to be a repository for human achievement, but just seeing the size and extend of their artifact. . . it was amazing, and sort of odd. i wonder if there are empty museums in countries that no longer have access to their own heritage.
not only are the pieces amazing, but the layout of the whole museum makes everything seem even more jawdroppingly gorgeous.
this dude's got an intimidating gaze.
love me some stamps and seals.
eyes of horus are protecting this box!
it was like reliving my favorite childhood book about mummies.
some beautiful time pieces in a gorgeous room.
this day was a bit in the making. when we started discussing london as a real option for the holidays dad and i started looking into day trips to stonehenge. as weeks passed in september i checked for prices and schedules for tour buses and started to notice that each time i checked fewer and fewer were available. (kinda forgot how popular the winter solstice would be.) then dad started looking into it. he started directly emailing some of the travel companies and got into a lengthy back and forth of other options. (anything other than a packed tour bus starts to get pricey, but dad seemed to be on a mission.)
we ended up with a private tour (could've had eight people, but only had us) that included a sunrise in the inner circle. since the tour company offered a whole day package with a guide, we had a choice of several other places to see. our tour guide (from now on known as 'st. nick' for reasons that i will explain later) from 'the stonehenge travel company' picked us up from our hotel early in the morning. he helped us plan out other places to go after talking about the kinds of things we wanted to see.
here we wait outside the new tourist center (would've liked to walk around inside, but we left before it opened for the day) while 'st. nick' checks on transport to the henge.
this is the view most people will get when they come to see stone henge. they seemed to be still beta testing the tourist center and new bus system and we heard later in the day that it was problematic and perhaps buses of tourists were waiting hours to get up to see it. however, nothing was quite open when we got there and since our tour guide knew the guards we drove in and walked right up. the inner circle isn't open to everyone. from what i understand, that's something you can do if you obtain the right permissions (part of what was included in our tour.) but we ran into a handful of people there for the sunrise.
upon entering the inner circle, 'st. nick' pointed our a spot where the sun lines up with a notch in a rock. here dan tries to get a shot of it. though his caption for the picture is pretty good. he refers to it as the 'help me obi wan' picture. throughout the day things would fall into place that made it feel more and more special. one of the earlier things was that even the guards were taking pictures of this particular morning. the clear sky wasn't a norm, so to have a golden ball of sunlight appear over the horizon was really amazing.
had we been here on the actual solstice, the sun coming up over the horizon would've been in the center of the notch in the rock on the left. still. . . not too shabby!
us at a stonehenge sunrise.
here 'st. nick' points out marks on a rock the might suggest how it was moved, or what was used to move it. hour by hour he proved to be such an amazing catch as tour guides go. he knew all the security guards by name and talked about stopping by later with them for drinks. he was one of the first people through the gates of the new stonehenge tourist center. he had done some archeological work and study of this area as well as a nearby woodhenge. he worked as an ambassador among archeological societies and scientists in the area. on top of that he was wonderfully friendly and funny.
dad, dan, and 'st. nick' looking off into the sunrise.
shot from a rock thought to have hosted sacrificial ceremonies. possibly because there a great spot for blood or rain to pool. directly behind me is another large stone and the ceremonial path that would've been taken by people coming to celebrate the solstice. (honestly, i have no idea if any of that is historically accurate. i doubt i accurately remember half of what we discussed with our tour guide.) 'st. nick' and dad had great chats since dad had recently watched several specials about new theories of how these rocks were moved.
i copied dan trying to take a shot of a shadow of the rocks on the rocks.
as we walked around 'st. nick' would point out different things like how this one shadow (towards the center of the photo) looks like an easter island head profile. he pointed to where famous people (like christopher wren) carved their names into the rocks. now, of course, you aren't allowed to touch the rocks because the oils and acids in your hands might degrade the rocks.
casted shadows of dan and i.
scale- mom and stonehenge.
for the first half of our stay here, there were 15 to twenty people coming and going. but for the last half hour we were completely alone with the guards and 'st. nick.' it was incredible, magical.
nearly impossible to stop taking pictures. as the light changed some new angle or feature would pop up and beg for attention.
our second stop for the day brought us to bath. 'st. nick' continued to impress us with his wealth of history and general knowledge.
even a panoramic shot doesn't do this area justice. here is some of its famous georgian architecture.
looking down into one of the main baths. there was a labyrinth of hot rooms for men and women and while looking down into this one area we had no idea of the size of the museum below. again, impressive and wonderfully overwhelming.
great display created with actual pieces from the roman baths and projections.
ancient curses/ prayers thrown into the fountain.
