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15th
July
2007
Marble Arch – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Marble Arch is a white Carrara marble monument near Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park, at the western end of Oxford Street, London, England, near the tube station of the same name. Only members of the royal family and the King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery are allowed to pass through the arch.
In 1828, John Nash designed the arch based on the triumphal arch of Constantine in Rome. It was originally erected on The Mall as a gateway to the new Buckingham Palace (rebuilt by Nash from the former Buckingham House).
In 1851, the arch was moved to its present location during the building of the east front of the Palace. (A popular story says that the arch was moved because it was too narrow for the Queen’s state coach to pass through, but in fact the Gold State Coach passed under it during the Elizabeth II’s Coronation in 1953.) [..read more..]
Categories : Travel, Wikipedia |
15th
July
2007
I couldn’t leave the blog on such a negative note so let me share with you a quick episode from our last day in Kampala yesterday….
We were up in our (spacious, air-conditioned, retrospectively wonderful…) hotel room taking it fairly easy and getting packed for our trip to England. Luke was looking out the window with Jenni and they noticed a little boy, maybe 3 years old, begging with his mother in the street below. And then our three and a half yar old Luke decided he wanted to give that boy some of his toy cars – and he picked out two cars, also got hold of some biscuits and got Jen to walk him downstairs and across the street to give them to this little boy, along with a little money. Jen couldn’t understand what the mother said in response but it was quite noisy and happy.
In taking our kids to Africa I’d always hoped they might start to learn a bit of a lesson about generosity and developing a heart for the poor, but I’d thought that woul be a gradual thing, and that our boys (especially Luke) were too young to really get it just yet. But perhaps I underestimated the effect that such an experience can have, even at such a young age. Even if that were the only reason it makes trips like this worthwhile. I was so proud of my little Lukey 
Categories : Africa, Family, Travel, Uganda |
15th
July
2007
Well we arrived in Pakistan London this afternoon after a quite pleasant British Airways flight from Uganda. Things were fine at Entebbe and in the air but from the moment our plane came to a halt it started to go a bit pear shaped. We had to wait for 40 minutes in the plane because they couldn’t find a ground crew to come and attach the stairs. Then a lengthy wait in customs and then finding two of our suitcases (including one brand new one) were busted. Taxi ride into the city was fine (though expensive) and then we reached our hotel, which I had booked over the internet a few weeks back. Their website looked really nice and the price of just under $1000 for 3 nights for 2 rooms, although expensive anywhere else, seemed pretty good for central London.
Never trust a hotel website. Not were our requested rooms not ready due to a plumbing leak, but then ones they gave us were so small we can’t even fit our suitcases in, let alone the extra bed we need for one of the kids. It is stifling hot and there is no air-con or even a fan. Kinda reminds me of the Happiness Hotel in The Great Muppet Caper but without the happiness, or the muppets.
Anyway I’m going to try and get some sleep if I can. The plan for tomorrow is to get out of this place ASAP after we wake up and go and see some of the sites of London. We’ll be meeting up with my old mate Matthew which should be nice. And who knows, we might actually see some English people – sure haven’t seen too many so far in this litte part of Islamabad London. Tired and grumpy so I’d better stop now, but hopefully I’ll have some more positive blog material in the next few days…
Categories : Personal, Travel |
