Summer is Here, So is Governors Island

While winter lingered for a few extra weeks and I again and again found myself bringing my coat back out from storage, summer has definitely arrived. We had our first days of that simmering, sweltering heat of New York summers that make you long for frigid days of February. Luckily, there are beautiful perks to summers in the city, including free ferries to Governors Island, the decommissioned military base in the harbor that is now a public park. It opened for the season this past Memorial Day weekend, and as my cousin Meghan is in town we made a visit and I thought I would share a few photos. Don’t worry, I wore SPF 100 on my  pallid skin.

Bike paths circle the island. Perhaps one day when I am more ambitious I will ride over to the ferry that leaves from Brooklyn and make the loop. There are also plenty of rentals on the island if I am feeling half lazy.

There is an especially tranquil space of green in the center of the island, where there are currently sculptures by Mark di Suvero, playing their metal angles against those of the Manhattan skyline. There was also a very busy ice cream truck nearby.

The ferry ride to the island itself is fun, as you speed away from the island of cluttered buildings to that of a quiet, tree-crowded town. I liked this view from the ferry where it appears that the Staten Island ferry is racing an old schooner.

Here is another view from the ferry. While there are free ferries from Brooklyn and Manhattan, I would also recommend the East River Ferry, which costs $4 but had no line. You can also then ride all the way up to Williamsburg, Greenpoint, or Long Island City, where you can refresh your sun dappled mind with an iced coffee.

London Day 3: A Walk Along the Thames and Further

The evening I returned to London from Manchester, after a short rest following my visit to the Wellcome Collection, I took a long walk along the Thames to the Dennis Severs’ House, an immersive, living painting of sorts. Yes, if you are looking at a map from the Victoria Station area to the Dennis Severs’ House, this is quite a long journey, but I prefer to spend most of my time above ground while traveling and sacrifice my shoes to the streets. The Thames is a particularly interesting walk, with plenty of nautical touches, like this fish lamp (or dolphins?), as well as some other interesting sights.

There were some great iron benches supported by sphinxes and camels, all with views of the south bank of the Thames, where the London Eye turned and the Tate Modern loomed.

There are a couple of large sphinxes guarding a large obelisk, which, like the one in Central Park in New York, is called the Cleopatra’s Needle. It was a gift in 1819 from the then-ruler of Egypt to commemorate British victories in Egypt. However, it wasn’t moved to London until 1877, although the boat on which it was traveling faced some tumultuous seas and nearly capsized. It was finally put in its place in 1878. Beneath it was placed a time capsule which had a ridiculous list of items that I just have to quote here from Wikipedia: “A set of 12 photographs of the best looking English women of the day, a box of hairpins, a box of cigars, several tobacco pipes, a set of imperial weights, a baby’s bottle, some children’s toys, a shilling razor, a hydraulic jack and some samples of the cable used in erection, a 3′ bronze model of the monument, a complete set of British coins, a rupee, a portrait of Queen Victoria, a written history of the strange tale of the transport of the monument, plans on vellum, a translation of the inscriptions, copies of the bible in several languages, a copy of Whitaker’s Almanack, a Bradshaw Railway Guide, a map of London and copies of 10 daily newspapers.”

There were many interesting monuments along the Thames, the names of which I unfortunately did not note. I especially liked all the tiny anchors on a wall with this woman hold a mirror.

Here is another creature that caught my eye along the Thames. There were actually quite a few of these dancing dragons around the city. You might recognize them from the crest of the City of London.

Eventually, my path to Dennis Severs’ House brought me back into the streets of London, where I found myself below St. Paul’s Cathedral. Adjacent, I saw this statue of a woman with a skull by her foot on the St. Lawrence Fountain, a Victorian structure that was actually dismantled over 40 years ago before being restored in the 2000s.

I then walked up by the London Stock Exchange, and noticed this curious detail on a building of four hands grasping at a point. A symbol of unity, I’m sure, and I like how the character of each of the hands makes them represent and individual person.

Here was another symbol on a nearby door, even less subtle with a sheep in a sunburst, no doubt on the door of a religious household.

It began to rain, and even though I’d walked quite a ways, I found myself in the neighborhood early, so I took a short jaunt by the Spitalfield’s Market to see some street art. This whimsical monster was my favorite.

Here is some more delightful graffiti, although a little more scary than the whimsy monster.

Finally, it was time to go to Dennis Severs’ House…. TO BE CONTINUED

London Day 3: The Wellcome Collection

The train back from Manchester to London let me off at Euston Station, which just happened to be across the street from one of the destinations at the top of my England travel list: the Wellcome Collection. I unfortunately don’t have any photos of the exhibits inside, as they were forbidden, but hopefully I can recreate the experience for you.

(from guardian.co.uk)

Luckily I have the internet to help me out. The Wellcome Trust was started by Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome, a man of wide travels and eccentric tastes (shown above with an unsurprisingly elaborate moustache). He was especially interested in medical history, and the Wellcome Collection focuses on this fascination through rotating exhibits (there was an excellent one on brains when I was there), but the most fascinating part of the museum is the section on Wellcome himself and the collection of objects he amassed. Wellcome was actually born in Wisconsin, and had an early interest in invention, creating an invisible ink when he was just 16, going on to found a pharmaceutical company which sold medications in England. He became a British citizen in 1910 and was knighted in 1932, although he died of pneumonia a short time later in 1936 at the age of 82.

(from wellcomecollection.org)

The trust set up at the time of his death has had an extraordinary legacy, especially with the Wellcome Collection which realizes in part his dream to have a “Museum of Man” and bills itself as “a free destination for the incurably curious.” In the exhibit Medicine Man at the Wellcome Collection, it’s possible to glimpse into the thousands of objects he collected, each more strange and wonderful than the last. The museum has the only audioguide on which I’ve wanted to listen to every single track, as I walked from a rack of prosthetic legs to a guillotine blade to a trepanned skull, each with its own entrancing story to tell. There were several large glass caes crowded on the floor, and even more objects in drawers and cabinets around the gallery. I imagine I could come back limitless times and never tire of exploring just the Medicine Man gallery.

(from wellcomecollection.org)

The Wellcome Collection is somewhere between going into a person’s home with exceptionally refined and bizarre tastes, and wandering into an old museum that has remained unchanged from its wunderkammer 19th century state. Also, did I mention it was absolutely free to go in? And they have free wifi? Truly a place of wonders. I especially loved some of the more elegant medical curiosities, like this wood and ivory carving of a 18th century anatomical demonstration. While the sculpture is obviously of an anatomy lesson, is the viewer of the art meant to learn as well? Or is this just capturing something the creator found beautiful, the progress of medicine and the intricacies of the body? I suppose every object in the Wellcome Collection also sparks as many questions as knowledge it imparts, sending you out even more inquisitive about the world.

(from wellcomecollection.org)

This scare-devil from the Nicobar Islands in the collection is also an extraordinary visual, with its top hat and insect-like wings. It would have been placed outside the house of someone who was sick to scare away the evils causing the illness. I got a tote bag in the Wellcome Collection gift shop with a scare-devil on it, so this should be a healthy summer for me.

I really recommend stopping in the Wellcome Collection if you happen to be in London, even if you only have an hour to take in a few stories from the amazing objects. It was a highlight of my trip and I plan to make it a staple of return turns. I am, after all, incurably curious.

Later this day, I would take a long walk along the Thames and find myself in another strange environ, although this would be haunted by the crackle of candles as I walked through rooms of antique objects.