Just Breathe Wanderlust: things to do in london

V&A Winnie The Pooh Exhibition

London 14:18

Yesterday we went to The Hundred Acre Wood. . . .

The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London has been holding a Winnie The Pooh exhibition until the 8th of April 2018. The exhibition allows you to experience the classic and wonderful story of a much loved bear, written by A.A. Milne and illustrated by E.H. Shepard.

“Oh, Bear!” said Christopher Robin. “How I do love you!” “So do I,” said Pooh.” - A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

Throughout the exhibition, you get to learn about the story behind the story. Christopher Robin, was the son of A.A. and Daphne Milne. Christopher was the inspiration for his father’s story books, as A.A. Milne would watch him play with his many toys, including his much loved bear named Winnie The Pooh.

The V&A have done a spectacular job of building the exhibition, complete with Pooh Bear’s house, including his thoughtful spot; Pooh Stick Bridge; Rabbit's Rabbit Hole, and even a little bed where you can read some Pooh books for bedtime!

The Pooh Stick Bridge was especially well made, as you could walk over the bridge and stare down into the moving water, to watch the pooh sticks and quotes from the story pass under the bridge!

He climbed and he climbed. . .

The exhibition also features parts of the story, which are displayed beautifully with illustrations, props and hanging text. One such example is famous part where Pooh Bear goes to get honey from the bees nest, which is high up in the tree, so Pooh flies up into the sky with a balloon. This was even complete with buzzing bee sound effects!

'You never can tell with Bees.' ” - A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

Through the exhibition, you get to see Winnie the Pooh memorabilia, including several difference editions of the books, toys and lots of teddy bears.You also get to see many family photographs, letters, handwritten drafts of the books, and pencil sketches by E.H. Shepard, which in my opinion are much better than Disney’s portrayal of Pooh and friends. Since, E.H. Shepard’s illustrations are timeless.

It was my first experience of a V&A exhibition, and I would definitely want to go again. It was worth the snowy train ride, where I listened to the audiobook of Winnie The Pooh on route!

Also, the V&A have produced some beautiful items in the gift shop there are wonderful prints, pins and books! Being a bibliophile, I couldn’t resist to buy yet another book - because of course I need more books!! This a wonderfully illustrated hardback edition, detailing the history of Winnie The Pooh!

All in all, it was a beautiful exhibition!

“But, of course, it isn't really Good-bye, because the Forest will always be there... and anybody who is Friendly with Bears can find it.” ― A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner

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Bank Holiday Weekend in London

aquarium 15:36

This weekend was a bank holiday! Meaning a three day weekend! Yaaaaay!

We took the opportunity to go to London, and stay over night, so that we could go on the London eye in the midnight hours.

We arrived in London about lunch time, and we were early for check in at hour hotel. We were also both famished, and so we went for lunch...at first we couldn't decide on where to go, but we soon decided to re-visit Carluccio's in St. pancreas station.

Again the food was absolutely amazing! For starters we had a bread tin (with multiple types of bread) and olives - the olives there are the best I've ever had!

I had a tuna and anchovy salad for lunch, and my boyfriend had a delicious seafood lasagne, which tasted so nice, however it was very filling! (Unfortunately I was so hungry that I forgot to take a photo of the meal). We also had garlic bread which was really nice - doorstep slices of wow!

After lunch we went back to the hotel to check in and we stayed there for a little while before setting off to our planned trips.

Firstly, we went to the London Sea Life Centre Aquarium.

Finding Nemo Fish....Nemo & Dori

It was really nice there, there was lots of different fish too we saw sting rays (which have really weird faces), sharks, Finding Nemo & Dori fish, sea horses, starfish, turtles, eels, catfish, penguins (my favourite although you couldn't see that too well - because of the glass).

Sting Ray's face...they came right up to us!

Sharks! Which were really hard to get a photo of as they moved sooooo fast!

Penguins - which looked really sad :( I think they'd of been better in an open Zoo area
rather than coop-ed up behind glass.

Looking at fish is actually very relaxing, just watching them swim along without a care in the world, kind of makes you forget your own problems for a while.

The aquarium was pretty big, however not quite as big as I was expecting. It's definitely worth a visit though!!!

After the aquarium we were both a little peckish, and so went for dinner. Again, we didn't really know where to go - especially since we had to be back at the London Eye for quarter past nine at the latest. We decided upon Canary Wharf, we both really like it there - and it's very peaceful on weekends. I think that every time that we've been to London we've visited Canary Wharf.

We went to another favourite of ours, all bar one. There we had dinner; a starter of squid and main meals of Fish & Chips and a Burger. It was really nice, since we sat outside over looking the river, and the glass sky scrapers - It is just a lovely and very clean area.

over looking the water

After dinner, it was slightly darker and so we hopped onto the tube back to Waterloo. When we got off at Waterloo it was dark and all the lights were on (which felt slightly strange since it was hardly just getting dark at Canary Wharf). We walked around for a little and I took photos of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament all lit up.

I couldn't believe how beautiful it looked at night with all the lights, it truly was stunning! (The photos don't do it justice!)

After a short queue for the London Eye we got on! I was sooooooo excited I couldn't wait I knew it would be so magical and it really was! Although unfortunately none of my cameras really worked this weekend and so the picture quality isn't as brilliant as I would have liked (my main SLR camera really didn't want to work).

I didn't want to get off at all I could happily do that again, and again, and again... In fact I have now added it to my bucket list here:

http://justbreathe-through-wanderlust.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/bucket-list.html

Waterloo Station!

After the magical thirty minute rotation on the London eye I was so happy, ecstatic even. It was just so breathtakingly beautiful, especially from the very top. You could see the whole of Waterloo station, The Shard, Big Ben....everything! It was so amazing!

After that we were a little tired, to say the least. We did plan on going into Camden for a few drinks but we couldn't face it so we went back to the hotel to sleep.

The Next Day....

Leicester Square

The next day, we woke up really tired and run down. We did think about going straight back home, but since it was such a lovely and warm day out - we went to Leicester Square to chill in the sunshine.

A comical ballet show in Covent Garden

We spent all day there! We also took a walk to Covent Garden, where there was a little show on. Plus, we went to the Tesco in Covent Garden to have a little picnic for lunch - which was really nice!