A Weekend in London

After Friday's mid-term exams were concluded and we had lunch in the Old Court dining room with the students, Mark and I packed up one of the suitcases and took a train to London.  Our hotel was on Park Lane in Mayfair, in a central location to Hyde Park, Green Park, St. James Park and Buckingham Palace. Also, our goal was to attend "Wicked" being performed at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in the West End and to have an after-theater cocktail at the American Bar at the Savoy Hotel in the Strand. 

The Hilton at Park Lane

So, let's start with Hyde Park on Saturday morning, just across the street:

We took a nice long walk through Hyde Park, which  has large open fields, lots of trails for walking, biking and horseback riding, lots of monuments and statuaries, lots of beautiful, colorful gardens, and a lake (Lake Serpentine) with quite a large collection of geese and swans!

Waiting for us at the entrance where we came in!

I must find a way to transport all of this to my backyard!

Old Police Lodge

Throughout the park we found these embedded in the walkways commemorating Princess Diana.

The Speaker's Tree - has quite a history as a spot for the disaffected to challenge the government, covering over a century of soapbox speeches' that resulted in changes to laws, women's right to vote, and labor. 

Lake Serpentine! 
We sat in the restaurant with a cup of coffee and watched
the water fowl greet the strollers and onlookers.

This lake attracts a lot of birds!

We were mystified by this tree - it seemed to defy gravity with upside down branches and leaves.

After our long stroll through Hyde Park, we caught a cab to the Apollo Victoria Theater to watch a live performance of "Wicked" - this matinee was sold out, even after being performed for 8 years at this theater.  The actors and singers were great!  It was interesting hearing this tale unfold with British accents, but they definitely pulled it off.  We were not allowed to take pictures of the performances but I did take photos of the theater, which had originally been built in the 1930's as a movie theater:

Inside the lobby, they sold popcorn and sodas to take inside the theater!

The view from our seats.

After the performance, we hailed a cab and went to the American Bar:

Then we returned to the hotel to walk down the street to the Rose & Crown Pub for venison and chicken pies with pints of local beer.

On Sunday morning, we took a nice long walk through Green Park, visited Buckingham Palace, and walked further on through St. James Park:

Gates leading from Green Park to Buckingham Palace

 

 

Views during our stroll through St. James' Park this morning.

Pelicans!

A proper English Garden

One of the Queen's guards - we notice he's holding an automatic weapon -
must be because of the "severe" threat level that the UK announced the day before. 
Lots of fully-armed police were walking around the Palace parks . 

Our last view of St. James Park as we headed back out to Piccadilly, then to Park Lane and to our hotel..

Time to take the train back to Cambridge!

Class in Session and in the Field

Mark’s class is held in the Bennett Room near our dorms – it is in a round building that has a library (unfortunately closed for the summer) and a “common room” where the students will have most of their morning and afternoon teas. 

Class setting down for morning lecture

Class has morning tea in the common room

But, they don’t always stay in class – there are field trips to local laboratories.  Below are two of the working labs that they visited this week:  the students walked to the Sainsbury Laboratories and later in the week they took the bus to the new facility of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, which has Nobel laureates as part of its research staff.

The Sainsbury Laboratory tour was conducted by Dr. Siobhan Braybook, a UCD PhD graduate working there as a Career Development Fellow and also as a Fellow (i.e., assistant professor) at Kings College, who began with a lecture and then took the students around to view the laboratories:

Modern labs and facilities

Working test gardens

 

The LMB tour was conducted by Dr. Lori Passmore, a Research Group Leader studying aspects of gene regulation, who also began with a lecture and then arranged for the students to be taken around this newly constructed and modern facility, which from the sky is shaped like a chromosome!

 

 

Model of the building - from above, it looks like a chromosome.

 

The Nobel Laureates of the LMB

There is a hidden floor under each main floor which houses all technology and electronic connections -
makes repairs and upgrades possible without disturbing science experiments or the scientists.

Nice view from the commissary.

 

After Friday's mid-term exam, the students were served a delicious lunch in the dining hall at Old Court: