Leicester Square - which statues are visible during ice skating and other events

 I had just got excited by the idea of being photographed sitting on a bench next to Mr Bean in Leicester Square, when I read in the Times newspaper that the ice skating  facility will be renewed for another two years, despite objections including the fact that access to statue landmarks will be restricted.

In order to plan my next visit and inform others I asked Gemini to clarify. Of course, I shall need to check the locations of statues and the dates of events, before going to see the statues for myself and posing with them.

Charlie Chaplin statue in Leicester Square. 

Here's what Gemini told me in response to my question at the start.

In Leicster Square which statues such as Shakespeare and Mr Bean will be seen or not seen on which dates when the ice skating and other events take place in leicester swuare

During major seasonal events in Leicester Square—most notably the winter festivities, which feature Skate Leicester Square and the surrounding Christmas market (running from late October / early November through early January)—the layout of the square changes dramatically, affecting which statues remain visible and accessible.

Visible Statues During Events

• William Shakespeare Fountain: Located right at the central point of the Leicester Square gardens, the Shakespeare fountain remains fully visible, though it is incorporated into the backdrop of the event enclosure. Twinkling lights, market chalets, or the ice rink infrastructure surround the base, but the central statue itself stays in place [cite: 1.2.2].

• Perimeter Statues (e.g., Batman, Wonder Woman, Mary Poppins): Elevated or wall-mounted statues around the edges of Leicester Square (such as Batman on the cinema roof or Mary Poppins near the trees) remain visible at all times throughout the year because they sit outside the ground-level event footprint [cite: 1.3.2].

Hidden or Restrictively Accessible Statues

• Mr. Bean: Located on a bench inside the gardens, Mr. Bean is part of the interactive Scenes in the Square trail [cite: 1.3.1]. During event setups, ground-level bench statues (including Mr. Bean and Paddington Bear) may be temporarily fenced off within ticketed event zones (such as the ice rink enclosure or festive bar/stall areas) or obstructed by temporary structures. While they are usually not physically removed, general public walk-up access and photo opportunities can be restricted or require entry into the event space during opening hours [cite: 1.2.1].

Key Dates for Event Setup & Impact

• Winter Events / Ice Rink Setup: Late October to Early January (e.g., Skate Leicester Square runs from October 31 through January 3) [cite: 1.1.3]. Ground access inside the central garden area is restricted to event attendees or ticket holders during this period [cite: 1.2.1].

• Restoration of Full Public Access: Mid-January. Once the ice rink, chalets, and temporary fencing are fully dismantled, unrestricted ground access to all bench-level statues returns.

• Film Premieres & Red Carpet Events: Occurring sporadically throughout the year, temporary barriers around the perimeter red carpet zone block immediate access to specific ground statues for a few hours on event days, though perimeter statues remain visible from afar.

 You need to check the facts for yourself regarding whatever date and time interests you.

-ends-

Useful Websites

Current details

https://leicestersquare.london/

History and photos of statues

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leicester_Square

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Canary Islands' Congenial Places - Vineyard Visits, Winery Restaurants, and Shopping & Hotels In Tenerife and La Palma

Lovely Little La Palma - And Past Volcanic Peril

La Palma is the little island with active volcano videos. The environment offers all kinds of excitement, both for the active and for the anxious who prefer to watch from a distance.

My husband and I were joining our annual hiking holiday group. Our destination was La Palma, where you can go hiking and see recordings of the most recently active volcano, lasting 85 days in 2021. A  great museum about volcanoes shows videos taken every day during the last months-long overflowing of red hot lava.

La Palma Hotels

The Parador

A remote inland hotel is a parador hotel, part of the popular parador network established by the government to promote regional culture, food and tourism. This parador has an outdoor pool open to residents in the daytime (closing one hour earlier off-season) and a beautiful botanical garden. 

The hotel will give you a picnic lunch if you tell them you are leaving before breakfast for a ferry or hike. 

La Palma Vinery Visits

Bodegas Teneguia, La Palma

A large co-operative, with a huge courtyard entrance, and enormous numbers of  Big vats or wooden casks and small barrels. Friendly like a family business. You look down on the working area below. Despite its size, we found it friendly, like a family business. Nikolas gave our hiking group a great tour.

Malvasia Grape

Book and buy the package of the tour of the Teneguia vineyard and learn about Malvasia, which was the sweet wine exported to England in William Shakespeare's time and praised in his plays featuring King Henry IV, Falstaff and the lady of the night who gets drunk on the wine. (You can find online on Youtube a video of the Royal Shakespeare Company performing this in 1990.)  

La Palma is a great outdoors place with challenging hikes in the strong Westerly winds. Our group hiked down to the lighthouse, but the wind was so strong trying to walk back up that my husband, Trevor, had to hitch a lift from a passing car, and could hardly hold the door open against the wind to get in the vehicles .

Museum

But for non hikers see that fantastic museum on the recent volcanic eruption. Afterwards we drove to the nearby village for a light lunch in a small cafe.

From London our most convenient and affordable international flights were from Stansted into Tenerife where we stayed before and afterwards, catching a ferry to and from little La Palma with the car we had hired on Tenerife. 

Shopping Options on La Palma

Down on the front, near the replica of the big boat of Christopher Columbus, was the El 99 shop. A huge section of underwear and separates. At first it looked cheap stuff. But helpful staff found me the cotton options. I was pleased with my purchases. 

Along the road behind the waterfront cafes were small shops, boutiques selling new clothes as well as a great selection of second hand individual items, attractive, fashionable, colourful and original. Such a pity that our space in luggage was limited, although we had paid extra to Ryanair for a checked in bag. I could have bought and gone home wearing multiple layers.

***

TERRIFIC TENERIFE And Mount Teide

Tenerife is larger. It has two airports, north and south. We flew to the north airport from Stansted.

Tenerife - large island with Mount Teide, massive triangular mountain, more or less in the middle but you seem to see it from everywhere. A cable car takes you to the top if you are prepared to pay the price. 

Tenerife Hotels

The Parador - Parador Las Canadas Del Tiede

The 3 star parador hotel is isolated at the base with a secured car park for overnight residents, because the public parks are notorious for the thefts of belongings in cars and even the parts of the car such as the tyres. Next door to the parador is a handy shop and cafeteria. 

The indoor pool in a side building closes early, and you have to take your towel back to the hotel's reception. For security most of the outer doors are locked, so I ended carrying a heavy wet towel, plus my costume and bag, up and down stairs and around long corridors. A whole nuisance.

However, as Shakespeare said, all's well that ends well. The hotel helpfully gives you a picnic lunch if you tell them you are leaving before breakfast for a ferry or hike.  I didn't want ham, or any processed meat, nor pork. The parador had offered fish. When I said I was allergic to shellfish, I was offered chicken, and smoked salmon. That was a lovely choice. I took one of each. Great service.

The Melia Hotel

The group has more than one Melia hotel on Tenerife. The one we stayed at was near the beach, on the seafront.

It has an outdoor pool. We were given a voucher for the spa, for a 45 minute session in the pools with water jets. Very nice. Any longer would have cost a fee. You don't get a voucher per day, but once per person as an introduction to the spa. We were out and about so much no time to use it more.

We paid for an upgrade, for a sea view room. I signed up for the loyalty programme. We had the use of the Level, a ground floor private dining area. Less food than the buffet in the main room, but cooked breakfast main dish option, and longer hours so you could eat or snack earlier or later. I was happy with the benefit of help yourself to a glass or two of free sparkling wine for lunch and dinner as well as breakfast.

The Gran Hotel Taoro 

A big hotel, which we stayed at because my husband was invited to a conference, The Island Wines Summit.

The Island Wines Summit hat given to Trevor Sharot. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Swimming pool with sloping entrance for wheelchairs and those who don't like vertical ladders into pools. 

Inconveniently, the courtyard entrance is completely pedestrianised, so many people in a hurry end up dragging their own suitcases on wheel to the front entrance from the open gate entrance with the staff who check you in and out.

The packed breakfast was satisfactory. But we had to choose between pork and vegetarian.

Vineyard Visits

The bigger island of Tenerife has five wine areas, each having different soil - colour and consistency, climate - sun and wind, height, grapes and grape blends and so important and distinctive that it has its own protected name of origin. 

Big Free Museum

Casa Del Vino

The name means house of wine. Lots to see for free. Exhibits about the old farm building, growing and bottling wines. And a honey museum. So, something for all the family.

There's also a restaurant in one corner of the quadrangle, under separate management, with an indoor area beside an attractive outdoor terrace. 

You will probably be tempted to pay for a wine tasting which includes food, at the entrance to a shop selling wines. They offer a kiddie tasting option.

Useful Websites For Tenerife and La Palma

Parador Hotels

www.parador.es

https://paradores.es/en/parador-de-la-palma

Museum & Tasting

www.casadelvinotenerife.com

Post being written. Come back later for more.

Shakespeare bust outside Guildhall and Art Gallery.

 

Shakespeare bust. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Shakespeare's Influence on English - and why you should follow his trail

 

Shakespeare

Phrases we all know which come from Shakespeare:

It's all Greek to me

in a pickle

without rhyme or reason

if the truth were known

send them packing

an eyesore

more fool you

better days

fair play

I should have shown this on St George's Day.

You can see the Shakespeare theatre reproduced in London, England. Also visit Stratford-upon-Avon.

Visit England or Canada and 'All's well that ends well', as the title of Shakespeare's play says.

Canada also has Shakespeare theatre events.

Useful Websites

https://fb.watch/cDudFADMq0/

See Richard III's Grave in Leicester Where Richard's Reputation Is Restored - Not a hunchbacked murderer! Was Shakespeare wrong?

Richard III's new burial place in Leicester Cathedral.

Flag of the United Kingdom. 

Richard - who? where?

Richard's remains were found in a car park in Leicester, England. Who was the skeleton? Richard, they speculated. They hoped.

Nah, said the nay-sayers. Wishful thinking.

However, DNA from his relative's descendants proved it was really Richard III! Amazing. So somebody today can say, Richard III was a member of my family - and my DNA proved it.


Picture shared in Wikipedia.

You can drive to Leicester or take the train, then drive a tank at the tank museum in summer. Next the tourist can move to car parks and see Richard III's grave in Leicester Cathedral - all year. Leicester is a lovely, lively area, if you like action and modern or ancient history.

Richard III's Effect On Our World
If your history is hazy, it's a quick way to catch up. To sum it up, Richard was the last of the Plantaganets, who ended the Wars of the Roses, when he lost the Battle of Bosworth to Henry VII.

Why did Richard lose the battle? Some say it was because soldiers under Stanley, supposedly supporting Richard who had more men, were held back until it was clear which side was winning. Seeing Richard run towards Henry in the hope of killing him, being surrounded, Stanleys men quickly joined what loooked like the winning side.

Another theory is that the absence of the Princes in the Tower, and rumours that Richard had killed them, meant that outraged leaders of the nobility withheld their support.

But where were the bodies? Who knew?

The Princes in the Tower. Portraits depicted by Millais, much later.

This pivotal event led to the Tudor takeover. The Tudor takeover led to Henry VIII's important reign which affects people worldwide today. Who is affected? The Church of England, Protestants, Anglicans, students of Shakespeare for A level or simply schoolchildren, and actors of Shakespeare's plays, and lovers of quotations, and even pub goers answering quizzes.

Henry VIII had to divorce his wife to try to get a son and heir, but the Pope did not give permission, so Henry VIII made himself head of the Church of England, which is in England. Other churches worldwide following the British Protestant system, without the pope, not Roman Catholics, are called Anglican. If Richard had won that battle, who knows how different the kings and queens and churches would have been.

William Shakespeare.

In the play by William Shakespeare, Richard III, losing his horse and the battle (for the throne), desperate to escape, shouts, "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!"

How did Shakespeare manage to so successfully encapsulate the desperation of the man about to die and lose the battle, in less than ten memorable words? Why is that sentence so memorable? The start is a repetition: a horse, a horse. For a moment, it seems an exaggeration, absurd, to give your entire kingdom for just a horse. On second thoughts, after some investigation and enlightenment, you realise that without the horse, he had lost the battle, his kingdom, his life.

The night before my drive home from my holiday in the Midlands to London, a lady from Leicester kept me and a group of others entranced until midnight on the last night of Writer's Summer School at the Hayes Conference Centre near Derby, with her story of how William Shakespeare had unfairly blackened the character of Richard III. "Richard," she insisted, "was not the baddie, which William Shakespeare portrayed."

Why did Shakespeare tell such lies? At very least, half truths. Our hero, Shakespeare! Shakespeare was a diplomat. Shakespeare had no choice. He was writing for his patrons, the Tudor royalty, and the audience who had to be persuaded, or convinced, that Richard, who the Tudors killed in battle, had deserved to die.

Richard III! That man who had killed the two little boys in the Tower of London. His imprisoned nephews, heirs to the throne. Tut, tut. Dreadful man, Richard III.

She assured us, "There was no evidence that Richard killed his nephews, the princes in the tower." ("Yes," we assured our Canadian visitor, "the famous Tower of London, which everybody knows.")

The Tower of London has many towers. The tower where the boys were imprisoned was actually the regular place for a prince to reside prior to his coronation. But, of course, the coronation never took place. After that, the tower was known as the Bloody Tower.

If you go to London, you can visit the Tower of London, which competes with Madame Tussaud's as London's most visited attraction.

A portrait of Henry VII is in the National Portrait Gallery on London's Trafalgar Square.

Portrait of Henry VII in the National Portrait Gallery, London.


We listened politely, to the animated lady who was acting as unpaid PR for local hero, Richard III of Leicester, but we speculated sceptically.
"So what killed the boys?"
"Maybe the boys killed themselves."
"Or each other?"
"Or were killed by Aliens?"


The Princes in the Tower of London.

Richard III
"Furthermore," she insisted, "Richard III did not have a hunchback. He had a curved spine."

Conspiracy theorists have all sorts of ideas about what never happened. People have claimed Richard could not have ridden into battle with a curved spine. However, a modern man with the same condition was persuaded to don a suit of armour, which he apparently gladly did for his moment of fame and climbed onto a horse. Far from impeding and hurting him, the armour acted like a giant corset. It helped to support the spine.

If he had lived in modern times, perhaps dear Richard would have said, "A tank, a tank, my kingdom for a tank." But he didn't.

Richard, with or without his horse, was killed at the battle of Bosworth. The throne was taken by Henry VII, leading to Henry VIII, who is regarded with much more enthusiasm, although there is no doubt that Henry VIII married six times, and executed two wives.

Compare Henry VII and Richard. Richard, we suspect, killed his two nephews. They were heirs to the throne.

Henry VII, lifelike bust made copying Henry VII's death mask. See the bust in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, England.


Henry VII killed Richard on the battlefield. A fair fight. (Not exactly. Richard was not taken prisoner. He did not surrender nor live to tell the tale. But he fought to the death. According to one historian, Richard said that he wished to live and die as a king.)

Copare villain Henry with hero Henry VIII. We could also find fault with Henry. Killed his next of kin. Henry was also overweight, extremely so, even for his era. An old man with two wives who were much younger. in his own era, Henry divorcing his longstanding, middle-aged, menopausal wife who could no longer bear children, in favour of her lady in waiting, young, sexy, flirtatious, Anne Boleyn, did not appeal.

Divorced, not a popular move in his era. And had VD (venereal disease) which probably infected his wives and killed his children by damaging their health and resilience in an unsanitary age. But Shakespeare and portrait painters made Henry the hero and the popular villain, whilst Richard III was depicted as horrid, deformed, outside and inside. Richard a man who was handicapped in life, resentful, and killed children.

Richard III is now due for a makeover. But the more mystery and controversy the better.

When I visited Leicester to stay with a friend our main activity was visiting the local branch of Dunelm Mill, one of my favourite stores for affordable but smart furnishings. Dunelm was founded in Leicester.


Duneldm in Bradford.


Richard III is now re-buried in Leicester Cathedral under a solid white slab. His character is now whitewashed.

Disappointingly, the Wikipedia article on the play reveals that Richard was offered a horse and turned it down, preferring to continue on foot. In that case, all the more credit to Shakespeare for improving on the story and creating a memorable line to fit the new, invented scenario.

Go and find out for yourself. If you read Richard III at school, what a spine-tingling moment to see Richard III's grave. If you never read Richard III, a chance to learn visually a bit of history, literature, controversy. A great subject for debate, perhaps in a Tudor style historic pub.

If you are too far away to visit now, and live in the USA, you might be interested in the Wiki article on the play Richard III which gives accounts of the performances of the play in the USA, with photos of playbills of dramatic performances.



To sum up:
TRAVEL TRAIL & TRIP TIPS
1 Richard III grave in cathedral
2 Richard III centre.
3 Bosworth Field centre (shop and more).

Optional extras:
Bosworth medieval Festival:
Bosworth Medieval Festival: 2019

Saturday 17th August - Sunday 18th August, 10:00 am - 5:30 pm.

Tank Museum.
Pub lunch - at pub where you can buy furniture.
Stay in cheap affordable Ibis, cheap hotel at motorway service station, or smarter historical and/or modern hotel.

Practical Information For Travellers

Richard III Museum
Southfields Farm
Husbands Bosworth,
Lutterworth,
Leicestershire LE17 6NW
Tel: 01858 880239.

Useful Websites
www.armourgeddon.co.uk.
www.militarymuseum.uk.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloster_E.28/39
Richard III Visitor Centre (the mysterious letters in the web address are abbreviations for king richard iii all lower case)
https://kriii.com Richard III Visitor Centre
Leicester Tourism
https://www.visitleicester.info/good-to-know/visit-leicester-information-centre
Leicester Cathedral
https://leicestercathedral.org/visiting-king-richards-tomb/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_III_(play)#cite_note-jones-53
https://www.dunelm.com/stores

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
text and pictures in progress

Finding Famous Statues, Graves, Memorials: Jeremy Beadle in Find A Grave Photos, Brunel, Marx, Nelson, Shakespeare, Wilde,

Jeremy Beadle (1948 - 2008) - Find A Grave Photos

I was looking on Find A Grave for the grave of Jeremy Bentham, a founder of University College London, whose waxwork body was displayed in a glass cabinet in the 1960s when I was studying Philosophy as an undergraduate.

By chance I came across the name of Jeremy Beadle, who I remember watching on TV. I loved his comedy programmes including You've Been Framed.

I like his gravestone with the books. As an author and book reader, the idea of books on a grave appeals to me. I then set off on an internet search, which took more than three hours, looking for graves and statues around the world, plus my posts from the past.

What would you want to see in London? Highgate cemetery is best known for its giant sculpture of the head of Karl Marx which looms above visitors on a plinth. Guided tours of the cemetery take you around the graves of famous and infamous people.

Famous Historical Figures Visits
UK

1 CEMETERY & GRAVES
If you want to see the people of the past in London, visit Highgate Cemetery.

2 ART GALLERIES
National Portrait Gallery, and
National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London, England. Easier to reach than Highgate Cemetery.

Photo of Elizabeth I statue on the wall of Harrow School in NW London. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

3 STATUES, LONDON & UK
Statues of famous people in London.
Polish off seeing several statues in one place at Parliament Square where you can see Winston Churchill, Benjamin Disraeli, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela.
PM Mrs Thatcher statue stands in the Houses of Parliament.
Oscar Wilde, reclining, is my favourite.
Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, probably the highest.
Florence Nightingale stands in front of the hospital.
Shakespeare in Leicester Square, London.
Shakespeare (and other poets) in Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey, London.
Another of Shakespeare in the London church where he is buried.

Around the London suburbs
Queen Elizabeth I statue on the wall of Harrow school (walk uphill from station Harrow on the hill, Met line).
See my previous posts and pictures of statues easy to find at London stations including

Sherlock Holmes, outside Baker Street Station, near Madam Tussauds to the left and Sherlock Holmes museum to the right.
Brunel's statue at Paddington station. He built the railway, bridges, tunnels and a ship.
Matthew Whitaker at Euston station, the statue of the map-maker and his cat. He mapped Australia.
Robert Stevenson, railway engineer, at Euston station. Not to be confused with
Robert Louis Stevenson, author, statue in Edinburgh.
Queen Victoria. Numerous.

UK
Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, in the garden of Brontë parsonage Museum, Haworth, England.

WALES
Tommy Cooper, comedian, statue, Caerphilly.

4 FAMOUS HOMES NOW MUSEUMS
 Homes of the famous in London include:
Charles Dickens, author;
Jimmy Hendrix, modern musician; next door is a museum to an earlier musician, Handel.
Keats, poet, house in historic hilly Hampstead;
Benjamin Franklin house museum, American politician and inventor of the lightning conductor and bifocals.

Worldwide statues and memorials include:
AUSTRALIA
Captain Cook.
Queen Victoria.

CHINA
Sun Yat-Sen, many museums and statues in China.

CZECH REPUBLIC
Kafka statue in Prague.

EIRE (Ireland)
Lots of statues in Trinity College, Dublin, and Stephen's Green, Dublin.

Brendan Behan, Royal Canal. (Autobiography Borstal Boy.)

James Joyce, St Stephen's Green. (Novelist. Author of Ulysses.)

Oliver Goldsmith (author of She Stoops To Conquer; The Vicar of Wakefield)

Edmund Burke, Trinity College. Quote:
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it.
FRANCE
Pere La Chaise cemetery in Paris has many graves. See my previous posts.
Proust statue, life size will be in the forthcoming museum in Cyborg, in 2019.

GERMANY
Karl Marx statues in Chemnitz, Berlin and Trier (the latter statue donated by China).

ITALY
Moses by Michelangelo in Rome.
David by Michelangelo in Florence.
Puccini statue in Lucca, Tuscany, opera composer in Italy, statue in his house/museum.
St Francis of Assisi. Birthplace and Burial place - tomb in basilica in Assisi; churches, paintings, murals, museums, all over Umbria. (Umbria is next door to Tuscany.)

NETHERLANDS
Anne Frank in Amsterdam in front of Anne Frank House museum.

NEW ZEALAND
Cook station in Victoria Square, Christchurch, New Zealand.

POLAND
Chopin statue, Warsaw.
Arthur Rubinstein playing a piano, Piotrkowska Street (the main street), Lodz, Poland.

RUSSIA
Karl Marx, several statues.
Yuri Gagarin, cosmonaut, Moscow.

SINGAPORE
Raffles statues and busts, in Raffles hotel and on the waterfront.
Queen Victoria.

SPAIN
Maimoides, Jewish physician who wrote in Arabic in Moorish era, revered by Jews, Muslims, Spaniards and speakers of Arabic, in Cordoba.
Multiple figures in the human tower, Tarragona.

UKRAINE
Babel in Odessa.
Zamenhof who created Esperanto, in Odessa.

UK
N Ireland
C S Lewis, The Searcher (with wardrobe) statue in Belfast.

USA
Charles Dickens statue im Philadelphia.

Lincoln memorial, Washington DC.
Martin Luther King Jnr, Washington DC.

Shakespeare statue in Central Park, New York, USA.

Webster who wrote the dictionary in the USA. Home and museum.

Mount Rushmore, South Dakota, four Presidents:George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.


Montgomery - Life-size statue of Hank Williams holding his guitar opposite (Americans say across from) the Municipal Auditorium (now offices) where his funeral was held for 2,750 mourners, with an estimated 20,000 standing outside in the cold.

St Francis of Assisi, cathedral in Santa Fe, new Mexico
(Photo by Chris Light Talk in Wikipedia)

St Francis surrounded by saints, painted in a church in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. See his birthplace and burial place in Assisi in Umbria, Italy.

Follow a famous person:
Queen Victoria in London; Singapore; and Australia.
Captain Cook in : The Mall in central London; Greenwich in South London; New Zealand Christchurch; Sydney, Australia.
Karl Marx statues in Berlin and Trier, Germany, and several in Russia.

I am now off to look for Jeremy Bentham and other freethinkers who founded University College.

Websites
AUSTRALIA
http://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/people/discovery/display/23207-captain-james-cook---/photo/2

GERMANY
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g187275-Activities-c47-t26-Germany.html (Marx)

ITALY
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_of_Assisi#/media/File:Tomb_of_Saint_Francis_-_Basilica_di_San_Francesco_-_Assisi_2016.jpg
umbriatourism.it

RUSSIA
https://hague6185.wordpress.com/2013/10/11/top-10-statues-of-russia-and-former-ussr/ (Gagarin)

SPAIN
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g187427-Activities-c47-t26-Spain.html (Human tower pic)

UK
ENGLAND
Jeremy Beadle (1948 - 2008) - Find A Grave Photos
http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/george-frederic-handel

SCOTLAND
http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/culture/books/robert-louis-stevenson-edinburgh-statue-unveiled

WALES
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g186425-Activities-c47-t26-Wales.html

NORTHERN IRELAND
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attractions-g186469-Activities-c47-t26-Northern_Ireland.html (CS Lewis)

USA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_tallest_statues_in_the_United_States (Martin Luther King Jnr)

Queen Victoria worldwide: Canada, South Africa and many more.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_statues_of_Queen_Victoria
More ideas about statues to see in the next post.

Author
Angela Lansbury, author and speaker. See my other posts such as top ten statues in London.
Please share your favourite posts.

Time quotations

Today the clocks went back.

Quotations on time listed in alphabetical order:

A stitch in time saves nine.

A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday
Bible

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
Kipling poem If

Give me one minute more
Song
Give me five minutes more
Song by Frank Sinatra

Hickory, dickory, dock
The mouse ran up the clock
(Nursery rhyme)

How did it get so late so soon ...
Dr Seuss

Now is the hour
(Song)

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone
Poem Funeral Blues by W H Auden

There is a tide in the affairs of men which if taken at the flood leads on to victory.
William Shakespeare 1564-1616

Time and tide wait for no man.

Time heals all wounds.

Time is everything. Five minutes makes the difference between victory and defeat. (Horatio Nelson, 1758-1805), won the Battle of Trafalgar but died on his ship the Victory. Also said England expects every man to do his duty.)

Time is money.
Benjamin Franklin

Time you old gypsy man, will you not stay, put up your caravan, just for one day.
Ralph Hodgson (9 September 1871 – 3 November 1962 - see article in Wikipedia.)

A modern Greek proverb, 'Man raises but time weighs', is inscribed in the USA on the Thomas Jefferson building, Library of Congress, Washington DC.

Quotations are inscribed above eye level on a frieze around the outside of Bluewater giant shopping mall in the UK.

For more quotations online see brainy quote

GREENWICH MEAN TIME VISIT, LONDON

Greenwich Park, Greenwich, London, SE10 9NF

Find the time line and be photograph astride it.

In Belgium there is a sculpture of time.

Souvenir of London from Starbucks, London

We went into Starbucks for coffee.

Toilets
Good ground floor large toilet big enough for wheelchair. Unisex. Free?

Free - so? We failed to find a free toilet in another coffee bar. They claimed their toilet was out of order. So we didn't go there for coffee.

The public toilets in the nearby area were in pairs. They take a twenty pence coin. Or two ten pence coins. This confused one foreigner. He put in one ten pence coin. We all throughout the system was malfunctioning.

We stood in line twice. The first time I refused to go in. I'd read about a woman who died. She was electrocuted in a metal toilet. Vandals had broken a light bulb. So the electric part was exposed and touched the walls which ran down to the metal toilet which was filled with water and as soon as she touched it, the whole place was live and she was electrocuted.

Other people came out alive. And I was desperate after wine and coffee. After use the toilet is self-cleaning so you wait while it cleans. No proper maps or signs to the toilets. No sign saying how far away they are. You don't know whether the public toilets are 20 yards away, 500 yards, or a mile.

No toilets inside the Rioja festival. I had a long skirt and was starting to look for a drain!

Souvenir Cups To Buy
So I was well disposed to Starbucks for providing the toilet. Then I spotted this pair of espresso cups. I could not resist a little cup with William Shakespeare and scenes of London. We had just visited the Rioja wine fair next to Tower Bridge.

What's good about these cups? Under £10, price of two cups of coffee, for a couple of souvenir cups.
What would I have liked different? White inside. You have to hold them under the light and up to a window to be sure they are really clean inside.

I would also have liked matching saucers. Eventually going through my stock of saucers I found two roughly the right size. Reasonable match in colour. Not so big that the cup slides about. Not so tiny that it doesn't fit at all and scrapes.

The saucers look too big. Unless you like a small cup made more important by a huge saucer.

The cup showing Tower Bridge and Big Ben has the word London.

The cup showing Shakespeare says England.

Not ideal to have to find a saucer the right size from your stock. Ok to 'borrow' two saucers from elsewhere for just the two of you. But for a dinner of half a dozen people you might not want to be juggling saucers. Anybody else helping would not be able to work out which saucers went with the cups as they don't match.

I checked underneath the cups and the writing says the design is 2014 so they are new, which is why I have not seen them before.

I like the fact that they are different, so if one of you wants sugar or milk or decaff you know which cup is whose.

One more last good point, about the design. The handles are big enough for two or three fingers.  My favourite Rayware cups have smaller handles.

I can often buy a whole set of four espresso cups with matching saucers for that price in Oxfam. But if you fancy these two, you know where to buy them.