Spanish words

The colours and motif of the flag of Spain superimposed on the outline map of Spain.

 Spanish is also spoken in the Canary Islands and other islands such as Majorca and Minorca many South American countries, and Mexico and as a first or second language in much of the USA. 

Spanish is a romance language, similar to Italian and Portuguese. Also. As a bonus for learners  lots of words resemble French and English, from the shared root of Latin.

Sunday is the day for the big push to learn more words and phrases on Duolingo, the free language teaching website. 

Why Learn Spanish?

Although I have logged onto about twenty languages on Duolingo, I am concentrating on Spanish this year,

Firstly  it is the easiest language, quickest to learn, of the big three spoken widely worldwide, if you are an English speaker.

Secondly, in preparation for a trip to Spanish islands in the Canaries.

Easy Spanish Words - Similar to English

 Spanish - English

a pie - on foot

anual - annual

atracciones - attractions

circo - circus

enorme - enormous, very big, huge

entero - entire/whole

festival - festival

gramo - gram

mantenir - to keep (maintain)

parque - park

parque de attracciones - amusement park

tomates - tomatoes

Challenging Words and Phrases

carros chocones - bumper cars

un circulo - a circle

mayoria - majority - (not mayor)

mayor - major (not a mayor)

el alcalde - the mayor

Useful free websites for learning Spanish

duolingo.com

Wikivoyage phrasebook Spanish

Wikipedia Spanish words in English and English words in Spanish

Please follow my blog and share links to your favourite posts. I have several more posts on learning Spanish and other languages, plus restaurants worldwide.

Spanish words (20) with magical memory aids

 

Spanish flag

Spanish - English

agua - water

área - area

conflictos - conflicts

dinero - money (to dine you need dinero, money)

las dunas - the dunes

Espagna - Spain

especial - special (add e before the initial s in Spanish words, like the name of the country)

fuerte - strong (as in fortify or make stronger, a fort or stronghold)

golf - golf

Julio - July

lago - lake

las/los - the, plural, las is feminine plural, los is masculine plural, as in the American city Los Angeles meaning the angels, who were male messengers in Greek myths 

marzo - March

miles de - thousands of (Looks like miles of. Not millions of which is millones de, drop the i and add an e)

millones - millions

nacional - national

natural - natural

oasis - oasis

palma - palm tree, las palmas means the palms

parque - park

pico - peak

plan - plan

playa - beach - where you go to play yo-yo on yellow sand, joyfully play on the beach in the bay, on a sunny day with beach toys. Letter Y.

plaza - town square - letter z, zillions of people zooming about in a city zone with stores, place, near a city zoo. Letter Z.

quedarse - stay (when you dig a place you queue up and dig in, d in the middle and sit down, arch your back)

reserva - reserve (nature reserve)

reservar - to reserve

ventura - venture, as in adventure or go towards a venture

viajar - to voyage / to travel

Spanish Words ending in o

banco, dinero, lago, marzo, pico

Spanish Words ending in a

Espana, agua, playa, plaza, reserva, ventura

English - Spanish

park - parque

peak - pico

reserva - reserva

to reserve - reservar

Spain - Espagna

To find more easy to recognize words look in the Spanish version of Wikipedia.

Useful Websites For the Spanish Language

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Portada

Another set of 20 Spanish words

Spanish - English

Animales - animals

cara - expensive

comida - food

creer - to believe

esto - this

fiesta - party

isla - island

(el) león - (the) lion

la maestra - the teacher

noticias - news

el océano - the ocean

oro - gold (gold ore)

parque - park

(una) sortija - ring (jewellery)

tarea - homework (think of a task in your home area)

universidad - university 

visitantes - visitors

English - Spanish

animals - animales

to believe - creer

estadio - stadium

expensive - cara

food - comida

gold - oro

Homework - tarea

island - isla

lion - león 

news - noticias

the ocean - el oceanó

park - parque

party - fiesta

ring (noun) - sortija

stadium - estadio

the teacher - la maestra

this - esto

university - universidad

visitors - visitantes

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Easy similar Italian words - and an update on using Duolingo leagues on basic and upgrading to Premium

The words in Italian are in bold so you can re-read and learn them. Mano of the words simply add o to create the masculine in Italian, for bambino, mano, medico, parco, telefono, vino.  Add the feminine ending e (like our English word feminine) to aprile, credere, impossibile, and simile. Watch out for the double letters in infatti, in fact the letter t appears twice, like in the words letter and fatter.

EASY WORDS

aprile - April (No capital letters starting months in Italian)

bambino - baby

credere - believable

durata - duration 

infatti - in fact

impossibile (im-poss-ee-bill-ay) - impossible

mano - hand (like manual labor, hand work)

medico - doctor

parco - park

(il - the masculine) progetto - project

simile - similar

telefono - telephone

televisione - television

(il) trena - (the, masculine) train

vino - wine

CONFUSING WORDS

ragioni - not regions but reasons, rationality. The i at the end is a plural, like the word spaghetti.

These are todays words from my Duolingo exercises. I used Duolingo for free for a year learning Spanish. 

Now I am doing Italian. This was for a proposed holiday in Spain which has now been cancelled. Never mind. My project for the year is to learn Italian. 

Advertising On Duloingo and Websites

Duolingo is no longer the same as before. It has turned more commercial, like Facebook and the Daily Mail, everything on the internet seems to be bombarding me with advertising. I can't afford to buy another garment from Shein every hour. No point sending me cat food ads when I don't have a cat. I already have installed Grammarly.

Leaderboards On Dulingo

I am addicted to the Leaderboards on Duolingo. You can't be bored with the Leaderboard. It gives you points for every exercise completed. You compete with up to thirty others on your level. If you are in the top half dozen (the exact number varies from fewer in the lowest to more the hightest leaague) you go up. Conversely, if you are in the lowest of your league you slip back to compete with those who spend less time and effert. 

Competing For Position

You do an exercise and add points. Go away for an hour or two, to do something useful, cleaning and tidaying the house, calling a friend, calling family, writing a book, answering mail, paying bills. You come back and somebody else has been busy and caught up right behind you in points or overtaken you. 

Blocked By Duolingo

Then, last week, March 2025, I kept getting signs that I had run out of hearts and could not do any more exercises. Maybe, last year, I had not reached this limit. Maybe, this year, they have changed their system.

Resisting Paying

At first I resisted paying. I am in a system which advertises itself as free. I have been promoting it in my blogs as free. I am a loyal long term member.

I was afraid of being sucked into paying a big sum later, or small sums forever, even after I die. (I am in my seventies.) 

The system promised that I would start getting hearts again if I came back after three hours. Two hours, one hour.

Agreeing To Pay

I thought again. Let's at least check the prices. I have had a year's worth of value from them. I get hours a day from them. I owe them something. I'd pay for food, clothes, entertainment. 

Comparative Costs

The amount asked was less than UK one hundred pounds. (Some of my travel websites are quoting hotels in NZ currency because of my February trip to New Zealand when I set my laptop to the local currency.) If you are being quoted in another currency, or in your own currency and you want to tell a friend or readers another currency, you can look for the flag or currency abbreviation on the website page, click on it and change it, instead of having to go into another website to get the day's currency exchange rate and echange table column.) The answer was sixty pounds.

Family Budget

I thought, that's doable. I told all the family in a whatsapp group chat. They did not objects. They were all spending far more on other activities overseas.

Commitment and Cancelling

I now have two weeks to cancel. Then I will be committed to sign up to premium for the year. 

Any Advantage To Premium?

I must admit I am a bit disappointed because don't find that premium is doing me much extra good. 

I was expecting to be given the grammar clues about what I had done wrong. But I am getting most answers right. I am writing down the correct answers in an A6 notebook labelled Italian. 

Self-Checking Translation Answers

My hand-written pages listings are no longer in alphabetical order, dictionary style  That used to delay me in writing, while I looked for a page which still had an empty line for that letter of the alphabet. Instead, I write down in the running order of the day's words and sentences learned. 

Some of the exercises are timed. I keep Google translate open to check the spelling. 

Mistakes Allowed

f I am tired from not enough sleep, or over-confident, I get impatent and make a silly mistake. Sometimes if I mistype, or use a spelling closer to the English sound, a instead of e, or vice versa, the system just warns me of a typo. 

No time is lost on Duo. 

But I take time to check and if necessary correct that spelling in my hand-written list, or underline the vowel or double letter as a memory aid.

Time Lost On Mis-Translation

However, if I am hasty and careless, I might miss out the word not, or only, having grasped the subject object and verb. So I slow down and check both all the words in the Duolingo suggestions. Then I re-read all the words I have typed, to see if I am missing any extra word. 

Word Order And Alternative Words

I use Google to select the word order. 

Sometimes google translate gives me another similar word which is not acccenpted by the Duolingo system. Is that unreasonable? I can flag this in the choice of comments as 'my answer should be accepted'. 

But I now realised that there is a good reason for me to be using the suggested word in the Duolingo exercise. The reason is because it was teaching me a particular word and I have not learned it.

Conclusion - For You

So, hey, ho, off to study I go. I hope this has helped you, or at least entertained you.

Useful Website

duolingo.com

Please follow my blogs. Here on blogspot you can find my blogs on travel, languages, dress of the day, and comic poetry, and wine and dine. The first three are the most active with new blog daily. 

If you want to make a suggestion for a subject, you can contact me through here or another medium. I am on Facebook, linkedIn when I can recall my password after changing my email, but that's another story. Meanwhile, I'm off back to Duolingo. 

Have a nice day. In Italian that's buona giornata.!

Please, share links to your favourite posts, with your friends.

Per favore, condividi i link ai tuoi post preferiti, con i tuoi amici.

See you again, soon.

Ci rivedremo, presto.


Maybe tomorrow.

Forse domani.


I hope so!

lo spero!

Side Trip From Bronte Country - Saltaire - The Innovative Planned Model Town & Public Public Park

 Sir Titus Salt was a remarkable man, a successful businessman and a visionary planner of a healthy model village, more like a small town with tow planning and leisure facilities, to accommodate his workers. He moved his industrial premises out of Bradford into the fresh air of the countryside by the river.

The river provided what was needed for his mill. 

You can see a statue of the man near the park entrance. I enjoyed reading the plaques about the history of the man and the area. 

Then notice the statues of the alpacas, a kind of  small camel with a furry coat which provided soft wool. The animals were originally used for other purposes, such as meat. But he had the idea of using the wool in his business.

The river in the middle has a weir, with wading ducks or geese. The sound of the rushing water is remarkably spoorific, like those sound effects you can buy which are supposed to help you to sleep. What a peaceful place. I could have stood indefinitely watching two canadian geese and other birds unaccountably perched on their spindly two legs in the middle of the rushing water. They were intermittently dipping their long beaks into the water. I think they were catching small fish being swept past. The perfect picnic spot, for birds.

You can walk across the pleasant park, admiring the statues, greenery, birds, water, barges, people strolling, families enjoying themselves, to his model village factory buildings which are still in use for other purposes.

Useful Websites

My other blogs include

https://comicpoemsbynutter.blogspot.com/

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Life in London - Picnic in the Park - or a Kosher Kiosk

 Photo from Facebook.

What is there to do in London? I ask relatives who live in Finchley, Hendon, and Northwood. 

The husband of one pair said, "Not much to do. Everything is closed. Except for the food shops."

I replied, "What about the parks?"

"Yes, we went for a walk in a park in Hendon. We bought some food from a restaurant, like a kiosk, order from outside. A kosher kiosk.  They bring the food out to you. We ate it sitting on a bench. They removed the tables and had four wooden benches like a pub. The benches are bolted down."

The park is near Hendon Central Station.

The park adjoins an area with a Remembrance arch. The words in Hebrew, reading from the right to left, are the consonants which spell out Le zeekderon.  

N R K Z L

A bit like speedwriting, or text messages, or acronyms

Anything more cheerful?

the kiddie playground is in use.

The park has grass and trees. Three tennis cours. A couple of basketball courts, one still in use. Nobody is playing tennis. "It's too wet for tennis."

I asked, 'What about the snow?'

' When it's snowing in Wales and up north, there's not much snow in London. It's too warm here. The snow just melts. We are quite glad of a change of seen. Since nobody is working away from home or going out to restaurants, snow does not make much difference to our lives. Just something to look at. Out of the window.'

Another couple in thei

Searching For Parks On Maps

I remember when as young marrieds we moved from a flat in Stanmore to a bungalow in Hatch End. We knew all the big parks along the main road. However, when we looked at a local map, we discovered lots of interesting open spaces.

The nearby park had two entrances, so you could do a circular walk

Another park had an exit which led to a footpath through the woods and out through a housing estate.

Cricket grounds and tennis courts were in fields which offered another chance for a walk.

Photos

The seasons provided a changing opportunity for new vistas and photos. A fountain in front of the Hatch End arts centre.

Snow in winter. Flowers planted in public places. Houses with Christmas lights. Balloons for birthdays. On gates.

Seasonal posters of offers outside restaurants. 

I researched. Every path, building, cemetery, had a story. 

Gifts in the supermarkets.

Useful Websites

https://www.facebook.com/Hendon-Park-

360 view of the area

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/uv?pb=!1s0x487610dcac10a71b%3A0xcb4a0cde1bf29f87!3m1!7e115!4shttps%3A%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp

About the Author

Angela Lansbury is teacher of English. (Advanced English and English as a Second Language or English as a Foreign Language, French and other languages, an aspiring polyglot.)

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Member of many toastmasters  speaker training clubs, and speaking contest judge.

Angela Lansbury, the author of 20 books including Wedding Speeches & Toasts, and Quick Quotations, has lived in the USA, Spain and Singapore. 

She  has several blogs and writes daily on at least two of the following:

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

 Please share links to your favourite posts.

How to Choose Backgrounds for your videos

Back in the good old days before COVID-19 I was out every night at Toastmasters meetings.

Now I am online several times a week, sometimes at two overlapping meetings, talking to people all around the world.


Singapore Online club. you can see that plain backgrounds are effective. 

Were you thinking of creating a video indoors - or outdoors? both have their advantages. Let's start with indoors - including a backdrop creating the illusion of outdoors.

I have watched several videos of people giving speeches in club and area contests with distracting backgrounds. First, a background of a bed topped by clothes. , a distracting clock in another time zone from mine, a whirring ceiling fan in the centre giving the impression that the speaker is Harry The Helicopter.

Not to mention the mother or husband bringing in a hot drink of plate of food, the granny or maid limping up the corridor behind and then disappearing into room two, reappearing in the corridor with a bag of washing, going off to room three.

Others have had toddlers demanding cuddles or climbing onto their lap, grinning or even singing. One contest convener specified that the person manning the cameras must be single with no family nor pets in the same room or dwelling causing distractions.

To create the illusion that you are in San Francisco by the Golden Gate Bridge, or on an exotic beach, you simply pick one of the four optional backgrounds provided in Zoom and ManyCam. 

(What's this? Think of it as many cameras. The illusions of extra backgrounds projected from another camera.) 

This works best if you have a screen. You can buy green screens in various sizes. 

Wall backgrounds

You could alternatively sit with your back to a big blank white wall, a white screen in an office or school. 

If your study has a filing cabinet or pictures on the walls, this ruins the effect. Consider having a picture to match the subject of your video, or a series of posters. You can print them from your computer, including your own holiday or trip photos.

If your printer only takes A4 size paper, you can still make a larger print to look bigger or more impressive or be seen or to cover what is behind.

You need to divide the photo you are using into two or four or eight, or even more. Stick them very neatly together with no mis-alignments nor black edges nor undulating edges nor projections where corers match at the edge.

You need to find somewhere to suspend a sheet

I needed a green screen for my Braddell Heights Advanced online meeting (Wed evening 7 pm join us on Learncool.sg) so I went through all my sheets until I found a plain green colour. 

That was a long job because, having taken out all tangled sheets, I folded it all neatly, moved the pillowcases into drawers to reduce the pile, and moved a white board over the right hand drawers in the wardrobe to overhand and create two tiers in what was previously a full length hanging space.

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• 

  David  Angela, nicely done! And how is the green screen working for you?

  • 
    
  •  · Reply
  •  
• 

  Angela Lansbury I shall tell you after tonight's meeting. Thanks for the reminder. I'll try it out. 
• Joke: Just getting out of this green dress. 
• One way to be a ghost, wear the same colour as the background. Some of the old magic tricks involved wearing black clothes and using a black curtain. If you turn your back, or cover your face with a black cloth, you disappear.
• The same applies to any other colour. Make sure you are not wearing the same colour as your background.
• Finally OUTDOORS

PARK

• If you have no suitable background at home, your home is untidy and you wish to give advice on tidying, or don't want to reveal your collection of gold bars and antiques to the tax office, the burglars and the person you are divorcing, go out into the nearest park or garden. (COVID-19 in your country or state or area permitting.) 
• Plants such as palm trees look exotic if you are in Florida, or Singapore, or even gardens in London have palm trees. Walk up and down your nearest street or search on google earth.

On the other hand, you might wish to do the reverse, conceal your local palm trees and pretend you are in London, or on a ski slope in the snow. 

• BALCONY
• You could also stand on a balcony. Even in a bathroom or toilet against the door or wall (American with all the fittings such as door handles and taps hidden by potted plants or hanging plants or the portable green screen.
• No green screen? 
  1
  • I have used a golfing umbrella. If you are holding it in one hand you have only one hand to touch your screen and record or stop recording.
• Golfing umbrella. - indoors or out
• You could also try a golfing umbrella. It tends to fall sideways.
• SHEET
•  I needed a green screen for my Braddell Heights Advanced online meeting (Wed evening 7 pm join us on Learncool.sg) so I went through all my sheets until I found a plain green colour. Having taken out all tangled sheets, I folded it all neatly, moved the pillowcases into drawers to reduce the pile, and moved a white board over the right hand drawers in the wardrobe to overhand and create two tiers in what was previously a full length hanging space.
• I reported this in the media

• 

  David Levy Angela, nicely done! And how is the green screen working for you?

  • Like
  •  · Reply
  •  · 13h
• 

  Angela Lansbury I shall tell you after tonight's meeting. Thanks for the reminder. I'll try it out. Just getting out of this green dress. One way to be a ghost, wear the same colour as the background propped up.

• 
  
• Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. (Not related to the actress.) See books and profiles on Lulu.com and Amazon, such as Wedding Speeches & Toasts, Quick Quotations, Who Said What When. Also watch videos on YouTube.

  See other posts on singers and statues and languages and destinations.

  
  

  Please share links to your favourite posts.

  If you want to learn to speak the Queen's English, or Received Pronunciation. join me at my online toastmasters club, Braddell Heights Advanced. Wednesdays, 7-9 Singapore time which is seven hours ahead of London, England. I am also a member of Singapore Online. 

The Commonest Name in South Korea?

Flag of South Korea from Wikipedia.

According to Wiktionary:
The most common Korean surname (particularly in South Korea) is Kim, followed by Lee (Rhee, Yi) (second most common) and Park (Pak) (third most common). Together, these top three surnames make up slightly more than half of the Korean population (based on South Korea).

That makes it easy to remember people's names.

South Korea has a rule that you do not marry within your group. So the first question a Korean asks a potential date is their name. No point in wasting time chatting up somebody who will refuse a romantic date and won't marry you.

If you date and marry somebody from another culture, that's one problem you won't have to worry about. 

Many Koreans are Christians. My experience of Christians in Singapore and elsewhere in Asia is that they are very devout.

Useful Websites

About the author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Grab a moped in Hanoi, Vietnam

Flag of Vietnam.

GRAB Hanoi

Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Motorbikes and two wheel vehicles go down the side alleys of Hanoi, Vietnam's capital city. You can also park them anywhere, on the pavement. 

You can do motorbike and bicycle tours of the city and the country. I've heard the two wheelers will be phased out by 2030. So, hurry along to Hanoi.

Travel Tips
https://www.grab.com/vn/en/
For hotels
booking.com
For airlines
travelok.com
vietJetair.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

All Weather Activities At The Horniman Museum in London, England

Problem
What to do on your own or with family and friends?

Answer
Plenty to do at the Horniman Museum. If you are on a budget, taken your own picnic. They have a picnic building. You can see a view over London.

The free animal area closes about 4 pm, just after the animals are fed. So if you want to see them, make sure you go early.

If it gets cloudy or rainy, or you want some shade, the main building has a free main collection. Enough stuffed animals to keep your fascinated for hours. The shop has lots to interest children and the creative types. Toys that make a noise, such as those based on musical isntruments from around the world.

If you are not paying, just walking around the park, it doesn't matter if you arrive late or leave early. Lots to be said for it.

The building itself is interesting, with a huge mural on the front (actually the side, as you get off the bus. The entrance is around the corner). Sundials are around the outside and you can follow the sundial trail.

Another feature is the outdoor musical instrument are, things you can bang on. Like a xylophone set upright against a fence. What's not to like!

For a description of the indoor musical instruments gallery, see my other posts about the Horniman.

Useful Information and Websites
visitlondon.com
visitbritain.org
Horniman Museum and Gardens
100 London
SE23 3PQ
Tel:020 8699 1872
horniman.ac.uk
tfl.gov.uk
rome2rio.com
citymapper.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photogrpaher, author and speaker. I have more posts on the Horniman Museum and nearby Dulwich Picture Gallery.

Dulwich Picture Gallery, Cafe, Mausoleum, Trees and Park

If you don't mind spending the money, check out the price of the entry with the exhibition. Be warned, it's timed entry, so arrive early if you plan to spend time in the café opposite, on bench seating, or sitting in the park.

The building has an interesting history. It's the only art gallery I know with the mausoleun of the owners inside (although a few  houses have this - such as Puccini's in Italy. Some museums to Presidents of Countries have portraits of the man in office and historic paintings of the era. I am thinking of the mausoleum of D Solomos on the Greek Island of Zakinthos also called Zante. Also the American President Robert E Lee, leader of the South in the Civil War, buried in Lexington, Virginia, USA.

Novel and Influential Architecture and Lighting
From the outside the building is not that interesting, but inside is different, lit by overhead natural light. Not entirely a new idea. Buildings pre-dating electricity, often had skylights, until the cruel and unhealthy window tax ruined architecture and health.

Yes, whatever the exhibition, you need to see the building and learn about it. The ticket counter is in the entrance and you'll only get a step or two inside unless you buy a ticket.

The architect, John Soane, is also connected with his own gallery and other buildings in London. Learn about his influence on architecture in London and around the world.

Fashionable Clothes Then and Now
Clothes of the old days are such a contrast to today, in summer. Girls walking around the park and London underground stations are in tight short shorts with franges, strappy tops, split side skirts, lace tops and tops with lace insets showing tantalising glimpses of what's below. Old masters often show naked cupids, naked women bathing or being molested. Hwever, they were the porn of the day for the rich. Portraits show people wearing heavy and covering clothes. Then I read that one of the three benefactors and builders of the museum, in the central mausoleum, and saw their pictures from the covered up clothes of the Victorian era.

The lady's portrait is on the outside wall in the gallery, just across from the entrance. She is enveloped head to foot in black cloth, with a large hat and huge ruffled collar, like a cross between Elizabeth I and a clown. The caption says that her outfit is typical of a middle class married woman of her day.

What of the Old Masters collected by her husband, who was both a well known actor of the day and a collector of paintings? I had read about one of the Rembrandts from the collection being loaned to a big Rembrandt exhibition in Edinburgh for the summer of 2018.

Bawden Exhibition
However, we went there to see the Bawden exhibition. Bawden straddled an era from well before I was born until my childhood. But I'd never heard of him. I like the touches of humour in his detailed painting.

Café Cost
I has made the mistake of rushing out and not taking food or drink. The cafe was pricey. All over the world you can buy fast food or a supermarket or chain store lunch consisting of a sandwich, a piece of fruit or dessert and a drink for about five pounds. Here you would pay double.

The shop sells an artistic but expensive, bottle. That's the latest idea, for those who want to ditch plastic water bottles, to save the sea creatures. However, even if I had decided to splurge, to invest, without any water it was already heavy. Where would you fill it? No fountain in the main gallery.

Printed Guide To Trees
I discovered a guide to the trees in the park. You could easily spend an hour or two walking around identifying the trees and photographing the leaves and yourself against the tree trunk, and the whole tree from a distance.

Whether you opt for the gallery and exhibition, or just the park, a great day out. I had a short ride on the train from Victoria station (various routes) first thing in the morning.  You can then catch a P4 bus or walk to the Horniman Museum which is free. The journey back from the station near the Horniman seemed to take longer.

The walk from the station to Dulwich Picture Gallery is clearly signposted and takes you along leafy roads with grand homes and public buildings. You also pass Dulwich College which was founded by the people who built the art gallery.

From here go to the Horniman Museum. The bus stop is across the road from the main entrance of the Dulwich Art Gallery park.
For a description of the indoor musical instruments gallery, see my other posts about the Horniman.

Useful Information and Websites
www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk
Tel: +44(0)20 8693 5254
visitlondon.com
visitbritain.org

I took the P4 bus to the Horniman Museum.
https://www.rome2rio.com/s/Dulwich-Picture-Gallery/Horniman-Museum

Horniman Museum and Gardens
100 London
SE23 3PQ
Tel:020 8699 1872
horniman.ac.uk

tfl.gov.uk (Transport for London for trains and buses)
citymapper.com
rome2rio.com

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Top Ten Things I Love About London - contrasted with Madeira

Madeira. Thatched house in traingualr design - nothing like England's thatch. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright

Problem
When you live in a city you stop appreciating it. Go away for two months, two years, even a week, and when you come back you see the differences.

Madeira
I spend a week in Madeira where the steep hills are dotted with many houses which had orange tiled roofs. Walls were white or cream, a few yellow, orange, pink or blue.

Lots of palm trees shaking in the breeze. Green gorse bushes contrast with yellow flowers. Magenta flower trees. Tangles of banana plants and sugar cane. In the north, hanging vines on pergolas.

Huge flyovers lead to and from the Cristiano Ronaldo airport. Tunnels weave in and out of the hillsides and cliffs around the capital, Funchal.

Cars park diagonally, noses in the air, or noses down like dogs pulling ahead on leads, on steep roads at diagonal angles. Unnerving. You watch the static cars, worried, wondering when one of them will start rolling backwards, or forwards, starting one of those falling domino chains.

Welcome To London
Driving from Heathrow airport towards outer London, what a contrast. At first driving from Heathrow through Hayes was a disappointment, dilapidated one storey shops had peeling paint.

But soon, reaching the suburbs of Ickenham, with its pub, then historic Harrow, then pretty Pinner, the buildings and greenery started perking up. Neat hedges surround freshly painted semi-detached houses in neighbourly pairs.

Triangular roofs are over the bay windows. The contrasting black or brown imitation Tudor wooden beams or imitating Victorian imitation Tudor, against white walls.

London's red brick from the red clay appears in walls along gardens. More red brick is in the walls of houses.

The semis give way to grander detached houses. Palladian columns. Large drives with two cars. Huge  oak trees, which once built the ships of the fleets for Elizabeth I. Magestic chestnut trees.

Green lawns of fine-leaved grass with picture frame borders of pink roses. Fences and gates - which you don't get in many cities of the USA where fences are banned and houses are exposed. No wonder they all have guns for protection when anybody can march up to the front or back door. To the British eye, every estate of houses set in unfenced lawns in some USA cities looks unfinished, like a show house which nobody has yet moved into.

CENTRAL LONDON
Central London has Victorian buildings and pageantry. The plane trees are big trees which don't mind pollution.

London, plane trees and pageantry.

SINGAPORE
In Singapore where we rent our flat, overlooking a swimming pool, the block is under threat of being pulled down.

 If that happens, it will be replaced with something more compact, crammed, smaller rooms, less space between the tower blocks, news. A neighbour says, "This is an old block. It's thirty years old!"

Singapore, palm trees and Chinese writing.

I am stunned into silence. When I fill out an insurance form asking the age of a building in London, I can't remember the age. I have to consult documents. Many of London's suburban houses were built in the nineteen thirties, when the railways expanded. Others have the dates of the 19.. or even 18.. on the facade.

USA
Even in the 'recent no history' USA, terraced houses which were homes of famous people, such as Edgar Allen Poe in Philadelphia, date back a century or more.

London's red brick walls are neat and have patterns from Victorian times. (The Nineteen Fifties introduced the blight of cigarette-box shape blocks of greying flats. The fact that low building standards mean they are short-lived and crumbling - or burning down like tragic Grenfell - is a blessing in disguise.)

London List
1 SEMIS.
Semi-detached houses in suburbs. Mock Tudor. London red brick.
2 BUNGALOWS.
Bungalows (one storey houses) with fenced front lawns and gates.
3 MANSIONS.
Majestic mansions, churches and town halls with steps up to Palladian columns (like the USA).
4 ART DECO.
Art deco railway stations and white houses with green tiled rooftops.
5 RED BUSES.
Red buses. Old style and new style. Jolly red.
6 RED POST BOXES.
Red pillar boxes. The pillar shape freestanding ones. We also have a few inset in walls. Jolly red.
7 BRUNEL STATIONS.
Brunel's railway stations - notably Paddington where you see his statue.
8 PUBS.
British Pubs. Old Victorian pubs with Toby jugs and horse brasses. Historic pubs. Many turned into gastropubs with green gardens. (Budget eating and drinking at Wetherspoons which make a point of preserving photos of local history.)
9 SHOPS & SHOPPING CENTRES.
London as a shopping base, with old arcades such as: Burlington Arcade; Selfridges; the original Harrods (not just the branches you get worldwide). Intu in Watford has a kiddie train (for a fee) and Xmas decorations at Xmas. Out of the city, take a drive to the vast new shopping centres, such as waterside Bluewater in Kent, or Lakeside.
10 HISTORIC STATUES.
Statues where you can take selfies with world-famous figures, such as writers Shakespeare, bust outside Guildhall, and Oscar Wilde reclining near Trafalgar Square, and dandy, beautifully dressed Beau Brummel standing near department store Liberty near Oxford Circus.

See my other posts for text and photos on: art deco, statues, Intu at Xmas.

Author
Angela Lansbury