A day in London - following the Rhino Trail..

A few days ago I saw a post on Facebook from my friend Miriam, about a rhino trail in London.  My interest was piqued... you can read about it here   21 Rhinos, painted and to be auctioned in early October, for the Tusk save the rhino charity...  I downloaded a map and made some notes of street names where some of them were to be found.

I decided, as today was Bank Holiday, to head for London and see how many of the 21 rhinos I could find - I had no intention of being able to do all of them however. 

I decided to start in the City, and headed for St Paul's   (that's the district of London known as the City, for non-frequent visitors to London, obviously the whole place is the city of London...)

coming out of the tube station, walking past this





I've shared pictures of the garden before here,




but not the sculpture
















it's so pretty and peaceful

waiting to cross the road (although, it being bank holiday, the roads were blissfully quiet - buses and  a  few taxis only) my eye was caught by this weird "thing" hanging above the road.



no idea....photo worthy though!

 the sun was starting to come out (hurrah, after yesterday's rain that lasted all day!)

so I knew I'd get some great reflections again...

 gaps in buildings allowing glimpses of St Paul's Cathedral...

 the first Rhino I was looking for, was in Paternoster Square

 each of the 21 has been painted by a different artist

I tried to include the details of the artist as well for you, should you be interested... if not, keep scrolling!

 as you know, I love London and it's sights, so there will be lots of pictures other than rhinos!

 finally found the second one,

 the next one was near the Millenium Bridge so I had a chance to walk round the side of St Paul's

 

 walking back up to the road, I was momentarily distracted by more reflections in another sculpture

more bits of St Paul's cathedral! 






























next I tried to find the rhinos at the Guidhall and the Royal Exchange..

 more reflections on the way

 came across the Royal Exchange first (I should say, I didn't have a proper map with me, I was navigating by the tourist "you are here" maps that fortunately are quite abundant!

 should have waited for people to get out of the way.. you probably can't read this

the Royal Exchange is a lovely building

 there was nothing to say why this sculpture of a wing was outside one of the bank buildings....

 you know I love modern as well ancient London!

 trying to find the rhino at Guildhall now...

plenty of other things to look at...

 finally! 

 he was standing in front of a pretty (if slimy) pond...

 next on my list was Covent Garden... I decided to let the Tube (metro/underground) take the strain... except the down escalator was being repaired so had to go down the stairs...lots of stairs!  at least it wasn't UP!

 Waldorf Hotel...

 not sure, just liked this one..

 the Savoy hotel

 Covent Garden... 2 rhinos to find here...

pretty little hand cart...

 here's the first one at Covent Garden

 it was getting busy, although it's always pretty busy here...

 and the second one

 nice way to disguise a building site...



Heading for Trafalgar Square now,

 past a statue to Edith Cavell

 the first of 3 in and around Trafalgar Square..








seem to have forgotten to take a close up of the information about this one

 Trafalgar Square always teeming with people...

 second one..

 

 the newly pedestrianised side of Trafalgar Square, in front of the National Gallery was full of performing artists- maybe it's turning into another Covent Garden

 Nelson's Column reaching into a quite grey sky....

 the National Gallery

 one of the iconic fountains

 and the lions around Nelson's Column

 third one...  liked this one's message!

and the other side

 the "fourth plinth" at Trafalgar Square- all the other 3 have permanent statues of famous soldiers.  the fourth one used to be blank, but in recent years features temporary artwork.

Didn't know anything about this one so I looked t up...

The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist, by New York artist Michael Rakowitz, is a replica of Lamassu, which was destroyed in 2005.

London's Mayor Sadiq Khan unveiled the creation, which is made out of 10,500 tins of Iraqi date syrup.

 nipped into the National Gallery to find a loo...just love free museums and galleries!!

 the sun came out to play on the fountain...

 Admiralty Arch at the top of the Mall

 the base of Nelson's Column

 close up of a lion.. for scale! 

 heading down Whitehall to try and find the next rhino... feet starting to ache now, not sure how many more I'll have the energy for...

 Guarding the entrance to Horseguards Place..

 site of Trooping the Colour.. there was a young girl with her family, marching and shouting out commands to them.  hilarious.

 war memorial

the London Eye peeking over Horseguards..


but I was looking for the Churchill War Rooms...

eventually found a sign to it

 walking past the end of St James Park, Buckingham Palace in the background

 I've never noticed this before...

 cute! 

 finally got to the War Rooms  where there was a long queue to go in (it's fascinating, I have been inside)

 even before I read the description, it felt sad to me.

 

 walked past the Foreign and Commonwealth office, though this arch..







really really wanted to get myself to Carnaby Street

 past poor old Big Ben. behind it's scaffolding being repaired...

went down to the Tube again - which was now swarming with people heading for the Notting Hill Carnival...

 coming out at Oxford Circus I headed past Liberty's, no time to go shopping though...

 ok, now for the rhino

 can't remember the last time I came down Carnaby Street, but I love this mural on the wall

 but here's Ronnie Wood (of Rolling Stones fame)'s rhino...

 I was all for giving up  but I knew there were a couple more round here, in Mayfair

I resorted to using Google and found the map - I needed New Bond Street, typically I came at it from the wrong end so had a long walk!


this one tickled my fancy!

and the last one I found today...

 I liked this one.




I don't think I did too bad, out of 21 I have managed 12 (if I can count right)

 I got to Piccadilly and noticed a bus stop, even more luckily it was for a bus that went to Victoria Station and better yet, a bus was approaching...

 couldn't help but take this picture of the stairs inside the bus because it reminded me of the old hop on hop off Routemaster London buses of my childhood...

 Rarely come into Victoria Station from outside having got off a bus, as I am usually on the tube, so inside already...

 there's still major refurbishment going on outside..







and inside, as I went to look for my train, I decided to play tourist one last time for the day...

Luckily (again!) there was a train due in 10 minutes, just time to grab a sweet pastry to eat on the train (having not stopped for food or drink all day)  and collapsed onto my seat.

Thanks for sticking with me on this VERY long post, hope you like the rhinos, and all the architecture too!   time for another cuppa and some dinner now!