COVENT GARDEN

When I'm in London it is always nice to visit Covent Garden - especially in the time before Christmas the decorations are sumptuous. You get a real "Christmassy" feeling.

Street entertainers always try to involve the audience

But Covent Garden is also famous for unusual products, often handmade and therefore quite pricey.

This time I found a stall with extremely funny working clothes for chefs - would your bosses at work like to see you in such aprons and caps?

The seller of these clothes looked a bit grumpy at me because I took photos, but did not seem to be in the mood for buying her stuff. So I told her that I'm in London with a group of chefs who are learning English here, which made her smile - 

and she gave me her card. Just in case anyboby of you would like to buy one of these ...

http://gabrielaaustin.com/shop/ 

I'll soon be Christmas, maybe your girlfriends or grannies are still looking for present ideas!

THE SHARD

 Friday was a free day!

Because the college was closed for a Graduation Ceremony we could use the time and the marvellous weather to explore the city. On Monday I will find out what my students did on that day, but I can show you what I did.

This is obviously nothing for people who are afraid of hights, but the view on that day was just... 

Breathtaking!

New skyscrapers in the City of London - the financial district

Tower Bridge

For more information on this ship:   http://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/hms-belfast

Can you spot the "Walki-Talki"?

... and the Gherkin?

Do you see St Paul's Cathedral?

Where is the London Eye?

Southwark Cathedral, Borough Market is under the roofs on the left and under the railway bridge

I had a great experience going up to the 72nd floor of western Europe's highest building, called THE SHARD. I went there via two lifts. I was extremely lucky to have the most beautiful weather you can have for such an occasion. For more information, see: http://the-shard.com/

Pre-Christmas Impressions

In the newspaper I read about a big event in Oxford Street on the Tuesday: The Christmas lighting should be switched on by some singers - me as an "older person" I have no idea who these celebrities were, but the people waiting in front of the Selfridges department store were quite exited about them.

In the end I didn't stay until the lights were really switched on because it took too long for my liking. So you will have to wait for a later post to see the lights in Oxford Street. But I have at least some impressions of pre-Christmas London.

Rudy - promoting the ice rink near Liverpool Street

GUESS WHAT THESE STRANGE THINGS ARE!

When walking down Oxford Street I found really funny shop window decorations in one of the big department stores. You have to look twice to see what the are made of:

 If you think about all devices you would use in your household - you are on the right way.

Selfridges

Near Bond Street Tube Station

Regent Street seen from Oxford Circus

At the end of the day when I wanted to go back by tube it was so crowded that not all people were allowed to enter the station as they would have liked to do so. Therefore I decided to walk as far as Tottenham Court Road Station, there I could get on the train more easily. I was very tired and had sore feed.

For all "gastronomically interested" people among you, the last picture is from my dinner in the host family:

                                                           YUMMY!

London in the drizzle

After our first day at college we were all in need of some relaxing activities. Some of my students wanted to go sightseeing or shopping, others said they needed a pint of beer in a pub. My own urgent desire was: FRESH AIR.

So, I went for a stroll through the City of London
 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London), where I came across the beautiful traditional Leadenhall Market,

... at "Bank"-tube-station I got on to Leicester Square. There I was attracted by some loud music and cheering crowds of people - as I got nearer I noticed that it was premier night at the Odeon Cinema. All the actors and the director of the next film about "The Hunger Games" were there on the Red Carpet.

But to tell the truth, I did not see anything because the view was blocked with big high fences with back cloth. ...

That's why I moved on through the drizzling rain. But the British climate was "friendly" as it did not feel cold. At the end of my little tour I came across another beautiful place which is called Seven Dials - it is a round place where seven streets cross. There they already had switched on the Christmas lighting and it looked really romantic:

The students are blogging, too

http://hfsbloggingfromlondon.blogspot.com/http:

//hfsbloggingfromlondon.blogspot.com/

KEEP ON READING

I hope, you'll keep on reading - on 10th November I'm going to London again, with my students.

Glasgow

The weather on this day was rather grey and dull, with some occasional drizzle - as the Scottish weather forecast had promised. So, we did not feel very much like sightseeing, but our group leader had a packed programme for us: 

• first stop: Glasgow Cathedral
• second stop: Scotland Street School Museum
• third stop: Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
• fourth stop: Glasgow City Chambers

There isn't anything really interesting to say about Glasgow Cathedral. The best was our guide in traditional Scottish tartan kilt, he was very well informed:

The Street School Museum 

was much more interesting. It was planned and built by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, a Sottish Jugendstil architect. Some features of the building reminded me of Henry van de Velde, who lived and worked in Thuringia for some time.
The school was closed in the 1970ies and luckily survived as a museum, so pupils and teachers can see what it was like going to school about 100 years ago.

European teachers posing in British school uniforms

 cooking lessons, for girls only

housekeeping class room

Writing exercise during World War II

We were a bit too tall for the small benches :)

Time went by so fast, before we could explore every room and read every piece of information and captures our bus driver expected us back to take us to our next destination:

Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum

OH, NO - not another museum - we thought. We would rather have preferred walking through the city, going shopping, for example. But just for curiosity we "popped" in to have a short look. So, believe it or not, the museum turned out to be really impressive. Maybe it did not display the most famous artists, but a lot of the paintings I liked very much, and the building itself was amazing! 
Besides that, it had just started to rain outside - so walking in the city would not be too funny anyway...

 

 

The last "culture stop" of the day was at the

Glasgow City Chambers

Time to sneak away and finally go shopping in the city - we only wanted to take a short look into the entrance hall ...

But what did we find inside the building?! We really did not expect such luxury, rich decor with gold and marble - it was just incredible - of course we stayed for the guided tour! We said, we can go shopping everywhere, the shops and chain stores are the same anywhere in the world, but there is only one Glasgow City Chambers!

 

Today Glasgow has about 595,000 inhabitants and is the biggest Scottish city and after London and Birmingham the third largest city of the United Kingdom. In the late 19th and early 20th century it had more than one million inhabitants. Today the Greater Glasgow Urban Area  has about 1,750,500 inhabitants.

Near Glasgow plenty of coal and iron ore were found, the town became an industrial centre. Ship building and trade earned Glasgow the title "Second City of the British Empire". The industrial revolution made Glasgow to one of the richest cities in the world at that time. You can still see this richness and wealth when you look at the decorations in the City Chambers - it is just amazing.
But Glasgow went through harsh times. After Word War I and the Great Depression it had lost a lot of its former wealth.
Nowadays Glaswegians work hard to restore some the former splendor. In the City Chambers is has always been there.

Me - posing in the Lord Mayor's Seat in the Council Chamber

A huge banqueting hall can host lots of people and it can be booked by the public

Gallery with paintings of all Gaswegian Mayors

At the end of the day we even had some time for shopping, I decided for the cheap option, window shopping!

Well, this is the post about my Sottish experience.

Summarisingly, I can say, first of all I met a lot of wonderful & inspiring new people.

Then I learned a lot of new methods I can well use in the class room.

Last but not least, Scotland is such an amazing country - I am definitely going to come back one day.