6Dec2008: Day 194: London Aquarium, Apsley House, Wellington Arch

We had a hard time deciding where to go today, but in the end, decided to go into London. When you go by train, you get this 2 for 1 booklet and the London Aquarium is one of the places we could get into for the price of one person. The train trip in was actually better than expected. We

were able to keep Makenna calm for the first half hour. Then the next 20-30 minutes was trying to keep her calm. The last 10-15 minutes was relatively calm. The video was very early on in the train ride.


We knew Makenna would really enjoy the aquarium and she certainly did. She couldn't stop saying "fishy." They unfortunately had one section closed off that she could actually touch some aquatic life but I doubt she would have given the chance - but who knows. She probably would've liked getting her hands in the water (as she tried at another tank) but not to touch the fish. Again, who knows.

There was this one big tank that we kept looking through as we walked around it and on different levels. It had sharks, a stingray and some other odds and ends of fish. The other tanks had some interesting fish but no "Nemo" fish. One tank had very docile looking pirhanna. I'm sure if someone was stupid enough to stick their hand in the tank that would change but it was weird to see a tank full of them acting as though they were sleeping. Who knows, maybe they were - fish don't close their eyes - right?

That tour was fairly short so we decided to grab a bite to eat (or as Makenna says samMICH - the emphasis being on the later part of the word sandwich). We brought a sandwich for her that she ate, reluctantly in the aquarium. She only ate a few bites and that was through bribing her that she could have a bite of a cookie after she had a bite of her sandwich. McDonald's was right as we got out of the aquarium and we got her a happy meal. She actually ate the bun and only a little bit of the hamburger. She wasn't in the mood for fries.

We then decided to take the underground to the Apsley House as we could get into it for Free (due to us belonging to English Heritage) and that admission also gets you into The Wellington Arch.

The Apsley house is right at Hyde Park and was first built for the 1st Baron of Apsley (Henry Bathurst). Then it was purchased by Marquess Wellesley who had just come back from India. Then it was bought by Arthur Wellesley, who was the 1st Duke of Wellington. He acquired it after his victories over Napoleon especially at Waterloo. The grateful nation of Britain gave him 700,000 pounds to build a "Waterloo Palace" but he bought Apsley House and just expanded it. When the 7th Duke of Wellington lived in the house, he gave it to the nation along with the collections in it. The current Duke and his family still live in it, and it mostly looks like it did when the 1st Duke lived in it.

Besides having a lot of paintings that the 1st Duke acquired, some of which were from Napoleon's stash, there were two other things that really stood out. The first was a very big, almost nude, statue of Napoleon himself. The statue was actually commissioned by Napoleon himself who wanted to be made to be like the statues of the Gods at the time. By the time the statue was done, Napoleon was in his 40's (and obviously didn't look anything like this statue), and felt he looked too athletic in it and he had it put in the cellar of the Louvre! After Waterloo, the British Government bought the sculpture and King George the I gave it to the Duke of Wellington. He obviously couldn't refuse it and he actually admired Napoleon. There was only one place in the house where it would fit and they had to reinforce the floor where it stands, and re-do the staircase. Now, I don't know about you, but if there was a person I was repeatedly going to physical battle with, I don't think I'd want a huge, almost nude sculpture, of my foe. There was one story about how during WWII that when Britain was bombed, it was very near the Apsley House and the fig leaf fell off of the statue and when the lady of the house was found among the rubble, the first thing she wanted was to have the fig leaf put back on the statue.

The second thing that was pretty amazing was this 26ft long centerpiece for the banqueting table in the State Dining Room. It was given to the 1st Duke by the Portuguese Council to commemorate victories over Napoleon in the Peninsular War. In the middle of the pieces, there are figures that represent the four continents that pay tribute to the united armies of Portugal, Britain, & Spain, while nymphs who are dancing encircle them. The battles are named on individual plaques. I wish I could show you a picture but they don't allow pictures inside (I snuck the Napoleon statue one).

We then went across the street to the Wellington Arch. This has a long somewhat sordid history. It, along with Marble Arch (which is at the other end of Hyde Park), was built to commemorate Britain's victories over France during the Napoleon era. The Wellington Arch was in a different location than it is now and also had a gigantic equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington. The people didn't like the statue on the arch as they felt it was way too big for the arch and made it look very disproportionate. Just to give you an idea, they said that an actual man on horseback could ride underneath the statue. When the road had to be widened, the arch was moved to where it now stands and they took down the statue and put up a different one of a "quadriga" or four-horse chariot. The Duke statue went near the garrison church where it still stands. The English Heritage bought both arches and was able to repair this one so that people could go up into it and view some of the area around it.

We then had to take the underground back to a train station and we were truly blessed by getting a train that only had three to four stops before ours. Not that, that made the ride any easier, but it was much better than past train rides.