And I Would Walk 11,286 Miles

Christina Mackin
Nov 17, 2024
4 min read

Updated: Nov 18, 2024

Okay, maybe I didn't walk 11,286 miles, but I did walk at least that many steps yesterday. And I would walk five hundred more just to be the woman who walked 11,786 miles to fall down at your door. <3

What was I doing that I had to walk so many steps? I visited The Natural History Museum and then walked around Kensington Gardens & Hyde Park. It was a beautiful overcast day to wander around. I came across so many monuments and memorials that I wasn't expecting. I can't wait to show you!

I've grouped the photos into categories because that's just how my brain works. Make sure to check out the Photos page where I'll dump all of the photos that I took. Reminder that I don't edit these photos due to the time it would take, even though I'd very much like to.

Stay in your jammies, grab your favorite warm drink, and settle in! (I had my first chai latte at a café along the water yesterday and it was lovely... before I got shat on. More on that later.)

The Natural History Museum - South Kensington, London

Architecture - Exterior

Architecture - Interior

The exterior & interior architecture of this building is stunning. The architect, Alfred Waterhouse, combined Gothic Revival and 12th-century Romanesque architectural styles into his design. He used terracotta for the entire building since it is more resistant to the harsh climate. Read more about it here -- worth a click even if you just scroll through to look at the images of Waterhouse's original drawings for the gargoyles, decorative columns, and hand-painted panels. Amazing!

Taxidermy

This visit confirmed that I still don't really like to look at taxidermy. I would snap a photo and move on fairly quickly. When I was in middle school, our dad took my sibling and I to a taxidermy studio because he knew we liked animals. He had spoken to the taxidermist beforehand and arranged for us to watch him work. We had no idea and were horrified when we found out. I walked out of that studio very quickly before I saw anything. I appreciate the complicated and delicate work involved, but no thank you. (I will say that if you ever come across the book Crap Taxidermy, definitely look through it! It's hilarious and very cringy.)

Skeletons

The best part** of this visit was seeing Hope, the blue whale skeleton! And the mammoth!

Hope: Read about her story here. She was found beached off the coast of Ireland in 1891 by a fisherman, who sold her skeletal remains to the Museum. The project to restore her took three years to complete, including 10 months of work to clean and repair 221 bones (blue whales have 356 bones). She was hung in Hintze Hall in 2017.
Mammoth: Do you remember the documentary, Raising the Mammoth? It is a very vivid memory for me, especially when they used hair dryers to melt the ice.

**I also really liked their gift shops. I'm such a geek for keychains, pencils, stuffed animals, microscopes, games (they had dinosaur Guess Who? - what?!) and shirts with whales on them! When we used to go to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, I absolutely loooved their gift shop.

Fossils

Mary Anning (1799-1847): Read more about her here. She was famous for finding fossils, but was often not given credit for her discoveries. This was even the case when she was the first person to find a whole Ichthyosaurus skeleton (seen in the first photo in the grid above). The Geological Society of London didn't admit women until 1904, 57 years after her death.

So. Many. People.

What struck me the most was how many photo shoots -- yes, I wrote that down correctly -- and selfies were being taken! If you like to people watch, you'd be hard pressed to find a better place. People would be descending the stairs and then abruptly stop to take out their phones. Gah, get outta my way!

Kensington Gardens & Hyde Park

List of monuments in Kensington Gardens

List of monuments in Hyde Park

First photo: Albert Memorial (Kensington)
Second & third photos: Kensington Gardens
Fifth photo: Achilles statue (Hyde)
Sixth photo: 7 July Memorial (Hyde)
Seventh photo: Joy of Life fountain (Hyde) - could use a cleaning
Ninth photo: Serenity (Hyde) - ditto

Princess Diana Memorial Fountain & Serpentine Lido Café

Diana Memorial Fountain (Hyde)

Serpentine Lido Cafe (Hyde)

Please don't feed the birds
- This is 1/3 of the number that showed up once that doofus started feeding them
The birds shit on everything
Including my coat, glove, and jeans
You asshole

More!

Hi! You're still here! We're almost done. Thank you so much for going on this journey with me. I thoroughly enjoyed sharing it with you.

Many people have been clamoring for me to go out to eat, share food photos, and restaurant recommendations. I hear you. I don't usually spend my time that way but someday I'll surprise you and you better be prepared for the content that I'll create.