Spontaneous Trip to London

My partner and I took a spontaneous trip to London last weekend, I actually made the decision to go to London when I got home from work Friday evening. That night, we booked a hotel, and the following morning we was on the train to London.

Even though it was a bit of a last-minute decision, I actually needed to take some pictures of Kensal Green Cemetery to finish The Magnificent Seven page spread of the London section of my book, and I also wanted to explore the newly renovated Hunterian Museum, which reopened in May 2023.

It was actually nice to get back to focusing on my book after Christmas and January, I think going to London renewed my determination. The Hunterian Museum is differently worth a visit. Seeing the human and animal anatomy and pathology specimens suspended in their individual jars made me realise of how far humanity has come since the days before anaesthetics and when students would have watched doctors performing a swift surgical procedure to better the patient’s chances of survival. Instead, medical and health care professional now used robotic devices and 3D scanning to teach students. I suppose not everyone feels the same way, but for me, the sheer inspiration would come from sitting in a room full of glass jars holding human and animal specimens rather than being surrounded by plastic models and body diagrams.

My partner and I actually spent a relatively peaceful Sunday in Kensal Green Cemetery before enjoying a superb Sunday roast at The Ganton Arms, which I definitely would recommend, as the food is not only delicious but the portion size is more than adequate. Their something about cemeteries that I find quite tranquil, I don’t know if it’s because of its calming atmosphere or the vast elaborate funeral architecture. However, walking through the cemetery made me reflect on my book as I haven’t just shared the history of various cemeteries but how different societies have influence different periods of British history. For example, the Victorians where so captivated by the funeral practices of the Egyptians, they incorporated Egyptian architecture into their own tombs. This left me wondering did the Victorians do this to honour their deceased or to demonstrate the wealth and status of the family.

Despite being a short trip to London, it has undoubtedly strengthened my determination to share my book with you. I hope that upon reading my book and the history of various dark tourism places that it will make you pause and consider questions that we may not always ask ourselves. By the way, I'm heading to Palermo in Sicily soon, so please feel free to reach me through Facebook or the contact page of my website if you have any recommendations for places I should visit while I'm there.