Trafalgar Square is a public square in the city of London, built around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. Its name commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, the British naval victory in the Napoleonic Wars over France and Spain that took place on 21 October 1805 off the coast of Cape Trafalgar. A number of commemorative statues and sculptures occupy the square. The square has been used for community gatherings and political demonstrations, including Bloody Sunday in 1887. The square is a centre of annual celebrations on New Year’s Eve. It was well known for its feral pigeons until their removal in the early 21st century.
Category: England
Kew Gardens – London, England
Kew Gardens is a botanical garden in southwest London that houses the largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world.It was founded in 1840, its living collections includes 27,000 taxa curated by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, while the herbarium, which is one of the largest in the world, has over 8.5 million preserved plant and fungal specimens. The library contains more than 750,000 volumes, and the illustrations collection contains more than 175,000 prints and drawings of plants. It is one of London’s top tourist attractions and is a World Heritage Site.
The Marianne North Gallery houses an enormous collection of flower paintings by the artist.
Madame Tussauds – London, England
Madame Tussauds is a wax museum in London; it has smaller museums in a number of other major cities including Las Vegas where I have also visited. It was founded by wax sculptor Marie Tussaud in 1835. Madame Tussauds is a major tourist attraction in London, displaying the waxworks of famous and historical figures, as well as popular film and television characters from famous actors.
British Museum – London, England
The British Museum in the Bloomsbury section of London was established in 1753, largely based on the collections of the Irish physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane. It first opened to the public in 1759, in Montagu House, on the site of the current building. Its expansion over the following 250 years was largely a result of expanding British colonisation and has resulted in the creation of several branch institutions, the first being the Natural History Museum in 1881
Its ownership of some of its most famous objects originating in other countries is disputed and remains the subject of international controversy, most notably in the case of the Elgin Marbles of Greece and the Rosetta Stone of Egypt.
Coming from America with its relatively short history it was amazing to see these artifacts you only read about in books before. The museum has an extensive Egyptian collection.
Taste Test – Universal Yums (United Kingdom)
June 2020 Universal Yums brings us to the United Kingdom. Again I wish we had an England or Scotland set instead of the generic UK but it will be interesting to see what their snacks are like.
Clotted Cream Flavored Fudge – absolutely delicious best in the box with a caramel taste and fudge consistency. Alex-7 Joe-10
Kent Crisps Oyster and Vinegar – I did not detect the oyster flavor but the vinegar was very pronounced. The chips were of the kettle cooked variety. Alex-6 Joe-9
Kent Crisps Ashmore Cheese & Onion – another kettle cooked type of chip. Alex-7 Joe-9
Grandma Wild’s Toffee Flapjacks – Oat bar with toffee Alex-7 Joe-7
Grandma Wild’s Oaty Cookies – These were very crumbly oat cookies Alex-7 Joe-7
Johnny’s Pickled Onion Rings – very sour vinegar onion snacks. Great if you appreciate very sour foods. Alex-7 Joe-9
Maces Honey & Mustard Potato Crisps – Unusual flavor in a thin chip Alex-6 Joe-6
Prawn Cocktail Twirls – I did not really get the supposed prawn and cocktail sauce flavor Alex-6 Joe-6
Grandma Wild’s Fruit & Lemon Cookies Alex-6 Joe-6
Dean’s Shortbread Rounds – A decent shortbread cookie but not high quality Alex-7 Joe-8
Chili & Lemon Potato Hoops – mild spicy flavor but not very good Alex-5 Joe-6
Welsh Potato Crisps Lamb & Mint – once again a meat flavored chip, if you have been following my Yum blogs you know that I do not like these meat flavored snacks. The meat flavor is not particularly pronounce in this chip. Alex-7 Joe-6
Chewy Bonbons Rhubarb and Custard Very chewy almost like a caramel but with an unusual flavor Alex-7 Joe-7
Chewy Bonbons strawberry Milkshake – Alex-8 Joe-7
Yummy Banana Toffee – a very chewy toffee with a pronounced banana flavor Alex-7 Joe-6
A very good toffee but I do not like nuts in my candy Alex-6 Joe-6
Bristow’s Bucks Fizz Chews Alex-7 Joe-8
Treacle Toffees – another good caramel treat Alex-6 Joe-9
Bristow’s Sherbet Lemons – a typical hard candy nothing special Alex-7 Joe-6
Bristow’s Chocolate Limes Alex-8 Joe-8
A good box with not many standout Yims but almost no really bad ones either.
Alex 6.75 out of 10
Joe 7.30 out of 10