More Spooked than I Expected...

... by the Body Worlds exhibition

I hadn't, not being squeamish and not being bothered unduly by death and the dead (we're not ravens for nowt!), expected to be shaken at all. It was only part of the exhibition (and, it has to be said, parts of the exhibits) that impacted quite so dramatically. Frankly, I began quite rapidly to find a lot of it boring: I suspect without sufficient medical knowledge or possibly a more morbid curiosity than these ravens actually possess, one tumour in section really does look much like any other.
It's going to take some thinking to work out the hows and whys of all of this.
In the meantime, I can now claim to have seen close up:

• tumours of the:
  
  
  
  • heart
    
  • lungs
    
  • breast
    
  • brain
    
  • kidney
    
  
  
• blood clots in the brain
  
• the effect of Alzheimer's on the brain
  
• "hardened" arteries
  
• goitres
  
• hernias
  
• replacement:
  
  
  
  • hips
    
  • knees
    
  • heart valves
    
  • arteries
    
  
  

You don't want this list to continue, do you? I can consult the catalogue to work out what I've missed! That would be unkind as the translation from the German is sch***!

And Previously

The Body Worlds exhibition was the final item on the itinerary for the ravens' day out in The Great Wen. (No we didn't get to The Tower. That's one of the many obvious attractions in London that I've not visited. I blame the irresistible lure (magnetic attraction?) of the kidney iron ore in the Natural History Museum. Seems to be where I end up most often!)
First up (and adroitly sidestepping the kidney iron ore and the almost as strong lure of the V&A) was the Science Museum. After the obligatory drool at Mikka Hakkinen's beat up 1999 McLaren (the one he crashed in the German Grand Prix that year, in case you're interested.), it was off up to The Science and Art of Medicine, up on the 5th floor, well away from the hordes of schoolkids. Got the notes and impressions I wanted from there, including looking at the rather beautiful medical models they have there. A quick hello to the inca mummy and then off.
Next was Somerset House to look at the Caspar David Friedrichs (see here for more info) currently on display in the Hermitage Rooms. The big paintings were as splendid as I'd hoped. Morning in the Mountains had the oils applied to the canvas, especially in the skies, so lighlty and smoothly it looked, even from 10 or 12 feet back like watercolour. The only texture visible was the underlying canvas. The skies reminded me inescapably of Japanese picures with misty hilltops disappearing off into infinity. Over the Sea just made the ravens homesick.
The revelation was the drawings,—a flying owl, and an owl in a ruined gothic window,—which, although much smaller scale, still managed to pack in as much atmosphere as the larger works.
(The reason I love Friedrich's paintings is due almost entirely to the fact that the cover of my copy of Frankenstein shows Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, painted appropriately in 1818. It's the Bantam Classic edition from the early 80s.)
Homage paid to both Science and Art, the ravens swooped along the river for a necessary visit to the Thames and some shade (and an ice cream!). Walked along from Waterloo Bridge past the OXO Tower to the no-longer-swaying Millennium footbridge. Very pretty. Good picture here. Those piers really do look like upended fishes with the bridge balanced on their tails! The view from the south bank end across to St Paul's is really very nice too.
Then on to Body Worlds, which is where we started.