Shaun in the City

I spent another Finn-free weekend down in London for the May bank holiday weekend - Andy had a possession at work - this is where they shut the railway network and give the railway over to the contractors to do what they've got to do - not the most technical explanation I know, but it'll do! We originally thought that Andy would have to work Saturday and Sunday, but he did a swop with one of his colleagues so had the Sunday off. Before we found this out, I'd already decided I was going to do one of the city art trails - to find as many Shaun the Sheeps as I could. Luckily, Andy seemed as up for Shaun spotting as I was, so no need to change any plans.

We are very lucky in Norwich to have a city art trail every couple of years organised by Wild In Art alongside Break, a local Norfolk charity. So far, we've had elephants, gorillas and this year we have dragons - exciting! They are dotted about the city - we had fifty gorillas and we've got eighty dragons this year - and they bring tourists to the city, thereby bringing in more money. And at the end of the trail - usually after three months or so, they are all auctioned off to raise money for Break. As I've very much got art trails on my mind at the moment, I thought I would see which other cities in the UK were having similar installations and discovered the Shaun the Sheep trails in London and also in Bristol.  The Shauns will be auctioned off in October this year to raise money for Bristol Children's Hospital and other children's charities.

I spotted my first Shaun as I got to Liverpool Street Station on the Saturday afternoon. He was on the station concourse.  One down, forty-nine to go!

On Sunday morning, we were up bright and early to begin the trail. We'd already had a domestic - the map shows the Shauns from the Shard up to Liverpool Street Station. (We were only doing one of the trails - there are four in total - so would be finding fourteen Shauns, all being well!) As our hotel was at Aldgate, not that far from Liverpool Street, Andy took his life in his hands and suggested we do the walk Back To Front. What??? Even I had to concede that was quite a sensible way of doing it, although it goes against my better judgement and left me in a bit of a panic as I had to try and read the map back to front!

So after breakfast, we headed up past Liverpool Street to find our first Shaun at Finsbury Avenue Square. We didn't start off brilliantly as I got us a bit lost and we couldn't find it - not a great success. But we got there in the end. The walk was fab and we passed some amazing buildings along the way.

This is Mr Men Little Miss, our first official Shaun. He was tucked away among a load of office buildings and we found some other art work there also.

Our next stop was back to Liverpool Street Station so Andy could see The Pearly King Shaun.

It was such a beautiful day and we got so hot as we were walking around.  All the coats and fleeces were soon in my rucksack - we couldn't have been luckier with the weather.

Next off, we were off to Devonshire Square to meet Ruffles. As we came into Devonshire Square, I glanced up and saw a brilliant reflection of the gherkin in one of the buildings. I had to keep reminding Andy that we needed to look up more!

It was here that we began to get a bit complacent and the sun was obviously getting to us too - I suggested that we have a combined Shaun/ pub crawl and that we have a drink between each Shaun. Given that the Shauns weren't very spread out anyway and also that would mean we'd have fourteen pints, we soon dismissed that idea!

From Devonshire Square, we headed up to the financial district and to the Royal Exchange to find Robo-Shaun. We still hadn't seen many Shaun spotters by this point and the ones we had seen were all adults.

I love this - the Baaahometer!

This monument is dedicated to J H Greathead, Chief Engineer of the City and South London railway, which we thought was very appropriate for Andy, given his work currently at Whitechapel, and previous work at Reading and tunnelling work on the Jubilee line.

Next, we were off to Leadenhall Market to find Shanghai Shaun.  

Just round the corner outside the Lloyds building, we found Kanzashi, who I think might be my favourite.

It was at this point that we started to see lots more Shaun spotters and I had to wait my turn to have my photo taken! Such a child!

We found Liberty Belle at Fenchurch Street Station ...

and Shaun-Xiao at the Tower of London ...

2015 is the Chinese Year of the Sheep which is very fitting for this lovely art trail.

I have to admit that I actually elbowed children out of the way to have my photo taken with the Yeoman of the Baaard at Tower Pier ...

We very nearly missed the next Shaun - Globetrotter - on Tower Bridge because the bridge was being raised - it was all very exciting! In fact, Andy and I were the last ones off the bridge and it was quite exhilarating running along with the sirens going off.

After standing on the bridge for ages watching everything happening, we headed along the river to find our next Shauns - Petal, Mittens and Lenny at More London.

From here, it was just a short stretch along to the Shard for our final Shaun of the day - Rainbow.

I really loved it - it was brilliant fun and we laughed lots as we walked around trying to find them. It felt like a lovely Treasure Hunt - we're such kids, the pair of us!

(The day got even better as we went up the Shard and had a lovely lunch, but that will be covered in my next post.  There's already been too much excitement here for one blog post!)