Counting Sheep (1)

Catherine and I don't get so much time to spend together while she is on tour, so when she had the chance to commute to Richmond for the week, we booked to spend the day together on my day off - Friday (29th). She didn't need to be at Waterloo Station until 17.30 to catch the train for the evening performance of 'And then There Were None'. It seemed a good Idea to spend the day in London as this would give us more time together.  Warning - this post is photo heavy!!

We set off after the rush hour in glorious sunshine, and Catherine down loaded the APP for the 'Shaun in the City' official trail in London. We realised it only had a few more days to run, so we would look up as many as we could in the time we had.

As there are four different trails and we had no particular preference as to where we should start we jumped on the first train to London which happened to be the Cannon Street train. As there are major works at London Bridge we decided if we could alight there we would otherwise we would go on to Cannon Street. We would start with the nearest Shaun to the station. As the train approached London the clouds gathered!

Rainbow

We were able to start our adventure at London Bridge once we battled through the crowds on the platforms. We were best placed to start with BITZER'S 5km TRAIL, No. 4, which should take about 2 hours and 20 minutes. The first of the Shauns on this trail was inside the Joiner Street entrance to The View From the Shard building. This Shaun was called 'RAINBOW' (32), designed by Tatty Devine. Rainbow is sponsored by The View from the Shard.

Being a rainbow deisgn made this one of Catherine's favourites. Pleased to be inside for a bit as it was now starting to rain. Here we picked up a map for the trails which proved to be very helpful. We added the code to the APP and set off again.









Out into the wet and along The Thames to find 'MITTENS' (33), designed by Simon Tofield at More London.  'LENNY' (34), by Vivi Cuevas (sponsored by Bond Dickinson), and 'PETAL' (35), by Emily Ketteringham (sponsored by Norton Rose Fulbright), were also at More London.

Mittens

Lenny

Amazing views of London Landmarks across The Thames from here.

Petal and Petal!

 As if we were not wet enough water was coming up out of the ground as well as the sky!!

'GLOBETROTTER' (36) was next on our list located near the South Tower of Tower Bridge - we found ourselves on the wrong side of the road and a little backtracking was needed to seek him out. Globetrotter (with stars in his eyes) was designed by Sarah Matthews. Sponsored by Villa Plus.

We continued on over the bridge and found 'YEOMAN OF THE BAAARD' (37), by Vivi Cuevas, situated at Tower Pier. The sponsor is Yankee Candle.

Yeoman of the Baaard

By now the rain was coming down hard so we hid in a coffee shop with a view of The Tower of London and had an early lunch. Once the rain eased off we ventured out again. At the Tower we found SHAUN-XIAO (38), designed by Stephen Taylor and sponsored by The Royal Mint. 

Shaun-Xiao

'LIBERTY BELL' (39), was hiding at Fenchurch Street Station, This Shaun was designed and sponsored by the Shaun in the City Team.

Liberty Bell

Off to find the Lloyd's Building next, and here we discovered 'KANZASHI' (40), in Lime Street. Kanzashi was designed by Kate Strudwick and sponsored by Canopius.

Kanzashi

 'SHANGHAI SHAUN' (41), was not far away at Leadenhall Market, designed by Ashley Boddy and sponsored by Leadenhall Market. This place looks worth another visit, great place to eat and shop.

Shanghai Shaun

The app was great fun as you can mark off the Shauns as you find them using the codes and it told you when you were near each one. It helped locate the next Shaun on the trail, but often the GPS was not working. By now the APP was seriously draining the power from the mobile and we had purchased it for both our mobiles, one Android and the other an iPhone, We did take it in turns for a while to save power. We decided to rely on the map for a bit at this point.

So it was not quite so easy to locate 'ROBO-SHAUN' (42), but we did it! He was at The Royal Exchange. Designed by Tim Sutcliffe and sponsored by Haseltine Lake.

Robo-Shaun

We had a little help for the next one as we were very close, and hesitated outside the Devonshire Square building when the concierge took pity on us, asked if we were looking for Shaun and told us we had the right building and to go inside! 'RUFFLES' (43) was inside this very impressive place. Ruffles was designed by Deborah Wilding based on Elizabethan Blackwork embroidery designs. The Shaun was sponsored by Devonshire Square. I think this was one of my favourite designs.

Ruffles

Detail - Ruffles

Liverpool Street Station was our next destination and here just in front of Platform 1 we found  'THE PEARLY KING' (44), designed by Ruth Broadway and sponsored by I. J. McGill Transport.

The Pearly King

Then a strange thing happened as we set off the find the next and last sheep on the Bitzer's trail we found a sheep that had strayed from Covent Garden and was hiding in Broadgate Circle. This was 'CANDY BAA' (15) Timmy's Trail. This was designed by Emily Golden and sponsored by Green's Cake Mixes.

Candy Baa

I guess if we could have used the APP we would have found this out, we put the phone back on and from the APP discovered we missed 'ANOTHER ON RIDES THE BUS' (16) as that had also been moved away from Covent Garden and was now at Broadgate Tower. This Shaun was designed by Susan Donna Webber and sponsored by Pasta King (UK) Ltd. 

We weaved our way round to Finsbury Avenue Square to find 'MR. SHAUN' (45), designed by Mr. Men and Little Miss, and sponsored by Broadgate City of London. 

Another interesting piece of art at this location is 'The Rush Hour' by George Segal.

This was the end of Bitzer's Trail, the longest of the four trails, from the Shard to the City's business district. Back with more of the trail another day...

thanks for looking

Lynn x