spectacular spectacular

the sultan came to london last week. some of you may have read about him and his elephant, or some may have seen it.
un. believable. it is impossible to describe how wonderful, how spectacular, how magical and powerful it was. The spectacle, 'the saltan's elephant' was put on by French arts company royal de luxe and tells the story of a sultan and his magical time travelling mechanical elephant. becca and i met up with clare in st james park on sunday (the finale of 4 days) where we met 'the girl' who was having a nap in an enormous deck chair. we then got wind of the elephant being near picadilly circus, so we headed up that way. when we got to picadilly we could feel that we were getting close, and there we met with the elephant, also slumbering, preparing for its final parade through the streets of london. and so it began - our captivation with the 40ft high elephant thundering through the streets of london, trumpeting here and there and spraying the crowds with its trunk. made mainly of wood and powered by hydraulics (basically an over-sized puppet) the elephant was decorated with a kind of moroccan-mix of ornaments and rugs and was carrying a host of peculiar travellers who looked like they belonged from far away places and far away times. we loved it, following it around for hours, and felt our souls being tickled by the magic of it all. hopefully the photos will give you some sense of what a wonder it was!