Cricket Stalks Paddington and drags me along

 click on photos to enlarge

Maddie Cricket and Paddington at Paddington

(It is a well know fact that when Paddington arrived in London he was found on Paddington Station by the Brown family which is how he acquired his name. He was wearing nothing but an old bush hat and a label on which Aunt Lucy had written the words "Please Look After This Bear. Thank You")

One of the bonuses of deciding to go to London for Christmas was The Paddington trail, 50 plus bears were "hanging" around London and I decided to take the challenge and see how many we could "stalk". They were on display from Nov 4th to Dec 30th.  We were in and out of London over a 3 week period and did my best to track him down, we managed in the end to see 35.

Blush Nicole Kidman Leicester Square

Cricket gets cosy Wonders of the World London Bridge station when I finally located this one I was nearly blown away by the wind

Taste of Peru  Borough Market

The Selfridge collection

I wonder how many of these jars Paddington got into

It was fun to stalk Paddy and to explore many "new" areas of London and at times we ran into fellow stalkers and we would exchange information as where they were located. We was joined at times by my fellow stalker Laurie who went to several locations she had already been to help me along. THANK YOU LAURIE. We did the section of the trail that started at Paddington Station on Boxing Day and we were surprised to find that area empty a first, because the trains did not run that day. There were 8 to locate in that area and I admit some were hard to find, luckily we ran into others who helped us out.

He wishes he did not run that day

sorry can't miss the opportunity to pose

the Original Paddington yes I am kissing him

The Journey of Marmalade Hyde Park *by  Hugh Bonneville

snazzy side view

Bearer of Gifts  Hamleys toy store

climbing to the top at Hamleys

Bear in the Woods St Paul's Cathedral

Good Morning London Guildhall Square

great just what I need a cat

Paddingtonscape Norfolk Square

Bearing up canal towpath yes this one was a soft as it looks I could bearly keep my paws off him

Texting Paddington something I never do

Love Paddington  X Rembrant Gardens You can kiss my %%

dig the sweater on Sticky Wicket in Regents Park

Shakesbear

Fra-gee-lay  he must be Italian

barely bare ok just wanted to see if you were paying attention

The Mayor of Paddington

Sherlock Bear Museum of London

Bah humbug

Dapper Bear by Guy Ritchie Nottinghill Gate

look at all the icons on his jacket

Paddington Lloyd Webber *I love the colors 

The hardest bear to find was the one in Trafalgar Square I was there several times and never ran across him.  We resorted to looking at maps in order to try and figure out just where he was but even that did not help as we scoured the Square in vein I finally asked a street sweeper and he pointed out the general direction and we finally found him. Lot of people took photos of cricket as he posed with the bears though some thought he was a bear HELLO he has whiskers he is a cat.

Many celebrities painted the bears and they were auctioned off at Christies The auction, helped to raise close to £750,000 for National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, when the bears were sold at auction. I checked the web site and it looks like Hugh Bonneville the  Journey of Marmalade received the highest bid at  26,000 pounds (wonder if he is going to put it in Downton Abbey) Hugh Grant was among the bidders at the auction.

    

                                                

The Bear of London - Trafalgar Square