Journey Log 10: London Day Two 7/6
London:
Waking up in London on a Saturday morning is quite a lovely feeling, even if the shower has all the force of a light mist.
We began the day by going to see the Dali Universe show, which was down by the London Eye. It was mosty prints, drawings and sculptures. There was also a small exhibit of Picasso's ceramics, along with some tapestries of his paintings. I picked up an exhibition catalogue for the show. Marianna decided that she wanted to buy one of the Dali lithographs, it was done by him as well and stamp signed, The Three Sphinxes of Bikini, 1949, which she will purchase tomorrow morning. Surprisingly, Tim even enjoyed the Dali Show.
We nixed going inside Westminster Abbey, because the line was uber long and it closed at 1:45pm. Big Ben chimed at noon and then we hopped the tube up to Trafalgar Square and grabbed some lunch at a Pizza Express.
After that we went to the National Gallery of Art. We crusied through the Impressionism, Italian Renaissance and Northern Renaissance Art and I got to see some of my favorite paintings (that also are "national" treasures) , such as The Marriage of Giovanni and Giovanna Arnolfini by Jan Van Eyck, which has always been one of my favorite Renaissance era paintings. We also got to see Leonardo Da Vinci's Virgin of the Rocks (which I always refer to as "virgin ON the rocks" like a scotch on the rocks) and The Virgin with St. Anne Cartoon, which was in a separate enclosure that was dark with the drawing behind bulletproof glass. I saw alot of stuff that I recognized from my Renaissance art class last semester -- lots of Botticelli's, Raphael's, Van Eyck, Holbien, Michelangelo, Ruebens and Da Vinci. We saw a bunch of Impressionism art as well, Manet, Monet, Van Gogh, Ingres, Renoir and Degas etc. We got through the museum fairly quickly and then hopped the tube up towards the area where the British Museum is.
The British Museum
The museum was packed with loads of slow moving tourists. Overall, it is a beautifully designed museum space, showing the exploits of the British Empire and its successful looting of Africa, Egypt and Asia. I believe I commented to Tim, as we were passing through the Egyptian section, " Did they leave anything in Egypt?". In any case, we first went through the African Art. We saw lots of Benin, Ife and Yoruba stuff, which I studied in my African Art class last fall. I took some pictures and they turned out fairly well. I was hoping to see more costuming from the Egungun and Gelede masquerades.
Tim and I skimmed the surface of the Egyptian wings which were packed to the gills with people, we finally found the Rosetta Stone, which was surrounded by a tour group of 30+ people and the tour guide rambled on for at least 15 minutes in some language while everyone was crowded around the stone. Very annoying and rude too. We went through some of the Asian stuff as well.
Afterwards, we went shopping on Oxford Street. I finally found something for Timmy's birthday. So, I got him a velvet shirt and found some other gifty things and a pretty necklace for myself.
Tomorrow (7/7) Marianna and I had planned to purchase the Dali lithograph and head to the Tate Modern and possibly see the London Dungeon, Tower Bridge and Tower of London, if we have time. I wanted to get to see the Chris Ofili show at the Victoria Miro Gallery and the Gilbert and George show at the Serpentine Gallery, but I doubt we will have the time to do it all. Tim is skipping out on going to the Tate Modern with us, as he is officially museumed out.
**On an extremely annoying note, we just missed seeing The Damned in Bristol by 2 days, Sioxsie in London by 3 days and The Cure by a couple of weeks, FAH!
We had dinner at yet another Italian place in the Leicester Square area which is above Trafalgar and around the theater district. After dinner we went to some pub on the square. We met some guys that were down for the Oasis show/festival thing this weekend.I wish we had more time to explore the London club scene while we were there. After the pub closed, we hopped a cab with the guys we met to their hostel, whic has a club in it that was open until 4am. I had a bit to drink. I am going to miss the orange-passion fruit Vodak Reefs and the Blue WKD's and the grapefruit Bacardi Breezers. We had drinks and shots at midnight to celebrate Timmy's 28th birthday (Lucky boy got to spend his birthday in London). We saw lots of Hen Parties out as well. Hen Parties are a British tradition, sort of like Bachlorette parties, the women get dressed up silly and go pub and club hopping.
Stay tuned for our final day in London and the return to America.
Waking up in London on a Saturday morning is quite a lovely feeling, even if the shower has all the force of a light mist.
We began the day by going to see the Dali Universe show, which was down by the London Eye. It was mosty prints, drawings and sculptures. There was also a small exhibit of Picasso's ceramics, along with some tapestries of his paintings. I picked up an exhibition catalogue for the show. Marianna decided that she wanted to buy one of the Dali lithographs, it was done by him as well and stamp signed, The Three Sphinxes of Bikini, 1949, which she will purchase tomorrow morning. Surprisingly, Tim even enjoyed the Dali Show.
We nixed going inside Westminster Abbey, because the line was uber long and it closed at 1:45pm. Big Ben chimed at noon and then we hopped the tube up to Trafalgar Square and grabbed some lunch at a Pizza Express.
After that we went to the National Gallery of Art. We crusied through the Impressionism, Italian Renaissance and Northern Renaissance Art and I got to see some of my favorite paintings (that also are "national" treasures) , such as The Marriage of Giovanni and Giovanna Arnolfini by Jan Van Eyck, which has always been one of my favorite Renaissance era paintings. We also got to see Leonardo Da Vinci's Virgin of the Rocks (which I always refer to as "virgin ON the rocks" like a scotch on the rocks) and The Virgin with St. Anne Cartoon, which was in a separate enclosure that was dark with the drawing behind bulletproof glass. I saw alot of stuff that I recognized from my Renaissance art class last semester -- lots of Botticelli's, Raphael's, Van Eyck, Holbien, Michelangelo, Ruebens and Da Vinci. We saw a bunch of Impressionism art as well, Manet, Monet, Van Gogh, Ingres, Renoir and Degas etc. We got through the museum fairly quickly and then hopped the tube up towards the area where the British Museum is.
The British Museum
The museum was packed with loads of slow moving tourists. Overall, it is a beautifully designed museum space, showing the exploits of the British Empire and its successful looting of Africa, Egypt and Asia. I believe I commented to Tim, as we were passing through the Egyptian section, " Did they leave anything in Egypt?". In any case, we first went through the African Art. We saw lots of Benin, Ife and Yoruba stuff, which I studied in my African Art class last fall. I took some pictures and they turned out fairly well. I was hoping to see more costuming from the Egungun and Gelede masquerades.
Tim and I skimmed the surface of the Egyptian wings which were packed to the gills with people, we finally found the Rosetta Stone, which was surrounded by a tour group of 30+ people and the tour guide rambled on for at least 15 minutes in some language while everyone was crowded around the stone. Very annoying and rude too. We went through some of the Asian stuff as well.
Afterwards, we went shopping on Oxford Street. I finally found something for Timmy's birthday. So, I got him a velvet shirt and found some other gifty things and a pretty necklace for myself.
Tomorrow (7/7) Marianna and I had planned to purchase the Dali lithograph and head to the Tate Modern and possibly see the London Dungeon, Tower Bridge and Tower of London, if we have time. I wanted to get to see the Chris Ofili show at the Victoria Miro Gallery and the Gilbert and George show at the Serpentine Gallery, but I doubt we will have the time to do it all. Tim is skipping out on going to the Tate Modern with us, as he is officially museumed out.
**On an extremely annoying note, we just missed seeing The Damned in Bristol by 2 days, Sioxsie in London by 3 days and The Cure by a couple of weeks, FAH!
We had dinner at yet another Italian place in the Leicester Square area which is above Trafalgar and around the theater district. After dinner we went to some pub on the square. We met some guys that were down for the Oasis show/festival thing this weekend.I wish we had more time to explore the London club scene while we were there. After the pub closed, we hopped a cab with the guys we met to their hostel, whic has a club in it that was open until 4am. I had a bit to drink. I am going to miss the orange-passion fruit Vodak Reefs and the Blue WKD's and the grapefruit Bacardi Breezers. We had drinks and shots at midnight to celebrate Timmy's 28th birthday (Lucky boy got to spend his birthday in London). We saw lots of Hen Parties out as well. Hen Parties are a British tradition, sort of like Bachlorette parties, the women get dressed up silly and go pub and club hopping.
Stay tuned for our final day in London and the return to America.