Trips

Fri., 6/10/16 – London
         Today we finished our list of must see things in London for this trip by starting the morning in the Victoria and Albert Museum.  We walked through many of the galleries: Fashion (clothes) from 1750s to the present, Rodin statues, and Raphael “cartoons.”  The latter are full-scale painting/designs of the Acts of Sts. Peter and Paul for tapestries for the Pope.  The paintings would be pin pricked, the dots connected, and the tapestries woven in matching colors.  One finished tapestry hangs in the room.  Queen Elizabeth II now owns the tapestries and cartoons.
            We walked through items from 1600-1815 Europe, Medieval and Renaissance (300 – 1500 CE), artistic ironwork, photography etc. One of the most interesting areas is the Cast Hall where there are casts of famous statues or structures like the three Davids (Michelangelo, Verrocchio, and Donatello) and the Baptistery Doors of the Duomo in Florence, Italy.  We have seen the originals of many of the items in this gallery, which makes me wonder why the Brits can’t make casts of the stolen Elgin Marbles and give the originals back to Greece.  Visitors would not be able to tell the fakes from the real things!

Victoria and Albert Museum	Guitar
	(sorry about the blur)
	della Robbia - Adoration of the Magi
della Robbia - Assumption of the Virgin	della Robbias
Morlaix staircase	The Cast Hall
Reproduction of Raphael's School of Athens	Cast of Michelangelo's David
Cast of Trajan's Column	After some time absorbing all the wonderful things in the Victoria and Albert, we walked around the outside of Prince Albert Hall (concert hall), the Royal College of Music, and the Royal College of Organists.  The Museum of Musical Instruments has been closed for renovation for three years – too bad.  We crossed the street and walked in the Kensington Gardens to Kensington Palace.  We walked past Princess Diana’s Memorial Children’s Playground.  A school group was playing with a bright colored parachute trying to knock the two basketballs off of it.
Natural History Museum	Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall	Royal College of Music
Royal College of Organists	Street scene
Prince Albert monument in Kensington Gardens	Kensington Palace
Kids with a parachute	Fortnum and Mason Department Store
We rode the tube up to Piccadilly Circus and ate a quick lunch at Pret a Manger (a chain we saw all over Great Britain), then spent time in Fortnum and Mason Department Store, the pricey, unique store – the only store with red-carpeted floors.  F&M sells everything tea, but no K-cups; all kinds of wine, and you can buy a card, stick it in a dispenser, and taste any of 30 wines before you buy; you can buy all kinds of food like fresh quail eggs, pheasant, or wild boar jerky or you can order a picnic hamper to go.  It was a hoot! And they play nice classical music.
Atrium	Alice falling from the top of the atrium
Picnic hampers
Eggplant	Veggies
Cheese	Meat
After our F & M experience, we headed off to St. Paul’s Cathedral. We couldn’t get in because they were setting up (or taking down) for the Queen's visit tomorrow.  We later heard our group saw the Queen in a car as she was driving through Trafalgar Square to go to St. Paul’s for a memorial service.  St. Paul’s is where Diana and Charles were married.
Near thing!	Just made it!
The Queen (courtesy of our fellow travelers)	The Queen (courtesy of our fellow travelers)
St. Lawrence Jewry Fountain - across from St. Paul’s	St. Paul's
St. Paul's	St. Paul's
St. Paul's	From St. Paul's we walked up to the Barbican Roman ruins - another section of the old Roman wall around the city.  There was not much there outside of the London Museum, but there was a memorial plaque to John Wesley.  The spot was his “Conversion Place” in 1738.
	Temple Bar gate
Just a sign	John Wesley conversion location
Barbican ruins and a section of the old Roman wall	Barbican ruins and a section of the old Roman wall
Thames river traffic	The Gloriana out on the Thames

        We took the tube home, cashed out our Oyster Cards and got back the deposit and money left on them, stopped at Tesco for salad and beer, and ate in our room.  We watched a large ship go through the open drawbridge at Tower Bridge and saw the Gloriana going up the river.
        If we get back to London sometime, we would like to visit Windsor Castle, Kew Gardens, Churchill’s War Rooms, Kensington Palace, and spend more time in the British Library, British Museum, Nat’l Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum, London Museum, and maybe the Instrumental Music Museum will be reopened in the future

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