LONDON!

London is epic. All the history, all the culture, all the wealth, all the poverty. The museums, the galleries, the parks, the river, the bridges, the theatre, the pubs. It’s all just epic. And in such a small land area.

I felt a bit stand-offish our first few days until my itinerary loosened up and my trail of galleries and museums gave way to more wandering and connecting with friends and family. Meanwhile, Sim and Aelie were perfectly happy to explore every nook and cranny of the Science Museum (that’s our science curriculum covered for the semester!).

We covered A LOT in our 4 days. Some highlights:

Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery

Didn’t take note of who this is by 😬

Blown away by the near photo-realism of this (if slightly disturbed by the content) painted in 1768 (An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump by Joseph Wright of Derby)

Detail from Water-Lilies, Setting Sun by Claude Monet

Detail from pointilist painting, Coastal Scene by Theo van Rysselberghe

Buckingham Palace in the lead up to the Changing of the Guard

Changing of the Guard. Seeing these fellas reminded me of when a friend and I were visiting London while working in the UK as au pairs. My friend was posing for a photo next to a (then) Queen’s Guard who, out of the corner of his mouth (they’re not generally allowed to speak to the public), offered to show us around their barracks. We went to the address at the given time and they did indeed show us around, telling us how they were expected to go from asleep to dressed in their full uniform in some ridiculously short period of time if ordered so. They were very gentlemanly and kind (perhaps when we told them I was 17!) and it was great fun!

Big Ben

Westminster Abbey and an appropriately grey London sky

Victoria and Albert Museum

Cybele by Rodin

Artwork in the entrance hall, Victoria & Albert Museum

Some other pretty things in the V&A Museum that I, shamefully, have not recorded the name or artist for!

Sky Garden

Tower of London from Sky Garden

St Paul’s Cathedral

Art on the walk from the Tate Modern along the river

Matilda the Musical!

Awesome day with friends, Chris, Amber, Georgia and Hattie

British Museum

Beautiful vertical dance off the side of St Paul’s

Camden Town, where I had a lovely catch up with cousin, Danion (with whom I took no photo!)

All up amazing and intense!

Next stop: Douro Valley, Portugal!