London Scenes 2013

We got to London Wednesday afternoon and spent the remainder of the day setting up camp at the Crystal Palace Caravan Club site, reorganizing and repacking in preparation for our visitors next week, daughter Rebecca and grand-daughter Penelope. The weather turned quite warm, for London, in the upper 80s, but, fortunately, our campsite was well-shaded. We visited the National Gallery on two days, the Wallace Collection on another, the Victoria and Albert on another, and the Tate Britain on still another. We have seen some art and also some history. There were also walks around the Parliament and Thames areas, a play, a visit to BBC Broadcast House, Portobello Road, the ruins of the Crystal Palace, and more. I'll probably do a post on the Wallace Collection, since it was pretty special, but most of the others were old friends in one way or another about which I have blogged before. Our two visits to the National Gal got us up only to the year 1600!

My only photo from the National Gal this time--the missing Annunciation panel
from Duccio's Maesta in Siena--the guard was on me immediately: I had
forgotten the no fotos policy!

An unexpected view of Big Ben from the Embankment

Spamalot! "Not dead yet!"

Us on the Thames

Parliamentarian #1, in front of his Houses

The usual madness, in unusual July warmth

Thus

The Wallace Collection...deserves a post by itself

Outside the LaCoste store

Pots and pans sculpture at Selfridge's

Park anywhere you like if you have one of these

Oxford and Duke Streets

Minding the "Mind the Gap" poster

At the V&A; we had forgotten how overwhelming it is; limited ourselves
to the classical and medieval sections; glass; fashion, and a few others; and of
course the gift shoppe

The Nation's Painter, at Tate Britain (Turner's snow storm at sea); we'd  forgotten
how overwhelming the Tate can be, too)

The Doctor's TARDIS, at BBC Broadcast House (Doctor Who)

Standing in the middle of the ruins of the Crystal Palace; when it opened in 1851,
it was one of the wonders of the world, an all glass and steel building nearly
2,000 feet long; when it burned, in 1936, Winston Churchill was in the crowd
of 100,000 onlookers, and wrote that it was the "end of the age..."