Victoria and Albert Museum

We visited the V&A Museum and were quite taken

with it. It bills itself as the largest collection of decorative

arts in the world. But it is also a wonderful statement of

Victorian values and aspirations, a major collection of

many types of items, and an educational institution.

Beware: a day would not be enough even to jog through

its many halls, galleries, and wings. Above, someone

else's shot.

Entry rotunda

The Raphael Cartoons (for Sistine Chapel tapestries)

One of three Victorian designer cafes, this one by

William Morris

Inner courtyard

Glass galleries

One of the giant Cast Courts; Albert had this
idea that, since most people couldn't travel,
he'd just bring authentic copies of the world's
great art to London; agreements were made

with relevant other countries, and a couple
big rooms were filled; then it went out of
fashion and the rooms were closed off for
decades; then they were rediscovered, replete
with copies of several things destroyed in the
wars; and are now open; Trajan's Column is
pictured, along with various other items

In the tapestry galleries, the largest tapestry I have ever

seen

Part of the silver galleries

Part of the sculpture galleries

In the stained glass gallery

The Ardabil carpet, very large, intricate, old

Tate Britain and the National Gallery

The Tate Britain Museum

The National Gallery

We spent a day each at the Tate Britain and at the National Gallery. At the Tate, we did a couple guided tours, but almost entirely Turner, which is what we came for. After the tours and galleries, I did the new exhibit entitled "Turner and the Masters." Turner's appeal, to me, has been almost entirely intuitive or aesthetic, if you will; I knew very little of the man, and certainly little of art and of painting. I came away with my intuitions bolstered, but also better understanding why I like his work, his contributions to art history, etc.  A learned painter--he read and criticized Newton's and Goethe's theories of colors--but also a great innovator and experimenter. And beneath it all, a surpassingly energetic competitor and businessman.

We were very impressed with the National Gallery. It does not have the size nor scope of the Louvre, but the art seemed to us better displayed, more accessible.  And, of course, there is far more there than can be taken in, even hastily, in a day. Alas, neither of these great museums permits photography, but they both have superb websites.

Portabello Market and St. Martin in-the-Fields

The great Saturday market on Portabello street

Later, at St. Martin in-the-Fields, near

Covent Garden

Dinner in the crypt

Good food, but kind of creepy...

For a church,the acoustics were good, and the orchestra

excellent; but the conductor evidently had a 9:30

engagement; we heard the overture to Figaro, Schubert's

Unfinished Symphony, the last movement of Beethover's

9th (not on the program), and then all of Beethoven's 5th,

between 7:30 and 9:08, with a long intermission...

Evensong at Westminster Abbey

After the British Museum, we stopped by  Westminster Abbey 
to attend the Evensong; above, the Abbey towers

Nave exterior

North transept

Look, kids, it's Big Ben!

British Museum

Entrance to the British Museum

Interior "grounds"

 

Big Egyptian stuff

Assyrian lion hunt

Babylonian property marker

Rosetta stone and me

Elgin Marbles; they had a very defensive pamphlet about

rights to the Elgin Marbles, how they came by them, why

they are not going to give them back to the Greeks, etc.

Paleolithic handaxes, always a favorite

Bust of Augustus, from the Roman tour

Roman-Briton I have always liked

James Smith and Sons umbrellas, an icon

Oxford Circus and Imperial War Museum

Festive street near Oxford Circus

"...nothing do in vain"--um, do blogs count?

At the Imperial War Museum

I love Haynes...right up there with Churchill, the Beatles,
Minis, J. M. W. Turner, Bombay Sapphire....

We had some errands to run--finally got our flu jabs--and then spent the balance of the day at the Imperial War Museum.

OK. I am now WWII'd-out. Bring on the paintings, the literature, the looted artifacts....

London: Westminster and War Cabinet Rooms

Ground zero of Look Right World

Look, kids, it's Big Ben!

Some of the Houses of Parliament

The Churchill statue at Westminster, which I have never

cared for; makes him look like a gorilla in an over-coat

Oliver Cromwell...cultural tourism enemy #1;

should be "slighted," I think, just in fairness

War cabinet room; all original; the Imperial War Museum

has done a wonderful job of retaining and preserving all the

original material; all of it

The prime minister's room in the "bunker"

The Cabinet War Rooms are wonderful, but
the Churchill Museum, adjoining, surpassed
anything I could have wanted...beyond
Blenheim and even Chartwell; the photo is
of the signatures of those participating in the
the first meeting between Churchill and
Roosevelt, aboard the USS Augusta
in Placentia Bay, Canada, 1941, which
I particularly rever for Harry Hopkins'
signature; Hopkins was Roosevelt's
trusted "deputy president"--"the man who
came to dinner"--and who was his emissary
to both Churchill and Stalin in those dark
years; perhaps my favorite book of the era is
Robert Sherwood's Roosevelt and Hopkins:
An Intimate History

We spent a bit more than a week in London, camped at the Crystal Palace Caravan Park, taking the bus/underground into the inner city every day. We got to know route #3 pretty well. I won't do a day-by-day account, but rather focus on specific places and happenings.

Our first day we just reacquainted ourselves with Westminster for a while, and then I did the War Cabinet Rooms/Churchill Museum. (Vicki sat in the gift shop for three hours, reading everything they had; what a good wife I have!)

Salisbury

Salisbury Cathedral, highest tower in UK, one of the

highest in Europe

Nave

Choir, or Quire, as the Brits say

Cloisters; alas, pix were not permitted in the

chapter house

Downtown Salisbury, Sunday afternoon

After Stonehenge, we drove on the short distance to Salisbury, toured the famous cathedral there, walked the downtown streets, and stayed overnight in the coach carpark, for a nominal fee. The tourism season is pretty much over, and it is quiet everywhere, people settling now into the holiday pre-season.

Salisbury has never been one of my favorite cathedrals. The chapter house with its sculptures and collections is interesting--not least one of the oldest Magna Cartas around (there are scores, different editions, etc.)--but the cathedral, despite its great height, etc., is just too perfectly monochrome for me.
 
The next day, Monday, we drove on for an appointment with Gold RV in Alton, to have some further winter-proofing done on the Grey Wanderer. The work proved to be less demanding than expected, and, within an hour or so, we were off again, to London, and the Crystal Palace Caravan Park, south of the city. We found the Park with only a little difficulty and with some help from a Dulwich College instructor who kindly provided us with curb-side directions. We have navigated London without a SatNav on several previous occasions, generally long-lasting disasters, but this time, Tom-assisted, was really not bad. We spent the rest of the day setting up, as it were, getting our bearings, and so on.

Stonehenge

Stonehenge

The next day we visited Stonehenge, walking around it,

listening to the audio-guide. When we first visited, 30

years ago, you could walk out and touch the stones.

Today's 30 year-old visitor center still seems like a

temporary structure. English Heritage has a formidable

task in designing a new center, managing the hordes of

visitors, in re-routing the highways that pass so close to

this, one of humanity's most compelling monuments.

Uffington White Horse

There are many white horses in Britain, wherever there is

chalk underlying the grass, and particularly in Wiltshire.

Uffington is among the oldest, now reckoned to be from

about 1000BC. The figure--quite stylized in Uffington's

case--is created by scouring the grass and soil down to the

chalk and maintaining it that way...over the aeons.

Horse head, ground view

More

The manger, a natural hill at the foot of the figure,

unnaturally flattened, where the horse is said to feed at 
night

After our incredible megalithic day, we spent a rainy night in the White Horse carpark, high on the hill.