Last Day in London

US Embassy in London--no demonstrators!--we had to get
something notarized (it's a long story) and also have
additional pages pasted into our passports

Nice statue of Ike outside the Embassy

Selfridge's, very large London department store

Finishing up with another visit to the British 
Museum; an Egyptian tour

The Flood and Noah story, from the Gilgamesh Epic, book 13

Babylonian tablet letter and envelope (seriously)

A new exhibit, the Staffordshire Hoard, just
found in July, one of the largest British gold
hoard finds to date; we are seriously
reconsidering our decision not to buy a metal
detector

You can never have enough hand axes, I always say

I don't think it's a chain, yet

We did lots of other things in London, not least lunch with Rebecca's friend and former colleague Anne, shopping around Covent Garden and Regent Street (well, looking...), and, the last few days, wondering why it was we were going to leave this wonderful city.

More from Victoria and Albert

In the metal grillwork galleries

"Breathless"--a large mobile of flattened silver musical

instruments

Sculpture of Handel, Britain's favorite

18th century composer

Soup spoon for persons with large mustaches

In another Cast Court, the world's only

plaster cast of the David

They even have a St. Sebastian

And half a dozen Turners

In the fashion wing, Lord Herringbone's

new clothes

And lastly, a 70s cocktail dress innovation

that didn't quite catch on

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....