London museum day
Although I wake up at 4am and never really get back to sleep, Barney sleeps well, and is up making breakfast. I pack lunches, and we're off to a day of museums, which is good because today is the day is supposed to mostly rain. We head to Buckingham Palace on the bus, which is nice as we get to see more of London than underground. It is crowded but everything moves smoothly. This year's exhibition is of gifts that come from various heads of state from all over the globe. These are presented in the various salons, the throne moom, the state dining room, etc. The rooms are, of course, gorgeous and stately, a symphony of white and gold, and the house was mostly redecorated by George IV, and was significantly expanded by Queen Victoria for her large family. I think there are 50-some family bedrooms, 150+ staff bedrooms, 70+ bathrooms, and over 700 rooms total. Perhaps most memorable is the picture gallery, reflecting acquisitions by George IV, which include. Rembrandt, a few Rubens, a couple Titians, several Lorraines, and much more of that era. The palace is also filled with family portraits (Winterthaler was Vicoria's favorite portraitist), whom I can mostly identify, although interestingly many are not labeled. It makes me think about a family actually living here, and whether the children run around inside these rooms (probably not) and grow up seeing portraits of the ancestors (probably). We have some tea (hot chocolate for Barney) on the covered cafe terrace outside and eat our sandwiches, then stop by the gift shop which was huge and crowded, en route out the garden. It is raining heavily, and we take another bus to our afternoon destination, the Victoria & Alber Museum.
What an incredible place! It has a bit of everything, rather like the Louvre, from ancient statues to early 20th century works. They are currently hosting a Balenciaga fashion exhibit, an exhibit on Pink Floyd, and one on plywood, so naturally we go to see the plywood exhibit. It is actually quite interesting to see how they cut the thin veneers, how it can be molded into almost any shape, he he Hanna gliders and Mosquito fighters of WWII we're made mostly of plywood, and how entire houses are now pre-fabricated of plywood. We then continue on to see the oldest museum restaurant in the world, comprised of the three original rooms, one stunning one by William Morris, and of course a modern addition. We then head down to the Medieval section, something I always enjoy, and they have an amazing collection. Of course massive amounts of gold and silver sacred materials, including a small house-shaped tabernacle of gold, silver, ivory, and cloisonné, all the high decorative arts, simply stunning. We go through several galleries devoted to stained glass, the earliest items from around 1100, amazing that they survive, and quite a few examples from churches in Germany and France, I wonder how they got to London? We end by going through a galley devoted to secular materials, gold and silver dishes for the nobility, jewelry, and a stunning huge tapestry of a giant Medieval house party. Recordings of period music set the tone, and I am really enjoying this section, I could spend days in here.
Finally it is time to go - closing it down again - and we take a slow, rush hour bush that takes 30 minutes to go about 15 blocks. Dishoom is again an hour wait, so we go off to a pub we saw the night before, the Salisbury. Already packed (or maybe it is the rain), Ed find a table, Barney has a steak and ale pie with peas, carrots, and mashed potatoes, which was good, and I have the hunter chicken, which has bacon and cheese plus fries (chips) and salad, plus two pints of Guinness. Happy and full, we head out into the rain for the apartment. Time to pack and get ready for the tip to Norfolk on Thursday.
Thursday, August 31, 2017
London, a day about the sea, 29 August 2017
A day about the sea
After a smooth two flights from SFO to Dulles to London, we arrive via Heathrow express and metro at our Airbnb apartment near Leiscester Square, not far from Piccadilly Circus, around 10pm. Despite the fact that it is a Sunday, there are huge crowds out and about, party because Monday is bank holiday, party because it has been squire warm today (almost 80 degrees), and party because this is the last week of vacation before school. After dropping our bags and getting some water, we head out to find a grocery to get some milk, coffee and yogurt for breakfast, but by close to 11pm, the only places open are mostly liquor stores. We get a few items, walk back in the warm night to the apartment, and sleep until almost 8am.
After a quick coffee, we find a Whole Foods about 5 blocks away, and get necessities for the few days we'll be here (including toilet paper, of which the apartment had none when we arrived). Now with fresh fruit and makings for lunch, we have breakfast and get ready to head out for the day. Our focus today is the Cutty Sark ship (which we missed last time) and the huge National Maritime Museum which Barney is keen to visit again (we had only an hour last visit).
Four trains later, we arrive at the Cutty Sark in Greenwich on a warm day, and immediately head onto this enormous ship, built in 1869 for the tea trade. It is a machine built for speed while maximizing precious cargo area, and could go from China to London in 79 days, more than 15,000 miles. We have a great time walking around the very instructive exhibits, and learning about how the ship was saved, stored, experienced a fire, and was restored again.
We trek up King William's Walk to the Royal Obsevatory and the Prime Meridian, which is at the top of a small bill. The Observatory was built by King George III for the first Royal Astronomer, whose job was to make accurate astronomical observations and publish details to aid in navigating, fishing, and other fields. the Prime Meridian is located here, and it was fascinating to learn here that were four different merdians placed within about 20' of each other by the different Royal Astronomers, until they finally settled on the one that came to be called the Prime Meridian. A fascinating exhibit described the Longitude challenge of the 18th century, when the British Parliament promised a huge prize to anyone who could build an accurate instrument for measuring longitude. Longitude allowed much better location than latitude alone, and a man named Harrison invented the chronometer, a type of clock, after several versions, which do so accurately and won him the prize.
We hike down the hill to the National Maritime Museum, Barney's choice for the day, which we saw briefly on our last trip. It is a celebration of the days of sail, and there is a whole gallery devoted to Admiral Lord Nelson, including the uniform he was wearing when he died, where shows the bullet hole that killed him. We saw the J.M.W. Turner "Battle of Trafalgar", a monumental painting of the decisive battle a Nelson won where he was killed. another exhibit is ballet the Battle of Jutland, the major naval conflict between England and Germany in WWI, which neither of us had heard of, but was a great study in strategy and the limitations of navigation and communications of the day. The museum was filled with ship models, equipment that people used no board, and everything from cuff links to fans that celebrated Nelson's victory. there is a reason that London has a Trafalgar Square with a giant column and statue of Lord Nelson. He was from Norfolk, and last visit we went to a pub Nelson used to visit.
Back on the train to central London. We go to a dishoom, but they have over an hour wait, and we are both too hungry. Barney is attracted by the a place across the street, Tredwell, and we go there and have a lovely dinner. To start, I have a Boulevard, which is good but the absolute standout is Barney's drink, gin with muddled cucumber, St. Germain, apple juice, and basil. I get three starters, a ham terrine, then a crab-tomato salad, and finally a poached egg with hollandaise on a bed of bacon and braised mushrooms, which was delicious. Barney had a perfectly done hangar steak with roasted broccoli and a nice Malbec. Dessert for Barney was a peanut butter pudding with the darkest chocolate sorbet I've ever seen, whhcih he really enjoyed, and I had an almost-apricot parfait, light and delicious.
We walk back to the apartment and fall into bed, tired after a wonderful full day in London.
After a smooth two flights from SFO to Dulles to London, we arrive via Heathrow express and metro at our Airbnb apartment near Leiscester Square, not far from Piccadilly Circus, around 10pm. Despite the fact that it is a Sunday, there are huge crowds out and about, party because Monday is bank holiday, party because it has been squire warm today (almost 80 degrees), and party because this is the last week of vacation before school. After dropping our bags and getting some water, we head out to find a grocery to get some milk, coffee and yogurt for breakfast, but by close to 11pm, the only places open are mostly liquor stores. We get a few items, walk back in the warm night to the apartment, and sleep until almost 8am.
After a quick coffee, we find a Whole Foods about 5 blocks away, and get necessities for the few days we'll be here (including toilet paper, of which the apartment had none when we arrived). Now with fresh fruit and makings for lunch, we have breakfast and get ready to head out for the day. Our focus today is the Cutty Sark ship (which we missed last time) and the huge National Maritime Museum which Barney is keen to visit again (we had only an hour last visit).
Four trains later, we arrive at the Cutty Sark in Greenwich on a warm day, and immediately head onto this enormous ship, built in 1869 for the tea trade. It is a machine built for speed while maximizing precious cargo area, and could go from China to London in 79 days, more than 15,000 miles. We have a great time walking around the very instructive exhibits, and learning about how the ship was saved, stored, experienced a fire, and was restored again.
We trek up King William's Walk to the Royal Obsevatory and the Prime Meridian, which is at the top of a small bill. The Observatory was built by King George III for the first Royal Astronomer, whose job was to make accurate astronomical observations and publish details to aid in navigating, fishing, and other fields. the Prime Meridian is located here, and it was fascinating to learn here that were four different merdians placed within about 20' of each other by the different Royal Astronomers, until they finally settled on the one that came to be called the Prime Meridian. A fascinating exhibit described the Longitude challenge of the 18th century, when the British Parliament promised a huge prize to anyone who could build an accurate instrument for measuring longitude. Longitude allowed much better location than latitude alone, and a man named Harrison invented the chronometer, a type of clock, after several versions, which do so accurately and won him the prize.
We hike down the hill to the National Maritime Museum, Barney's choice for the day, which we saw briefly on our last trip. It is a celebration of the days of sail, and there is a whole gallery devoted to Admiral Lord Nelson, including the uniform he was wearing when he died, where shows the bullet hole that killed him. We saw the J.M.W. Turner "Battle of Trafalgar", a monumental painting of the decisive battle a Nelson won where he was killed. another exhibit is ballet the Battle of Jutland, the major naval conflict between England and Germany in WWI, which neither of us had heard of, but was a great study in strategy and the limitations of navigation and communications of the day. The museum was filled with ship models, equipment that people used no board, and everything from cuff links to fans that celebrated Nelson's victory. there is a reason that London has a Trafalgar Square with a giant column and statue of Lord Nelson. He was from Norfolk, and last visit we went to a pub Nelson used to visit.
Back on the train to central London. We go to a dishoom, but they have over an hour wait, and we are both too hungry. Barney is attracted by the a place across the street, Tredwell, and we go there and have a lovely dinner. To start, I have a Boulevard, which is good but the absolute standout is Barney's drink, gin with muddled cucumber, St. Germain, apple juice, and basil. I get three starters, a ham terrine, then a crab-tomato salad, and finally a poached egg with hollandaise on a bed of bacon and braised mushrooms, which was delicious. Barney had a perfectly done hangar steak with roasted broccoli and a nice Malbec. Dessert for Barney was a peanut butter pudding with the darkest chocolate sorbet I've ever seen, whhcih he really enjoyed, and I had an almost-apricot parfait, light and delicious.
We walk back to the apartment and fall into bed, tired after a wonderful full day in London.
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