Monday, July 26th, 2010.
Today started out early. I was so tired, apparently jet lag really hit me this time and even after 8+ hours of sleep I just wasn’t feeling it. Jason woke me up with the English Yo Gabba Gabba show, singing some shite about Nap Time and how awesome dreams are. Not the best subject matter for waking someone up, I’d say.
Finally we made our way to the train station, got round trip tickets from Canterbury to London and spent the next nearly 2hrs making our way to Charing Cross station. We found our way through that end of London fairly easily.
First stop was Trafalgar Square: lots of tourists, pigeons and the gigantic Lord Nelson statue. Also included was the National Gallery, where we saw loads of old stuff ranging from Botticelli, an amazing collection of Rembrandt including Belshazzar’s Feast, my personal favourite, and a portrait of Saskia in Arcadian Dress, also a self portrait and Woman Bathing. Good good stuff.
There was a ton of art in that museum. Ridiculous amounts of Italian work. Huge Canaletto’s, a great selection of Constable, the Hogarth Marriage satire series, some Jan Brueghel, Verrochios, Annibale Carraci’s Domine Quo Vadis, a personal highlight. I should have taken notes cause I can’t remember much more now. Will add more later if I remember. Turner’s Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus. A good selection of Manet, Monet and Gauguin (before he turned into a Tahitian Twit). Also a HUGE biggie for me was the portrait of Banastre Tarleton by Reynolds. Oh huzzah.
Once that was done (2hrs!) we needed beer so we walked down Millbank St. and found The Red Lion pub. Pretty friendly though it felt like it was used to serving tourists and not locals. Nonetheless the beer was good and the staff friendly. Inside was very very Victorian in décor which I just loved.
Afterwards we wandered on down and found Downing Street, blocked off, of course, with lots of police guarding it. Would have liked to see Number 10 but it’s the White House of England so that makes sense that we couldn’t get close.
Further on down we came to Big Ben. LOADS of people, got our picture taken by some nice English couple who wanted a shot too for Christmas photos. We then went into Westminster Abbey/Cathedral where I got us a student discount (Score!) and took lots of ninja shots of Poet’s Corner. Extremely beautiful place. Made me cry by the end of it cause as we were leaving they were starting a sermon and the choir was singing. Churches are just cold buildings until filled with the sounds of human voices.
Otherwise we got to see the Oldest Door in England (big laugh there) and original medieval tile flooring in the Chapter House. Saw the effigies of Elizabeth 1 and Mary Queen of Scots. Saw a plaque for Anne of Cleves but I didn’t realize she was buried there. Probably not but who knows.
Afterwards we wandered up towards Parliament and got lots of great touristy shots with the building and the Thames and Big Ben. Next we trekked on down to the Tate Britain which was a LONG walk mind you, feet KILLING us by the time we got there. But it was so so so worth it. I didn’t realize the AMAZING collection of Pre-Raphaelite art they had at the Tate Britain and of course this was the museum that I boohooed in like a baby. We turn a corner and on the wall is Waterhouse’s Lady of Shalott. I was sobbing. It was so amazingly gorgeous I couldn’t stand it. Then in the next room there was an amazing collection of Rosetti’s, Burne-Jones and Ford Maddox Browns. There’s was Mariana, and Ophelia and Jesus in the House of Joseph, The Annuciation and I can't remember anymore right now but I will definitely update when my brain clears a bit.
I was just a soppy mess by the time we left there. Jason was excited about the Francis Bacon room, though it didn’t really have much in it. Still it was cool to see. There was a study by Sargeant for Madame X, which was just gorgeous, lots more Gainsborough and Turner. I just fucking LOVE England’s museums. So jealous.
Well by the time we left we were so tired of walking and I was so hungry and dehydrated it just got a little grump-city by then. We couldn’t decide where to eat so we ended up having cheese & onion pasties in the train station. They were oh my god delicious! I can’t wait to eat more of them! There’s a pasty shop here in Canterbury that I want to try. Yum yum yum.
Once we got back ‘home’ we made our way to the Hobgoblin pub and had a few rounds. The place was pretty crowded, though everyone made their way to the back near the beer garden to smoke. We had a good time there. Will definitely go back for some food again. Had a chat with the girl bartender about how odd it is that we don’t tip here. I tipped her anyway after she said it’s not the typical thing here. I just felt guilty not tipping them!
So the day ended with us chilling out in the front room of the B&B, taking weird pictures and blogging.
Tomorrow is the photoshoot, hopefully, so we’ll see how that goes.
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