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London - Day 2
Mar. 17th, 2006 02:22 pm(BTW, I'm posting this after the fact, we got back this Monday so I'm recapping our vacation now that we're home.)
Day 2 was jam-packed full of sightseeing geekery! We started at St. Paul's Cathedral. It was lovely, the ceilings were very sparkly, like they used sequins. Then we walked over the Millennium Bridge to tour Shakespeare's Globe. It started to rain while we were in the seats, I can see why they don't start performances till May because it was pretty chilly. They had a couple of costumes, in fact a whole section given over to costuming the performers, and a tribute to Janet Arnold. For a souvenir, I got a hanging pomander and some postcards.
We grabbed lunch at a pub and then toured the Golden Hinde; the ticket/gift shop was given over almost entirely to pirate souvenirs - even a reversible Pirate/Cowboy vest for the youngsters. That's handy. We then hopped on the Tube to hit the National Gallery - wow. Lots of great Italian paintings. They have several paintings of working-class women with the fruits and vegetables - the canvases are huge! The dead animals depicted in them are a bit creepy though. I loved seeing "Portrait of a Lady Inspired by Lucretia" by Lotto. I still can't figure out exactly what's up with that headdress. A bad wig? The colors were so bright on so many of these Renaissance works, either the pigments were amazing back then or they have been restored at some point.
We picked the National Gallery because they were open late Wednesday. When we left there, we could see Big Ben, just past Trafalgar Square. Then I really realized I was in London! I know that sounds kind of dumb; all I can chalk that up to is that BB is such a visual icon...also, with school I didn't have a chance to get all excited before the trip, so maybe that's why it took me a full day to get the impact of being in England.
We walked down to Parliament to get a closer look at BB, then headed back to the hotel. I think we ate Thai that night.
Day 2 was jam-packed full of sightseeing geekery! We started at St. Paul's Cathedral. It was lovely, the ceilings were very sparkly, like they used sequins. Then we walked over the Millennium Bridge to tour Shakespeare's Globe. It started to rain while we were in the seats, I can see why they don't start performances till May because it was pretty chilly. They had a couple of costumes, in fact a whole section given over to costuming the performers, and a tribute to Janet Arnold. For a souvenir, I got a hanging pomander and some postcards.
We grabbed lunch at a pub and then toured the Golden Hinde; the ticket/gift shop was given over almost entirely to pirate souvenirs - even a reversible Pirate/Cowboy vest for the youngsters. That's handy. We then hopped on the Tube to hit the National Gallery - wow. Lots of great Italian paintings. They have several paintings of working-class women with the fruits and vegetables - the canvases are huge! The dead animals depicted in them are a bit creepy though. I loved seeing "Portrait of a Lady Inspired by Lucretia" by Lotto. I still can't figure out exactly what's up with that headdress. A bad wig? The colors were so bright on so many of these Renaissance works, either the pigments were amazing back then or they have been restored at some point.
We picked the National Gallery because they were open late Wednesday. When we left there, we could see Big Ben, just past Trafalgar Square. Then I really realized I was in London! I know that sounds kind of dumb; all I can chalk that up to is that BB is such a visual icon...also, with school I didn't have a chance to get all excited before the trip, so maybe that's why it took me a full day to get the impact of being in England.
We walked down to Parliament to get a closer look at BB, then headed back to the hotel. I think we ate Thai that night.