Fall Vacation, Part II – London

After our trip to Iceland, we continued on to the main event:  London.  This was my third, or maybe fourth trip to London.  Having thoroughly explored previously, I was not super motivated this trip.  This was my son’s first visit, though, so we dragged him around to see some big attractions.

Day 1 was a visit to The Tower of London.  This was my first time visiting, so I was engaged.  I hadn’t realized what an interesting building it was.  It is an ancient fortress, that continued to grow for centuries.  It is also set against a backdrop of very modern buildings.  The juxtaposition of ancient and modern was very appealing to me.

My favorite part of our visit was watching the ravens.  One was very vocal, making loud hissing noises and posing in the sunshine.  Legend has it that when the ravens leave The Tower, the monarchy will fall.  The Brits show their cheating spirit here, as several of the birds are in cages.

We went through some of the different towers, impressed with the old construction that is still standing, when our American homes regularly seem to be falling apart at the 25 year mark.

We stood in a long line to view the crown jewels.  I wasn’t overly excited by them.  I get more worked up at the jewelry store – maybe because there is a remote chance that I can take the sparklies home.  Also, some of those kings were overly into their gold maces.  (Gold scepter thing – looks heavy and goofy.)  How many does one man need?

Our next stop was Westminster Abbey.  We were hoping to instill a little shock and awe into the 21 year old.  Unfortunately, he is super jaded, and only interested in his college course load (and e-gaming.)

After a light lunch, we decided to visit the London Aquarium.  We are fans of the BBC show “Sherlock”.  There was a key scene that happened at the London Aquarium, and we wanted to check it out.  We’ve seen cool aquariums all over the place – Baltimore, Vancouver, San Francisco, etc.  We were expecting something equally impressive based on the scene from a favorite TV show.  Wah, wah.  Joke was on us.  The London Aquarium is a nightmare.  Small, crowded with an unsafe number of people, and dirty.  London children do not demonstrate British Restraint.  I have never had so many different faces rammed into my butt in my life.  I don’t believe Sherlock would have lasted for one minute in that place.  This stop was not photo-worthy.

On our second day our son woke up in an unfriendly mood.  We left him to sort himself out and had a lovely breakfast, than a walk in Hyde Park.  We were impressed by how well behaved all of the local dogs were (unlike the children).  Most were off leash, and calmly walking along beside their humans.  My dogs would not behave that way.  One would run off into oblivion, never to be seen again, and one would try to keep everyone away from us.

We went back to the hotel, and my husband took Mr. Happy to see the Fulham Football Club lose at soccer.  I stayed behind in the room and relaxed with some appliqué and a croissant.

Our last day in London was THE BIG EVENT.  The boys got up relatively early and headed out to watch the Philadelphia Eagles vs who cares.  I had the whole day to myself.  I had initially planned to spend the day visiting quilt shops, but those crazy folks apparently all take Sunday off.  So, I went with Plan B – the Tate Modern.  (I did consider just laying in bed and eating an entire box of Mr. Kipling’s Exceedingly Good Bramley Apple Pies, but I did that on my last visit. #NoRegrets)

I bravely struck out on my own, using my Oyster Card and the London Underground app.  I was at the museum in no time at all.  On my way, I noticed a little square that had construction going on next to it.  They put up large walls, and covered them with art.  Take notes, NYC. These were my two favorites.

Part of evaluating which pieces of art are my favorite now includes considerations like
Could I piece that?
Could I use that technique to enhance print fabrics?

One of the lovely things about British Museums is that they are free.  They ask for a donation, which I was happy to give, as we are constantly looking to get rid of our foreign coins.  I walked through several  exhibits, enjoying myself immensely.  When you are alone at the museum you can stare at one picture for as long as you want.

I really liked this one by Gerhard Richter.  He did something with thick layers of paint – waiting for them to dry partially, then scraping some off, then doing it again.

I liked this series, too.  Unfortunately, I neglected to record the artist’s name.  I was particularly into texture on this visit.

There was a special exhibit of work by Anni Albers. It turns out that weaving is very interesting to this quilter.  I really enjoyed the exhibit – seeing the process of creating woven art textiles from sketch to reality was fascinating. Seeing the growth through her career was impressive, too.  I really like when artists hit the part of their work when they go from mastering what is standard to exploring possibilities.

I found this piece to be particularly intriguing.

I considered a visit to Liberty of London to at least get a little bit of fabric shopping in, but I’ve been there before, and while their fabrics are gorgeous, they don’t really inspire me.  It might be different if I didn’t have pile of fabrics I haven’t touched from my last visit.  Instead, I went back to my hotel and fell asleep.

The boys woke me up when they got back, quite pleased that the Eagles had carried the day.  There was much rejoicing.  Then we went to have dinner at a very entertaining Italian restaurant.  Bizzaro Restaurant is great.  The food was solid quality, but the wait staff was unintentionally hysterical.  The host, who is most likely the owner, clearly cannot handle the stress of running a popular restaurant.  He wrings his hands over the long line of people waiting for a table, and anxiously checks on you about 37 times while you try to hork down your food.  Our waiter was a caricature of an Italian waiter – slicked back hair, overly flirtatious.  It was a good dinner.

Monday morning we flew home, which is pretty much my favorite part of any trip.  Those welcome home puppy kisses are always so sweet.