Our 2016 European Trek.
We arrived in London last Wednesday afternoon. Managed to settle into our accommodation near St James Park ok, and explore the surroundings a little.
Thursday was busy, we went into the city to sort out some issues with Boronia's SIM card with her provider, then took a bus to Pimlico hoping to visit the Saatchi Gallery. We got there to discover the exhibition was on the Rolling Stones, so we passed and headed on via a long and circuitous walk to the Tate Britain, which was wonderful. I particularly enjoyed a full length portrait of Queen Elizabeth I by Steven van der Meulen, pointed in 1563, relatively early inner reign. There was a terrific collection of British art and artists.
Next stop was the Courtauld Gallery, a small but very high quality collection of European and Middle Eastern art. I particularly enjoyed a Cezanne of a French village, an early and uncharacteristic still life of a vase of flowers by Picasso, and many more.
Then a serendipitous discovery of an exhibition at Kings University of key documents associated with Shakespeare's life. Quite interesting, the real pleasure was in seeing original documents such as his will, court documents in which he was a witness and so forth.
Friday morning we headed to Bermondsley to visit an antiques market....more akin to a flea market.....I was tempted to buy some pewter snuff boxes, but resisted the temptation. Around lunch time we took the train to Oxford to see friends, Katherine (a former colleague of mine from the ILC) and her family, and Shona, an ex-colleague of Boronias. And of course, I couldn't resist the exhibition at the Bodleian Library "Shakespeare's Dead' which was fascinating in that it brought together all sorts of thematic consistencies throughout Shakespeare's plays regarding his approach to death, the impact of the plague on London during his lifetime, and much much more. I couldn't resist the temptation to buy the book of the exhibition, plus a short volume on the making of the First Folio. We arrived back in London around ten pm.
This morning (Saturday 30 April) as I write this, Boronia is off at the markets in Southwark, and I will focus on packing my pack for the walking segment of our trip, and do some reading.
London's weather has been fine, but very cold. hopefully it will warm up for our walk in France.
Hopefully Boronia will supplement these observations soon.
