Day 29 – London
Ah Monday, a day of culture, or something.
Another day and i’m feeling a bit walked out after yesterday’s efforts at Kew gardens, so the path of least walking sounds good. This means tube with a change to the Victoria line, and down to Pimlico for a quick wander through Tate Britain. The Tate is kind of a selfish pleasure for me, as it’s full of my favourite paintings, or at least should be. It’s also been a bit of a let down, too, over time. My first visit was when they had closed the Pre-Raphaelite room, so allI got to see was The Lady of Shalott as it was being hung outside at the time. Next visit the Pre-Raphs were out in force, but Shalott was on loan to Canada.
This time, the Tate seems to be going weird on me. Many of the rooms were devoted to modern shite, some interesting photography but a lot of crap from the last century that wouldn’t belong on the back of a toilet door (though would be completely at home at Tate Modern, with all the other crap there). Lots of pictures expressing things, but absolutely no techniqu worth mentioning. And taking over display room in my Tate? Never! I say.
The good stuff, i.e. the older works from the days when people could paint and wanted to create beautiful works, were mostly condensed into a greatest hits room. Who came up with this idea I don’t know, but what used to be a magnificent room of great Pre-Raphaelite paintings was no longer. I did get to see Shalott and Ophelia together, but where was Persephone? A travesty I say!
Next stop was the ferry, where L spent some time fussing over a lovely big dog out for a walk. We took the boat along the Thames to Banside, just near The Globe (which was open today). Did the tour but weren’t allowed on the stage (sigh), was a pretty neat experience.
As we were in the area, we checked out the Vinopolis Whisky Shop. It was okay. A few bottles that I would have loved to be able to afford, but overall I wasn’t as blown away as I was expecting. There didn’t seem much in the way of old and rare expressions, just a good range of mostly easily avaliable stuff.
We washed again, and finished u[ having dinner across the road, where I had a good bowl of roast tomato soup and a burger with bacon and cheese. Nothing too challenging, just something different.
The other rude shock of the day was realising we only have 2 more full days left before wwe go home. I thought we had more time, now it’s going to be a case of seeing what we can do in the time left.