Last full day in England

I thought I'd spend my last day doing more tour bus stuff-get the live guide and take pictures of London, maybe go to the Tower of London.  The weather did not cooperate-very cold, blowy and rainy. My shots of London are taken through rain coated bus windows. I got the whole story of why the Union Jack looks like it does, though. Not going to repeat it, you can look it up. When we got to the Tower of London, I knew that it just wasn't a day to spend there, so I stayed on the bus with my new friend-a young woman from Orem who was in London for a week with her husband, who was then working. It is such a small world. I decided on a whim to get off the bus at Liberty of London's and get out of the rain for awhile. Liberty's is a small department store; world-renowned for its fine floral fabrics, stationary and clothing. It was a delight!!! I took pictures of displays, floors, walls, trying to capture the atmosphere.

Here are some of the things I bought.

Some of their famous cotton lawn fabric to make a tunic from.

Some cards with artwork that I want to copy.

A needlepoint kit and some pencil that have a Liberty's pattern on them.

Some chocolate, which although very prettily packaged was just okay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday afternoon at the Tate Modern

 

I spent Sunday afternoon at the Tate Modern museum. I felt a little schizophrenic, going from the V&A to the T&M! First I had lunch at the very nice Tate restaurant. Since it was actually not raining, I sat outside, in the sunshine, put my feet up and sketched my surroundings while waiting for my food.

 

I ordered fish and chips and oh boy, was it good!!! I love fish and chips and this was the best I have ever had. The Damien Hurst exhibit was amazing-the biggest show done on this guy in 20 years. They had all his famous stuff: dot paintings, butterflies, cigarette butts, dead flies, cows and sheep cut in half, pharmacies. I didn't stand in line to see his diamond and platinum skull, though. My feet hurt too much. I couldn't take any pictures, so I pulled some images from online so you can see some of his stuff.

 Don't be fooled into thinking he does pretty stuff, there is something disturbing either in his work or regarding its meaning. I was glad I got to go. I didn't get to go to the Apsley house, there was not enough time, but I pretty happy with the day except for feeling guilty about doing it all on Sunday!

Sunday morning in the V&A

 

On Sunday, I decided that I needed to step up the pace and save my feet. I would spend one day touring by taxi to the Victoria and Albert Museum, Aspley House and the Tate Modern-I had a timed ticket for a Damien Hurst exhibit there. These were fairly close to my hotel and so wouldn't cost too much. I loved the V&A, of course, I could have spent days there. They were having an exhibit on British Design, from the 50's to 2000. I made some sketches while I was there:

 

I made some more sketches and took pictures of some exhibits. (I wasn't supposed to take pictures, it turns out, oh well!)

British silver exhibit

Statuary Hall

Indian exhibit, you come around a corner and this is right in front of your face! I was fascinated.

I don't know what period in time this is from or what it is, but isn't it wonderful?

 

 Then I went to the Museum store--

 

A day in London

 

My Tate British Picasso bag

On Saturday, I spent the morning touring London on a big, red double-decker bus. We drove around Kensington Gardens, the Marble Arch, 10 Downing St., the hospital where Princess Diana had her babies, churches, abbeys, Tower of London, lots of bridges across the Thames, museums, Trafalgar Square. The architecture was astounding, I love ornate stuff like that. I didn't take pictures because it was lightly raining but I wish I had now. After a couple of hours, I got off the bus across the street from Westminster Abbey and walked a few blocks to the Tate Britian, where I had a timed ticket to the Picasso and Modern British Art exhibit. The exhibit was kind of small and had maybe 3 of Picasso's really good works and facsimiles of others. Anyway, my favorite part was Picasso's sketches of costumes that he designed for a London ballet company,  just because I remember loving these as a teenager, teaching myself art history with a series of books that my parents had. When I saw canvas bags in the gift shop with these drawings, I had to have it! I used this bag for the rest of my trip and I love it. The rest of the museum was closed for renovations except for two galleries. What a disappointment! I was hoping at this point that the other museums that I planned to visit would be better.

 

I got back on the bus and got off in front of Harrod's department store. I went right into the food court because I had heard that it was pretty amazing. It was! Talk about sensory overload. The walls, ceilings, floors were beautifully tiled, mosaic-ed and painted. The food stalls were works of art. And then I found the biscuit tins. I kept picking up one and then finding something I liked better as I moved down the aisles. Finally I settled on three that I liked. One was a teddybear soldier which I gave to my grandson Sammy, the other two are pictured below. The one with four sides is artwork by a famous art deco artist named Alphonse Mucha. He was prominently studied in last semester's history of graphic design class. The green one is just pretty. I bought some cartons of take-away food for my dinner and rode the tour bus home.

Harrod's food court

Food court

More food court

One side of my Mucha cookie tin.

Erik and I ate the cookies when I got home. They were pretty good.

Berkeley Castle

On Thursday, I drove over to Berkeley Castle, which was only 8 miles away.  I wasn't even aware that this existed when planning my trip. I found out about it while talking to the estate agent and Lady Mander on Tuesday morning.  Lady Mander is friends with the Berkeleys and thought it very amusing that I would be touring the castle during the day and she would be dining with the family that same night.              

I was not allowed to take any pictures inside, and I somehow lost the pics I took outside so I scanned these photos from the souvenir booklet that I bought.

Early painting of castle

It was pretty amazing to be in this room.

This is the other side of the room pictured above. This room is probably where Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Night's Dream was first performed.

This is Queen Eliz. I bedspread, it all embroidered in silk and gold threads.

The legend about why the bedspread was left behind. I bought the silk scarf, below.

I added this picture because what looks like red wallpaper on the walls is actually hand embroidered wool which was part of a tent made for watching King Henry VIII joust in France with the french King. It was later used to cover the walls of the master bedroom, then pieced together on these walls. There was an elderly British woman on the tour with her daughter, she was obviously a needle-artist like me and we together went ga-ga over the bedspread and the wall covering. Her daughter had to keep saying "come on mum, keep up"!

Isn't this so romantic looking?

Adventures in Bath

On Wednesday, I drove myself to Bath, about an hour's drive away. It was a rainy day but not too cold. The first thing I did was to tour the roman baths which were quite interesting. Their antiquity was impressive, certainly the oldest ruins I've ever seen (which isn't saying much for my experience). However, the audio guide which I rented kept talking about the “ramons” and once in a while threw in “roman ruins”. I thought this a bit quirky but very british. My favorite part of the “Ramon Baths” was the ancient plaque of “Sulis”, some kind of roman diety. His face is strangely scary and benevolent at the same time. I also got a kick out of all the animal faces carved in stone, these are just a few.

At the roman baths

Ink and pastel drawing of Sulis

Bath Abbey

 Next, I went to the enormous Bath Abbey. It was impressive! I wanted to take a tour and paid for what I thought was a walk around of the main abbey. Turned out it was the tower tour-involving climbing some 200+ tiny stairs up to the top of the abbey. Well, it was an adventure. I got to see the bell ringing room, the back of the clock, stand it the bell chamber while the bells rang the ½ hour, ( it was loud but thrilling) and then stand on the tallest tower. I think it is the tallest building in Bath, the view was wonderful. Going down the stairs was the hardest part, between bifocals and astigmatism, boots and stiff ankles, I was glad when I was down! It was worth it, though.                                                                                                   

Some of the very ornate stone carving on the Abbey.

Inside the Abbey. The walls and floors are covered with inscriptions and tributes to the illustrious dead, including Americans.

The infamous steps to the top of the abbey, as you can see, these are original and very worn. Kind of slippery, too.

The back of the clock

The view from the abbey tower

And there I am, at the top!

The Pump Room Restaurant

Souvenir shop bag

Me with the most photographed man in Bath.

Pen and pastel drawing of 

Jane Austin Center souvenirs.

I then went into the Pump Room, which is now a very nice restaurant and had a little lunch, then popped over to a souvenir shop to get a t-shirt that Inger-Lis had requested. Here is the bag it was in, I won't show the shirt 'cause she hasn't seen it yet. I then hopped on a sight-seeing bus for awhile and got off at the Jane Austen Center, where I had my picture taken with this jolly fellow, said to be the most photographed man in Bath! The center is quite small but fun for Jane Austin fans, of which I am one!!! I didn't learn anything new (I could probably be a guide myself without any training) but they had lovely display from the numerous movies made from her novels and I bought some lavender ink and a pretty pen from the gift shop. I had planned on also going to the Fashion Museum across the street but alas, it was closing for the day in 20 minutes. So I walked up the street to see the famous Crescent of Bath with its upscale apartments for the rich and famous of Jane Austin's day. I had to walk back to my car at this point because the sight-seeing bus was on its last run to the other side of town. I got lost for awhile, found the car park, fought traffic in Bath (traffic is TERRIBLE in Bath at all times, the streets are just too tiny, winding and narrow), and then found that the most direct way home was detoured due to an accident. I had to take the long way home and my garmin sat-nav was very confused. I didn't get home until about 7 o'clock. Next time, I'll plan for more time in Bath!