LONDON prt 4

The National Art Gallery was a great place to spend a morning! Van Gogh, Monet, Rubens, Vermeer, Titian, Cezanne, Seurat, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Raphael, etc.... I got to see their beautiful works! I thought I would never tire of Seurat and Monet in particular. If I visit London again - the museum can reproduce any painting for about 20 dollars - I plan on buying a couple works.



** It is a blessing that the art galleries in London are free! Of course if you want an audio guide or a very detailed map you have to pay/donate but it's so worth it considering there is no entrance fee in the first place!!!

The Tate was interesting. I certainly appreciated the Picasso and Dali among a few other modern artists I know. Mainly though, the artists were unknown to me and their works were similarly uninspiring. I spent quite a while exploring everything in the Tate, but I don't know that it's somewhere I would return, simply because you have to visually sift through all the works in order to come across something you know. At least for me, with my more classical education in art, that's how my experience went. Ah well, it was definitely worth a visit!

I could have spent at least two full days in the British Museum...as it was I spent 5 hours drowning happily in precious works, and then I had to tear myself away. The Rosetta Stone from Egypt, the friezes from the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Greece, gladiator helmets,  Easter Island statues, Tiffany glassware, African tapestries, rare coins, the bog mummy ... the list goes on and on and on and when you think you've seen everything, there is STILL more. The great thing is though, that unlike at  the Louvre or the Smithsonian, the crowds blocking art works disperse about every 5 minutes for a new batch of admirers, the guards are really kind and helpful and not too overprotective of works so you can get your face within two inches of 2000 yr old works, there is an abundance of bathrooms, benches, chairs, food and shops, and perhaps the best thing is the super cheap media guide with optional tours and little videos on it. You don't get tired and irritable and you don't feel claustrophobic either. Maybe it's because it's free, but there is no harried RUSH to crowd each other in order to see the collection. It's a very calm and serene place. If you so desire there are also free tours every other hour or so and in some rooms an area where an expert allows you to touch the works!!! Simply put, for a humanities kid, the British Museum is HEAVEN ! 

St. Paul's overtook Sacre Coeur as the second prettiest cathedral I've ever seen and established itself right behind St. Peter's. The inside domes have colored glass mosaics that are just breathtaking. The biggest dome is beautifully painted in various chestnuty grey shades to look like old sculptures or engravings at least. The floorspace of the Cathedral is perfectly adorned, not overwhelmed as I personally feel Westminster is, with gorgeous marble sculptures here and there. My visit to St. Paul's took 3 hours; even then I wasn't satisfied that I'd spent enough time!  I took the time to listen to the entire audio guide. I then climbed 528 steps (85 meters)  up through the inner dome and then the outer dome, climbing increasingly smaller, tighter stairways, to the very tippy top (at least as high as they will allow you to go) of the cathedral. At the top, I looked out over London for quite awhile just marveling that I was up so high. Afterward I descended into the huge crypt to marvel at tombs, memorials, and church artifacts. The cathedral elicited a continual "Wow" from me. I couldn't even find sufficient words.

Westminster was a mixed bag for me. While I reveled in the history of the space I found it impossibly crowded with both people and sculptures. The dark gray stone wasn't winning any votes for beauty either. Instead of being one continuous space, the abbey seemed cut up into various sections mashed together throughout history, and that's exactly the case. It was pretty, just in a very special way, almost a similar uniqueness that I found in the Sagrada Familia but not as extreme. In Westminster, I was in awe as I stepped into the poet's corner to find myself surrounded on all sides and underfoot by the tombs and memorials of all the famous writers I've ever heard of. On the other side of the screen dividing the space I checked out Darwin and Newton's tombs. Westminster was something I'd love to go back for a morning visit (as soon as it opens) without crowds, because I think then, or maybe on an orderly Sunday of worship, the space could show it's true beauty.