Saturday, May 11, 2013

London - Day 4

Today was so good, and so busy! Once I left after breakfast, my day was basically full of stuff to do.
We started out by walking from Westminster Station to the Tate Art Museum, which is a bit of a walk, especially in the windy cold, but I was happy to see Parliament up closer today.
I think I actually was blinking in the picture, thanks camera for getting it right for once. (Big Ben is just out of the left side of the picture)

One of the towers on Parliament.
 Once at the Tate, I was a little sad to see that a huge portion was under re-development, so after an hour and a half, I had seen everything, but it worked out perfectly with the schedule. There is some very neat pieces there. There are lots of traditional paintings, and also lots of sculptures. The art gets more and more outrageous as the time period gets more recent.
In the background there's an elephant made of car doors and maps, with a circle of car doors on the ground.
In the foreground, a literal cube of garbage.

This piece, "An Athlete Wrestles a Python," was very striking. The detail on the snake was really lifelike.

I loved all the pieces by John Martin - they were so dramatic (and big!) and they command your attention.
After the Tate, we took a riverboat to the Tate Modern. The boat took us right to the Globe Theater, which we skipped for now to get the Tate Modern.
Boy-oh-boy, that place had some WEIRD stuff! I recognized some Picasso and the water lilies piece by Monet, but the rest of the art was really strange. I wasn't really "drawn" to much of it. There was one piece that people had to wait in line for - the installation was three long wooden boxes with that dryer-ventilation-bendy-metal-pipe in each, with a light at one end and a lens to look into on the other. I was curious to see what I would see looking through the lens, so I waited my turn and took a look. I saw down a dryer-ventilation-bendy-metal-pipe with a light at the end. I don't know what I was expecting with that one.
Another piece was a mirror on a canvas. That was literally it. I have the same art in my house that is in the Tate Modern. Mine must be very valuable.
Many of the sculptures at the Tate Modern made me think of the scary sculptures that attack the family in the movie Beetlejuice. Not my favorite things...
It was also REALLY crowded compared to the other museums. I'm glad I went, but I look forward to seeing more "traditional" art in the coming days.
The London Eye

Look Mom, I'm at the Globe!
After the Museums we went across the Millennium Bridge (the one that the Death Eaters destroyed) and to St. Paul's to go on a tour. We got there and discovered they closed early to prepare for services, so I decided to take a dinner break and come back to the service an hour later, but not before getting a picture!
St. Paul's doesn't even look very big in this picture...
 I went looking for someplace to eat and ended up choosing basically the first place I found that was open. It was a regular restaurant, but it was not busy at the time and the guy in charge was really friendly and helpful, and I ordered the food I did based on his advice. I got half a chicken and salad and "chips" (which are fries to Americans). The atmosphere in the place was very calm and it was good to have a hot cooked meal and rest up for a bit.
This was my happy little table with a real flower.
After dinner I went back to St. Paul's for what I thought was a choral music recital, but it was a service. It was full of inspirational music, and the words of the Canon in Residence were inspiring too. It was a new experience, and I'm glad I got to see it, as well as look at the insides of the magnificent building.
While at breakfast this morning I was trying to decide on a show to see tonight, and made a spontaneous choice and bought a ticket for "Viva Forever," which is to the Spice Girls what "Mamma Mia" is to Abba. I got a decent deal, even though my seat was in the top balcony (but at least it was in the center!). So tonight I got to the theater and went to the desk to get my ticket, but the girl there told me that they had to change my seat. I was almost bummed, thinking that I wanted to be in the center, but then she said the magic words, "You've been upgraded." She was NOT kidding! I went from the nose-bleeds to THE SIXTH ROW! And directly in the center! It was truly the most perfect seat. And I paid very little for it!
The show was fun and I knew the songs, which made it even better. It was silly and entertaining, and I would not be one bit surprised if it's made into a movie someday. It has a MUCH better plot than the actual Spice Girls movie did (but clipping your nails has a better plot than that movie, so...)
Viva Forever! at the Piccadilly Theater.
Tomorrow I'm off to St. Albans to visit some of my favorite people that I met on my LDS Mission in Florida, the Hawkshaws! I hope I can figure out the train system and don't get too lost or anything. Either way, I'll write about it! See you tomorrow!

2 comments:

  1. Brandon, I just love reading your posts! That's awesome that you get to experience all that neat stuff! Now I know where to go and what to do when I eventually get to go. Keep 'em comin'!

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  2. Thanks for your comment! There's so much to do here!

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