Grand Tour #20 and #21

It is Tuesday night, my feet are hurting and Daughter 1 has taken me to so many art galleries! Our daily itineraries have been very different in London. Tim and Carole are conveniently located near a tube stop; Carole kindly walked us to the station so we would be sure to find our way home that evening. Off we went into London to start our day of sightseeing. We spent 4 hours at the National Gallery which included a fire alarm, lunch and shopping! Yes, we looked at every picture in two of the four galleries. Thanks to Daughter 1’s art history teacher, she was a walking book of knowledge. My favorite piece? The Execution of Lady Jane Grey by Delaroche. Daughter 1’s favorite piece? The Constable and Turner paintings – she can’t pick just one. Then we went to the Tate Modern. Most of the works were a bit much for me – but they did have some nice pieces. The museum is in an old power station on the South Bank - they did a great job renovating the building. After several hours of touring I was glad to see the clock turn to 5:30 so we could meet Carole for a girl’s night out. Our evening started at The Real Greek – a Greek restaurant on the Thames. After dinner we strolled down the street to the Globe Theater to see A Midsummer’s Night Dream. What a great night and a great play – we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We rolled into the house in time to head to bed, just to get up the next morning and do it all again! Well, this morning we headed into town to hit 3 museums. We started at the Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery in Somerset House. It was small, compact and full of great work. I loved a Picasso that I had never seen before and Daughter 1 loved the paintings by Manet. Lunch was at Wagamama’s – one of the family’s favorite restaurants in London! After a delicious meal we headed to the National Portrait Gallery. We first searched for the only original portrait of Jane Austen, but along the way we saw many others. My personal art historian told me it wasn’t so much about who painted the picture – but rather who the portrait was of. Don’t laugh, but then we took a break and went to a movie! We couldn’t find a play we wanted to go to, so we decided to see The Other Bohlen Girl. Since we have been to several of the filming locations – we had to go and see it on the big screen! It was fun to nudge each other each time there was a place we recognized. After the movie we hopped on the tube and headed to the British Library to see a letter Jane Austen wrote to her sister, Jane’s writing desk and some early stories she wrote. The exhibition room of British treasures was filled with other wonderful pieces too. Beatles memorabilia, an original Magna Carta, a Gutenberg Bible, Handel’s Messiah and Shakespeare’s First Folio. We went to Covent Garden to have dinner at my favorite restaurant - Belgos. Well fed, happy and very tired feet we made it home.