We spent our final full day in London on Thursday with a trip to the National Gallery (thanks for the tip Mike) which ended up being our last London "must do". We're finally getting into a routine today with G at the gym while I sit here sipping tea (sounds just about spot on for us). The National Gallery is situated on Trafalgar Square and today is home to more than 2,000 works. The gallery was founded in 1824 to display a collection of 36 paintings.
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| Trafalgar Square from the Gallery Steps |
The gallery was quite overwhelming with masterpieces from all over Europe plus the obligatory religious art which takes up a lot of space. We arrived when there were only a few people going through but as we walked around we seemed to attract all the schools groups wandering about. It was amusing to watch the secondary school students (mainly UK and French) with their compulsory 20 questions they had to find the answers for - delegating one not so popular member of their class to go around and get the answers whilst the others sat on the couches.
We saw works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Titian, Botecelli, Rembrandt, Claude, Turner, Gainsborough, Constable, Monet, Degas, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Renoir, Sisley and Picasso - not a bad collection of works for a couple of hours wandering the gallery.
The highlights would definitely be seeing the collection of French impressionists such as Monet's "Water Lillies" and "Bathers at La Grenouillère", Cézanne's "Bathers" and Degas "Ballet Dancers".
As photos were not permitted the following link shows you some of the Highlights of National Gallery London.
After the gallery visit we met up with a school friend of G's (who now lives in London) at the National Portrait Gallery restaurant for afternoon tea. There was a great view of London from the restaurant (pictured below).
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| View from NPG Restaurant |
In the evening we headed out to Carluccio's in Paddington for a great Italian meal - Antonio has a number of small Italian restaurants throughout the UK (reminded us of Melbourne's Italian restaurant scene) - fresh pasta, good wine and of course a tiramisu and limoncello to finish off the meal.
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| Our hotel at night :) |
Today we head across the channel to Lille and start to ramp the trip up a bit. London has been brilliant once again, and I think we can move on feeling pretty happy about what we have done this time around. Maggie's funeral wasn't the huge interruption which we were dreading and everyone seemed to behave with only small protests around the city.
A footnote from Caz: after many days walking past pubs, we finally popped in to one so that Caz could have that English beer she had been craving. So in we go, order a beer - the verdict? Hmmmm - not the best!!
Not to worry - Belgium beckons...