But, I'm not going to waste my last week here. I have lots of stuff planned, including a few very British-y things like seeing Shakespeare in Regent's Park and watching the Changing of the Guard and walking up the dome of St. Paul's. I've already done a few things this week which are quite touristy and yet I hadn't got to it yet. Monday was a short trek to the Burberry outlet - yes, I got something, but not a $500 trench (even though that's pretty much a steal since they usually go for far, far more). I even resisted the normally $1700 leather jacket that was marked down to $300 on clearance. My mother's words of "you live in Texas - why do you need a leather jacket?" kept ringing in my head. Even though I still want one, it was not meant to be that particular one. Ah well - the woes of being a poor shopaholic.
Tuesday I walked down to the Tate Britain alone and wandered about.
It was farther away than it looked on the map and - of course - the weather has turned quite warm in the last couple of days. Eighty degrees is HOT when you're walking in the sun and no place has air conditioning. Anyway, the Tate is rather charming and on the Thames, but I think that I've seen enough J. M. W. Turner to last a LIFETIME. Seriously - I saw the exhibit at the DMA right before I left and apparently, the artist bequeathed a large number of his works to the Tate to the point where they have a whole section dedicated to him. It was like "yes, yes - another boat in the middle of the ocean. I GET IT." Even though I really do like a lot of his work, it was getting to be a bit much. But I did it and now I can say that I've seen more Turner than the average. Woo.
Yesterday was the National Portrait Gallery, which is actually connected to the National Gallery (go figure) and therefore, right next to the school. It's nice when you're just looking to spend a lazy afternoon walking about - you can skip several of the descriptions in the galleries that are full of boring statesmen or noblemen. They're all Britons and so I usually only read the description if I recognized the name. Oh, and all the descriptions in the "Royalty, Celebrity and Scandal" section because, geez, those people really gave the middle finger to polite society on frequent occasions. I did see several portraits that were quite famous too - the only (supposedly) from-life Shakespeare portrait and (something dear to only me, I'm sure), the one of two from-life Jane Austen portraits done by her sister, Cassandra (which is supposedly not at all a good likeness, which is good, since she looks homely and unhappy in it).
For various reasons, I'm taking today off - it's really quite warm and there was a small fiasco of running around Covent Garden, which completely destroyed my desire to go ahead with my plan of more walking around Hyde Park. I also haven't slept very well since before Scotland, so I think it's early to bed tonight so that I can get up and be fresh for my last week in London.
1 comment:
Turner did not leave any pictures to the Tate, which did not exist in his time. For the scandal of the treatment of his bequest see www.jmwturner.org
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