2 for 1

May 13, 2011
First order of business is an apology for the tardiness of this post. The blog dashboard we use was down for about 24 hours for maintenance work. So today you get two days worth of site-seeing for the price of one.
Yesterday we started the day at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The V & A, as it is called in England, is the repository of a plethora of significant artifacts from throughout history. We started in the Medieval section to look at large sculptures. We appreciate but do not particularly like medieval art except for large sculptures. We were not disappointed in this display. From Medieval art we went to the display of glass. There was a great deal of glass spanning a large time frame but we concentrated on the more modern pieces. Again, we saw many beautiful things. Our next stop was to view dresses and textiles but to Lynda's disappointment, it was closed for remodeling. The highlight of the day at the V & A, at least for Tim, was the Performing Art and Theatre display. There were numerous displays of stuff from London productions, things like models of scenery, displays of costumes, playbills, etc. There was also a section devoted to live rock concerts. Again posters, costumes, etc. Of particular interest was a costume worn by Elton John during one of his American tours. Talk about flamboyant.
From the V & A we headed to Chelsea to visit the Saatchi Gallery. This is the leading contemporary art gallery in London. As a matter of fact it was recently donated to the public and will be renamed the Museum of Contemporary Art London next year. Much to our disappointment it was closed for a private party. Surprisingly, Lynda did not try to talk our way in. After considerable discussion of what to do next it was decided to go to the British Library. The British Library use to be housed in the same building as the British Museum. Sometime in the last several years it was moved into its own building. From the outside the British Library looks rather unremarkable, but once you get through the entrance it is really quite nice. Two of the pictures with the blog are of the Library. This is a working library and it turns out there is only one room of displays for public viewing. For all of the other rooms you need a special pass for access. But what a treasure trove of documents on display in the one room we could visit. For instance, there was an original copy of the Gutenberg Bible, the first movable type bible published. There were also original copies of several of William Shakespeare's plays. The printed music area was especially impressive. The original score that Handel wrote for his "Messiah" just happened to be open to the recitative, "A Trumpet Shall Sound." There were also original scores for Mendelssohn's Wedding March" and Ravel's "Bolero". We both chuckled over the final original score. It was Percy Granger's "English Country Garden". This is a very famous and still popular English folk song, particularly among pre pubescent boys. Ask Jeff to sing you the words the next time you see him! There was also a small display of Beatles artifacts including several pieces of paper that Paul and John had used to write out lyrics to some of their most famous songs. One of John's songs was written on the back of a birthday card he had just given his very young son, Julian.
All in all a pretty amazing day of history.
Today we visited Art Galleries. We started at the National Museum of Art. As usual, we headed to the Impressionists and Post Impressionists. As was to be expected, it was an impressive exhibit. Lynda was particularly taken by the Monet's. Tim was particularly struck by one of the Pissaro's, Nighttime on the Boulevard Montmartre. There were two very small and impressive Seurat paintings, either of which would have fit in Tim's shoulder bag, but Lynda would not create a diversion so that Tim could quickly secret one of the Seurat's into his bag. Next door to the National Gallery of Art is the National Portrait Gallery. I hope there is no need to explain this gallery. Again, we concentrated mostly on the 20th century portraits. These would be people we knew or at least had heard of. It was fascinating that there were many different styles to the portraits, ranging from Impressionistic portraits to more traditional portraits. All very interesting.
After lunch we visited the John Wesley Chapel. John Wesley was the founder of Methodism and this chapel, actually a church, was his first home church. Of particular interest to us was the fact that Margaret Thatcher was married in this church and her children were all baptised in it. The original organ that John Wesley and his brother, Charles, played had a place of honor in a little chapel off of the main sanctuary. John Wesley's house and grave were also located at this sight. Coincidentally, across the street from the Wesley Chapel was the Bunhill Burial Grounds. This is small cemetery in the middle of London that has been in existence for a thousand years!
That pretty much brings you up to date. Hopefully we will have no more problems with our blog host.
Cheers!