March 27: Tired but happy

We have arrived in London!

 

It is such a pleasant shock to walk out of Westminster Tube Station and realize that you are really truly in the heart of London.  The late afternoon sun made everything even more special!



There is really something to be said for travelling in business class – a menu, lots of freebies, a card to let you get express service through customs – but the best thing is the seats that let you lie down absolutely flat and really sleep.  We both got a good few hours of solid sleep, and arrived feeling like we could make use of the rest of the day.  The trip in from Heathrow took us an hour by Underground – with a suitcase and a pack each, but our hotel is really nice.  It is very large, stylish, and in a great location.  We have a free mini-bar, comfortable bed, 24 hour room service, and it would be a great place to relax -- if we felt like relaxing!  I am including pictures of our bathroom fixtures because they are the coolest I have ever seen.  It is a shame to -- use them.

We managed to phone Alanna, but she was at work and couldn’t talk for more than a second.  Turns out she is busy both this evening and tomorrow evening.  We were sort of hoping to take a day trip out to Canterbury, Leeds Castle and Dover, but then we wouldn’t see Alanna at all.  Maybe we can save that for when Kathleen arrives, as our main reason for coming to London was to see Alanna.

On our own for the evening, we headed off to see the National Gallery, open until 9:00 on Friday evenings.  We took the tube to Westminster, and walked down historic Whitehall to Trafalger Square.  The buildings are historic and Ian loved their classical stye,  There are so many monuments that they literally put some in the middle of the road.  Ian limited himself to a picture of General Montgomery, which I think he took for Bob.  I mjean, he took the picture because he thought Bob would appreciate it, not because he thought it WAS Bob.

General Montgomery reviewing the tourists as they pass.

 

As you can see, we were walking in the shadow of buildings, so the light isn't quite the best, but . . .

. . . Lord Nelson still waited for us, silhouetted against the evening sky.

 

The light was perfect in Trafalgar Square and St. Martins-in-the-fields looked so lovely that we were tempted to blow off the art gallery and go to a Mozart Requiem that was being held.  Only our fear of falling asleep and snoring away, oblivious to the world, each other, and the rest of the audience kept us on our feet.

 

The National Gallery is full of some of the most famous and important paintings in the world.  There are many famous works of art that I have seen in reproductions many times, but they always look much different in person.  For example, I dragged Ian off immediately to see Arnolfini and his wife, and the painting was much smaller than I thought.  On the other hand, the picture of Charles I on horseback from the Socail Studies 9 textbook was enormous!  We didn't bother taking pictures, as they are all available on line at the National Gallery website.
 

We had a nice steak pie at a pub dinner near our hotel afterword, after becoming really worried because nothing was open.  In fact, pie was the third thing Ian ordered, but there was not much left in the ktichen.  He said he enjoyed it, though, and we staggered back to the hotel and set the alarm.  Ian did a couple of hours of work, according to him -- I sure wasn't awake to see it!