Day 26: Finding a Friend

So this post will be much shorter than it deserves.  I was able to meet a friend from Harvard this evening and prioritized catching up and socializing than being back at a reasonable hour.  Apologies for the brevity!

Ethan and I had a busy day walking around London.  We started by heading from our hotel to the Imperial War Museum.  The collection there is pretty amazing and affecting.  Highlights were the Lord Ashcroft Gallery that displayed the medals and stories of those who have won the Victory Cross or the George Cross and the Holocaust exhibit.  Both were moving for the extreme bravery and spirit shown by British soldier and by all peoples victimized by the Nazi powers.

After a long visit in the museum, we headed across the Thames and through Westminster again.  This time we spotted the Jewel Tower, one of the few medieval buildings from the Palace of Westminster to survive the fire.

We went into St. James's Park, making our way towards Buckingham Palace.  We were both surprised to see pelicans swimming in the park lake.  They were presents from the Russian ambassador in 1664.  This spurred a tradition of giving exotic and unusual waterfowl as diplomatic gifts and this is reflected in the fowl found in St. James's Park.

We walked up to Victoria Memorial at the end of the Mall and just before Buckingham Palace.  The massive monument was unveiled in 1911 and completed in 1924.  The main features are a statue of Queen Victoria, as Queen Empress, in Carrara marble and a gilded bronze winged Victory standing over the queen.

Although we had missed the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham, we did happen to see a changing of the sentries on duty.  It was pretty fascinating to watch the rigid formality of the process.  A commander led four replacements out and relieved the sentries two at at time, before leading them back in.  All done in perfect unison.

The guards who act as sentries at Buckingham Palace (and as protection to the royal family and residences) are known as the Queen's Guard.

The Queen's Colour was flying over Buckingham Palace, signaling that Queen Elizabeth II is currently in residence at the palace.  Were she not there, no flag would fly.  It would also affect the number of sentries outside Buckingham.

Using a self timer on my camera, Ethan and I were able to get our first picture together in London, with the Victoria Memorial and Buckingham Palace in the background.

From Buckingham Palace, we walked through Piccadilly Circus and towards Trafalgar Square.  We stopped in St. James's Church, Piccadilly.  There was a small market of wares outside and a beautiful organ inside.  The church also allows homeless people to sleep in some of the pews during the day, which seems a lovely continuation of Christian charity.

We ended our busy day in the National Portrait Gallery.  Sadly, many of the rooms of the museum were shut due to some sort of construction or something.  We're hoping that the closures were just for today and we might be able to revisit and see some of the pieces we missed (especially the Caravaggios).

Here are three personal highlights from what we saw today:

A 15th century depiction of St. George slaying the dragon by Paolo Uccello.  I love this image because it reminds me of my childhood and I remember seeing it when I visited London fourteen or fifteen years ago.

The museum had a wonderful collection of paintings by Peter Paul Rubens.  The painting below depicts the myth of Samson and Delilah.  I love the drama of the men about to come through the door in the top right corner.

Finally, a piece by El Greco, a Greek painter whose career was based in Spain.  In seventh grade, I did a research project and presentation on El Greco and have loved his work ever since.  The painting shows St. Jerome as a cardinal.

We were unable to see much of the museum and exhaustion in our feet might have sped our exit.  We headed out through Trafalgar Square, stopping to look at the large monument dedicated to Admiral Horatio Nelson.

We went back to our hotel and out for a bit of a disappointing dinner.  But the night was greatly improved with another drink and dessert.  From there we reached the highlight of the day, meeting with a classmate of mine (and fellow classicist) for a drink (or two) and having a lovely evening.

Fun Fact #26: The gun shown in the first picture is a 1914 15-inch gun.  Each gun weighs around 100 tons and could shoot a 1,938 pound shell 16.25 miles.  Sounds like a pretty terrifying sight.

Day 18: Getting a Cuppa

Today my plan was to explore more of Cardiff center and visit the National Museum Cardiff.  I walked into the center of the city and headed over the civic areas.

The 194 foot clock tower of City Hall looks out over the whole city center.  Each clock face on the tower is 12 feet in diameter.

I had heard that there was a beautiful hall, open to the public in the City Hall so I went in to investigate.  I had to fight my way through a sea of Cardiff graduates and their families.  It seemed that the building was used to pick up caps, gowns, and hoods (and then later dropping them off).  It is also gorgeous, inside and out, so everyone wanted to take a picture next to some marble fixture.  I went up to the second floor and into the Marble Hall.  Here there are statues of famous figures from Welsh history.  The first one I walked up to happened to be the only woman, and the one that would interest me the most.  The statue depicts Boudica, a British tribal leader who lead a successful revolt against the Romans in 60 or 61 CE.  Although not actually Welsh, she is a representative of the British spirit and independence.

The National Museum is right next-door to City Hall, so I went in, hoping to find some Roman artifacts from around Wales.  Instead, I found a single piece of Roman art, which I understood to be from Rome herself.  That being said the Jenkins Vase is a gorgeous piece, depicting the story of Paris and Helen.  Other figures on the vase include Muses, like Polyhymnia show in thought above.

Though disappointed by the lack of research related pieces in the museum, I wandered through the other exhibits.  The museum has a great collection of art from around Europe, but with a lovely focus on Welsh and Welsh-inspired art.  A large portion of the museum is dedicated to Welsh ceramic arts.

It was very fun for me to see artistic depictions of some of the places I've been since coming to Wales.  Unsurprisingly, Caernarfon Castle is an extremely popular subject.  Can't say I saw that sort of Tuscan sky over the Castle while I was there though.  Other highlights to see were a depiction of South Stack on Holy Island and a view of the entrance of Cardiff Bay in the 1800s.

The art collection spans all eras of art since the 16th century, including French Impressionism.  I was excited to see La Parisienne by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.  It's such a beautiful painting, depicting French actress Henriette Henriot.  I was surprised to see it Wales, having no idea I would find such a famous French painting here!

The other portion of the National Museum is dedicated to natural history.  I (perhaps sadly) have much less patience for exhibits about rocks, minerals, and animals.  I think it has something to do with the language being designed to be accessible for young children.  I strolled rather quickly through the exhibits, just stopping to more closely examining things that caught my eye, like this beautiful piece of malachite.

This picture is mostly for my boyfriend, who adores foxes.  But they are truly beautiful animals and it was great to be able to see one in detail, especially since it could not run away!

Another image I had to include was this photo of an aye-aye's hand.  If you've never seen (or don't remember) what an aye-aye looks like, go Google it now.  The long middle fingers of this lemur are specially adapted for reaching into tunnels dug by bugs in trees and pulling out the insects.  Pretty terrifying, if you ask me.

After the museum visit, I explored the parish church of St. John the Baptist and then decided to have my first afternoon tea since coming to the U.K.  I went to Pettigrew Tea Rooms, a spot I had heard on a Buzzfeed list titled "16 Places All Tea Lovers Must Visit Before They Die."  I didn't get the full afternoon tea (which is quite a lot of food), but instead went for a classic cream tea.  This provided me with a lovely lavender tea, two schools, strawberry preserve, and clotted cream.  I was joined at my table by a French woman, who I assume now lives in Wales, and her Welsh friend, as the place had very limited seating.  We shared pleasant small talk about my research and travels and their experiences traveling Wales and abroad.

After finishing my tea, and waiting for a light rain to stop, I headed back to my hotel to have a relaxing evening.

Fun Fact #18: According to my tour on the sightseeing bus, the National Museum Cardiff has the largest collection of Impressionist (maybe French Impressionist) art outside of Paris, with works by Renoir, Monet, Manet, Rodin, Cezanne, Morisot, Degas, and others.