Two seniors in London part II

Wednesday 10 We head towards St. Paul's Cathedral; nearby we know of the Church of St. Mary le Bow, an 11th-century church, also destroyed by the fire of 1666; we visited the church and the crypt (used as a bar), seeing only some remains of wall on one wall, too little.... We then arrive at the Cathedral, surrounded by a park on three sides; we visit it carefully only from the outside The construction is baroque, in white stone; the entrance portal is characterised by a baroque style with neoclassical columns topped by an artistic triangular pediment with a scene inside depicting the conversion of Saint Paul; above it all the statue of the apostle; the dome is a symbol of London, it is 115 metres high, second only to St. Peter's. The project is the masterpiece of Wren, architect of the rebuilding of the city after the fire of 1666 that destroyed the city. In the crypt the restaurant.

We head towards the Tate Modern, one of the richest galleries of modern art in the world. We follow the pedestrian street and cross the Thames on the Millennium Bridge; many tourists linger on the banks of the bridge, which is also a belvedere over the city, with skyline, Tower Bridge and skyscrapers within photographic reach. On the lawns in front of the gallery, a festive atmosphere, very many people sitting on the grass; we enter the vast entrance, free and without queuing; we begin by visiting the permanent exhibition with the rooms dedicated to modern art The gallery owns about 60,000 works that are exhibited on rotation, arranged in rooms by major artistic movements; many great painters are present, among all: Matisse, Picasso, Dali, Braque, Van Gogh, Kandinsky. All the expressions of art are represented, both modern and contemporary.

We linger in the modern art rooms, while we take a quick tour of the contemporary art ones. Lunch at the panoramic restaurant on the 4th floor with glass walls, with a breathtaking view. Afterwards we complete the visit by devoting ourselves to the photography rooms, lingering at the panoramic points. We decide to go to South Kensington to visit the Natural History Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum; we take the metro, get off at the stop of the same name; the museums are reached by passing through a pedestrian gallery. The museums are enormous so we decide to split up; I go to the Victoria, Rita to the natural history museum.. The V&A is a large red brick building with decorations; the entrance portal, in white stone, looks like that of a Gothic cathedral; inside the famous blown-glass chandelier, the Rotunda Chandelier.

The museum is a large exhibition of world decorative arts, from painting to jewellery to fashion etc., divided by geographical areas, and almost unique of its kind; I lingered in particular on sculpture and painting; there is no lack of works by great painters such as Botticelli, Rembrandt, Degas, Turner and many others; also beautiful are the stained-glass windows of the Middle Ages, very rich is the collection of sculptures, there are works by Giambologna, Cellini, Della Robbia, Bernini, to name a few; it should be noted that paintings and sculptures are in the same enormous rooms, as are the windows and tapestries; there are also copies similar in size to the original of sculptures by Michelangelo, though made in the 18th century; naturally there is no lack of works of art from other continents; unfortunately the rooms are many and I am forced to make a somewhat quick tour.

May 11: excursion to Stonehenge. We left at 8.50 from Waterloo Station, arrived at Salisbury, then bus to Stonehenge; in 20 minutes we arrive; with the tickets bought from Turin we entered directly and got on the free shuttle that takes us to the site. Stonehenge stands on a wide grassy expanse; even from afar it offers a suggestive view; visitors from all over the world; the construction is earlier than that of the pyramids, in fact, the first structures date back to 8000 BC; even today the purpose of the construction is not clear; some scholars say it was a temple, others a cemetery; the excavations have established that the monument we visit is only a part of a wider site.

The visiting route is in a certain sense circular, from West to East, but it is not obligatory; outside you see the largest rough stones (Sarsen), arranged vertically in pairs with sarsen stones on top as architraves; inside smaller stones arranged in a circle; the monument is very suggestive, not by chance it attracts millions of visitors every year. The visit now lasts about 3 hours, we are a bit tired; with the shuttle we return to the visitors centre, we eat something in the only bar-restaurant, rather ugly and not very clean, then we take another look at the reconstruction of the ancient Neolithic huts; we enter one, where we see the beds, the roof and the space dedicated to the fire.

Friday 12 In the morning Rita visits the parks; on the other hand the hotel is in the Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens area; she is enthusiastic particularly about the cleanliness and organisation of the areas equipped for children, then tennis, horse riding, in summer also swimming; but the thing that struck her, the vegetation is lush, very many trees, some even centuries old. Then there could not be missing a visit to Harrods, temple of luxury. I return to the National Gallery to complete the visit, with a few stops on the comfortable sofas. We meet in front of the Fortnum & Mason department store to buy loose-leaf tea; Rita describes it to me and makes comparisons with Harrods, the luxury store; we stop for lunch, in the bar; the menu is composed mainly of sweets, but we also find salad. The environment is rather elegant, but the cuisine is very average.

In the afternoon I return to the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert museum area; for me it was the first time I visited the history museum, an enormous Victorian building with beautiful stained-glass windows; naturally the most crowded rooms were those dedicated to dinosaurs, above all the two skeletons of which one welcomes visitors at the entrance; skeletons partly with original bones, the missing bones have been reconstructed; spectacular at the entrance, the globe with an escalator, which allows you to enter the inside; the rooms are very many dedicated to volcanoes, earthquakes, minerals, then films and much more about science. Saturday 13 It is the day of departure; a walk through the streets to buy some souvenirs, then lunch; in the afternoon we begin the return journey to Turin.

ferny forner