I was saving the museums and such for after Luca left. He was in London over the summer and had visited many — plus he’s not a big museum-goer.

So post-Luca, I did three days of museums (but unlike Ljubljana, these were amazing and I barely scratched the surface of what’s there). I started with a monuments walking tour, then hit the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery. On one really full day, I did the trifecta of the Natural History Museum,V&A, and Tate Modern (on Fridays many museums are open from 10-10). I saved the British Museum for last after getting my Beatles fix earlier in the day.

It was pretty exhausting but the museums are really impressive. I wasn’t going to visit the national galleries — but the tour guide mentioned Van Goghs, Rembrandts, and Van Eycks — and I was in the neighborhood. Plus they’re free though ask for donations — nothing to lose! And I wanted to eat lunch at a semi-hidden crypt cafe under Trafalgar Square that was right there.
The National Gallery is enormous and has rooms of art styles from the ages. Dutch masters. Roman and Byzantine art. Landscapes. Still lifes. Portraits. Etc. Some impressionsts and contemporary art though I think they have separate museums for those too. I saw a Matisse I don’t remember seeing before which was on loan from a private collection. I always loved the Fauves style! I usually don’t think to take photos in museums because you can always google a better photo but I took this one to remember it better.

It was pretty overwhelming but I hit their suggested highlights and wandered around related rooms. Honestly I can’t even remember what I saw anymore. The problem with seeing six amazing museums in three days.

I also wasn’t planning to visit the Portrait Gallery but these British ladies who I shared a table with at the crypt lunch highly recommended it. It’s organized by era. So think Tudor. Stuart. York. Victorian. Windsor. Etc. But for the most part, it was portraits of old, formally dressed white men and some women who were all nobility. I wasn’t that into it and had only about 35 minutes until closing so I couldn’t read up on the history of the subjects and of Britain at that time, which might’ve been interesting. I did see a huge Sir Paul portrait on my escalator ride out, but didn’t have a chance to catch details as I rode by. At least he’s been knighted so fits in well (though the portrait was clearly Paul from the early Beatles era).

The Natural History Museum was geared toward children and as it was Saturday and holiday time, it was crowded (though I’ve seen way worse). I tried to get answers to some of the geological questions I’ve had due to this trip — and got some about volcanoes, magma, and rocks, which I’m sure I’ll forget soon! I didn’t stay too long with all the kids; I was mostly amazed by the building itself. It was created specifically to be a Cathedral to Nature.

Clearly well considered and designed. There are plants and animals on the ceilings and incorporated in the walls and archways. And it really does look like a cathedral from the outside.

It was all part of Prince Albert’s grand plan to create an area of London dedicated to arts and education of the masses. Sadly he died before much was completed but he earmarked income from a huge 1850s exposition to buy former farmland and build the center in an area now called South Kensington.
Which brings me to the next museum I visited that day, the aptly titled Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum (although originally called the South Kensington Museum).
It’s been expanded and renamed over the years and like all the others, has free entry, plus free docent-guided tours everyday. I tried to catch a few tours because the museum is huge and overwhelming and they helped me focus.

These massive, well-curated, cross-content London museums make NYC’s Metropolitan Museum look absolutely… average. The V&A has ceramics and fashion as well as paintings and other artwork, casts of famous Greek and Roman sculptures, architecture, silver, furniture and other interior design stuff …. really everything.

I looked mostly at the fashions, silver, Raphael “cartoons,” Chinese furniture, William Morris designs, and the sculpture casts (above) — it cracked me up they have a full-sized David replica from Florence and even the Trajan column from Rome. David was apparently a gift to Queen Victoria who didn’t think it proper to have all 17 feet of him in the palace (with no fig leaf!) so she donated him to the museum.

In my two previous trips to London I never visited a museum (had I known they were all free I would’ve at least popped in to see something). I had an anti-imperialist attitude. It seemed weird the Brits had stolen masterpieces from their homelands to be shown in London. But now that I’ve been to several museums I must say they try to show everything in a respectful and authentic way. The things from the Parthenon were incredible — and easier to see at eye level than if they were still friezes across the top of the building.

(I didn’t take any photos in the Parthenon rooms — the broken up slab bits were really cool but didn’t translate well with this camera. This was a totally different thing and not even Greek which I think is why I took the photo. It’s from Lycia, now in Turkey, and was a tomb. It’s called the Nereid Monument.)

You really see evidence of — and fully appreciate the wide expanse of — the former British Empire. With a big E. Weird concept. They really owned, like, everything at one point.

Maybe I’ve been watching too much The Crown, Downton Abbey, and Young Victoria, but it didn’t offend me as it once might have. Of course in the tours the subject comes up and their standard response is had the British not taken it when they did, many of the artifacts might have been destroyed in various wars and natural disasters. (They protected much of the treasures through their own world war bombings by storing them in tunnels and basements.) Also they found and restored much of the work which might not have happened otherwise. So there are arguments to both sides.

It’s actually cool to see so many civilizations all in one huge place. You can walk from room to room and see the sequence of art, history, and culture displayed before you. (This is mostly true of the British Museum.) You can see what’s going on contemporaneously in neighboring regions — or if you jump floors, across continents. Of course it does say something that in the British museum the African exhibits are downstairs and the east Asian mostly upstairs in separate areas from the bulk of the European stuff. Oh well. Also, to add to my complaints, I tried to join two diffirent tours of specific galleries but somehow chose the two that were cancelled that afternoon. Argh. But I bought their guide with a recommended highlights list and pretty much followed it to see their most renowned acquisitions.

Of course I didn’t take photos of their recommendations. (They usually had bigger lines — the Rosetta Stone had a mob around it but was cool to see. And quite a big slab even though it’s only a fraction of the original.) These were Assyrian guards of old tombs. Really cool.

And now for a tie in to The Beatles. At the V&A, I randomly decided to go to their newish photography exhibit. Some cool old stereoscopic photos of the aforementioned expo that provided the funds for the South Kensington museums … and I saw this…

Some nice photos. Jimi. Clapton. The Beatles. It got my attention. Turns out the whole set were donated by Sir Paul and family and were taken by Linda and Mary McCartney. Nice to be in the V&A!

To continue on the Beatles bit and me really not knowing what’s going on. Before Luca left we were near 3 Savile Row, Mayfair. Site of the last live Beatles concert on the rooftop of the then-Apple offices. Love the Let It Be footage where people in adjacent buildings are looking up, crawling out their windows and going on their rooftops to see the Beatles on theirs before the Bobbies shut them down. (Um, did someone actually phone in a noise complaint because the Beatles were doing a live concert on their rooftop?? You gotta wonder.)

Anyway, Leonard had told me it’s now an Abercrombie store and you can go inside. So we turn the corner, see a huge Abercrombie, and walk through the store, puzzled. First, it’s huge. The entryway looks different — the stairs are wide and the building all white. We walk to the top floor anyway. It’s really not how I imagined it. But whatever.

Then we walk outside and across the street is Abercrombie Kids and duh, it’s what I remembered. And in fact the minute you walk in there’s this …

As my son pointed out, the famous Paul Hofner violin bass is righty not lefty like his. But it’s nice to know they recognize the Beatles even if they turn it into a commercial opportunity with T-shirts for sale. Hey, Beatles for Sale was one of my favorite albums (ok so they all are but it’s in my top 10 Beatles albums).

In any case, since Luca had already gone to Abbey Road studios, I did my Mecca trip after he left. The tube stop at St. John’s Wood clearly knows that no tourists go there unless on a Beatles mission. This is the coffee shop at the station.

I didn’t get anything. The walk to Abbey Road Studios is short. I knew I was in the right place when I saw people running into the crosswalk (Brits call them zebras which I find amusing) avoiding traffic to take photos.

I couldn’t even tell which way you’re supposed to face. Neither looked right to me. I guess the intersection (and the foliage) might have changed in 50 years!!! And I didn’t step into the middle of the street with traffic to see how the view changed.

Oh well. I continued to the studios and was amused by the signs more than the infamous graffiti.

They are still working studios but to capitalize on crazy fans, they’ve made a shop next door…

I don’t blame them. And by the way, they also had a Hofner violin bass that was righty! Apparently the lefties are only given to Paul himself??? The shop was of course full of Beatles and Abbey Road memorabilia. I was tempted but have no room for souvenirs so left empty handed.
Then given that my brother informed me of where Paul’s (I presume former) house was in the neighborhood, I walked by 7 Cavendish Ave. Maybe he still owns it. It’s actually a lovely neighborhood and the house looked nice. Hard to believe he came up with Yesterday there. (Right, Leonard? I know he woke up and sang the tune into a bedside tape recorder but was he already there or still in Jane Asher’s attic?) Oh well. I digress.

I think this was it. It wasn’t marked but 5 and 9 were on either side so I did the math!!

Considering how much commercialization I’ve seen around Harry Potter in all my travels, I guess it’s ok to have this Beatles stuff — almost 50 years after they dissolved the band. Actually it’s phenomenal if you think about it. I wonder if we’ll still have HP shops and memorabilia in 50 years?

I think that’s it for my Beatles connections in London. I did go to another museum I haven’t talked about, the Tate Modern, which was walking distance from Sharon’s flat. Interesting building. And as usual for me, interesting but often odd modern exhibits. Of all things, they had a special exhibit on Liz Taylor — photos taken of her things a short while before she died (coincidentally I presume). Actually weirdly compelling but I’m an old movie fan (her stuff isn’t even that old) and there were photos of her closet with shoes and purses and jewelry. Now that’s compelling. Also photos of her old photos. And furniture. You get the picture. I did crack up at this. Thank god for label makers. One simply cannot keep one’s priceless diamonds straight without it!!

This stuff must’ve been extra valuable because it was boxed and labeled. He also had photos of her everyday jewelry which was in glass/acrylic boxes — it held her less famous gemstones I guess!

Finally, for the record, on New Year’s Day, I walked Luca to phase I of his tube rides to Heathrow and upon returning to my cousin’s place, washed his sheets and towels and cleaned everything thoroughly because my cousin and her husband were returning for one night. Luca had managed to get a cold and pink eye on his flight over and I wanted to kill all his germs so they didn’t catch anything as a result of letting us stay. So if, as some say, that day is the harbinger of the year to come, I’ll be cleaning and binge-watching Big Bang Theory in 2019! (Sounds about right.)

I had a lovely chat and lunch with Sharon and her new husband Dom (who’s quite charming) before they took off for Wales for the long weekend. I suspect their year will be filled with travel like their New Year’s Day. (They arrived from Lisbon at 1am and left for Wales that evening.) Sharon works for an International aid organization and does a lot in Africa and Dom just got a 3-year assignment in Copenhagen, where they’ll move to this summer. Clearly exciting travel is in their future!

It’s a bit out of chronological order but I think that’s it for my London adventures. London is a big international city with tons of tourists and unlike my other travel spots on this trip, somewhere I’d been before. I was so happy to see my baby and cousin briefly — and it’s a great in-between point to meet in, but I was ready for the next adventure. Maybe I’m learning to love smaller cities and rural ateas? Hard to say. Though I still joke about moving to Omaha!!

I’m currently in Malta but I’ll post more about adventures here in a day or two!