London Day 6 National Gallery and Greenwich

London Day 6 National Gallery and Greenwich

Well once again I started with a plan, but it turned out to be a bit of a scratchy day, not always doing what I wanted it to, but that's OK.

The first thing to disturb my rhythm was the onset of daylight saving overnight. Don't know if it was that, or the heat in my room is  causing my  eczema to play  up, but I didn't sleep well last night. At least when I woke up it was an hour earlier than I thought it  was.

The next thing to put me offside was I couldn't connect any  of my devices to the internet this  morning. Usually when I wake up I log in straight away to my emails to see if anyone loves me, so when I can't log in I get a  bit  scratchy! This place I'm staying in has, in theory, free wifi, but as I've already moaned about before it doesn't always kick in....

Anyway, I moved on, had my brekky and decided to go to Mass because it's Sunday. Back to Brompton Oratory which again was a blast from the past. Can't believe how "yesterday" the liturgy was... No participation from any lay people, and the responsorial psalm was just read straight through by  the priest. Communion was kneeling down at the altar rails. Very inefficient too! Anyway,  we survived that, so I was ready to move on.

It's pretty awful to moan when I'm having the holiday of a lifetime, but  just everything I tried today, just didn't seem to work... Me no complain, just telling the  story of the  day.

I've already mentioned the Tube was "down" for  the weekend, so no matter where I  wanted to go, I couldn't! After mass I thought I would go back to  that nice coffee shop  opposite Harrods so that I could at least check my  emails, and on the way I by-passed other little coffee shops, but when I got to Nat Geo, it was closed. Harrods was also closed.... So I  tried to enter the Knightsbridge station near Harrods and  that  entrance was closed too!

I know all this is a first world problem, but I'm just telling the  story of the day..

Anyway, I eventually found the next entrance to  the Knightsbridge station and decided to go to Leicester Square, and I ended up having a coffee there, and they  had free wifi, so was able at last I was able to access my emails.

Coming out of Leicester Square Station

Leicester Square

Anyway, when I'd had my coffee,  decided I needed a loo stop, so I wandered for a bit and found myself at the National Gallery... thinks I to myself, "They'll have nice loos  in there" So  I took off inside, It was actually quite a  cool and bleak  day, so it was nice to get inside for a while. So I thought again to myself, I might as well have a look around seeing I'm here... And I found out I was eligible for  a free audio guide with my London Pass, so off I went.

Most of you know what a pleb I am, but I started in the era that I had taught and found some lovely pieces that we had already studied as part of  our History classes. It's always nice to see the real thing after seeing an image in the book..

So here's  few that were special to me because we had studied them as part of the Renaissance period

Another of my favourites is Caravaggio, as Jan Gray had taught me a little about the theology behind his paintings.... This is one of my favourites..

Then I  had enjoyed enough "kultcha" by this stage and was on my way  out and just stumbled  upon some Van Gogh.... Last time I was O/S I went to France and to Arles, so I was right into Van Gogh!!!!

Anyway, after that I was ready for my afternoon expedition and I had my sights set on Greenwich, but it all seemed a bit hard with all the lines closed. But the ever friendly staff in the Underground advised me to take the over ground line to  Greenwich and I  would be able to go  straight from Charing Cross.

So I had to catch a train to London Bridge then change platforms, to connect with a Greenwich train, which all worked out perfectly. But it was a bit  of a hike to where the action was in Greenwich. I passed the Greenwich markets on the way and thought I  might go back there on the way home.

Anyway, my mind and body weren't in the most positive framework, but I  wanted to see Greenwich for a couple of reasons...
1. It's obviously the place of the Prime Meridian of Longitude
2. Henry VIII was born there and loved to hunt in the Greenwich Common

So I started off in the National Maritime Museum, but I have to admit my heart wasn't in it today. I think I'm getting a bit tired and sometimes I think I'm just ticking off boxes rather than really entering into experiences.

Anyway I'll upload a few pics from the day

National Maritime museum

Painting - explanation below

The actual Date line was in the courtyard of the Royal Observatory which was out the back of the Museum and up a mighty big hill!

Don't know if you can see the gradient, but I was puffing!

When I reached the top, you actually had to buy tickets to get inside the observatory to have your pic taken on  the date line. But it was already 4pm and the queue was long so  I just looked through the bars!!!

It's silver thingy right above my head...there's actually a line beneath it too

The guy who took this was more interested in the date line than me!!!

Royal Observatory

View was lovely from the top

Just a couple of Henry VIII things to finish off

Henry VIII was born at Greenwich Palace and he used to love to hunt at Greenwich

One last little moan... and this is definitely a first world problem...

The other day I spotted a bottle of Chateau Neuf de Pape, a wine which has a bit of a history in my life, so I splurged 20 quid to buy it. Anyway I get home tonight, thinking that might be a nice way to end the day, but I couldn't open the bloody thing! Had a corkscrew, but couldn't get it to work. Ended up taking the bottle of wine and the corkscrew back to the bottle shop and he did the jobbie for me...


Isn't it amazing, the things that stress us out on the road!

So, after all my moaning today, it actually was quite a productive day.

Hope to go to Windsor Castle tomorrow, so it will be nice just to chill on the train for a while and see where the day takes me...