The Three Amigos

 

 

 

One of the reasons I came to the UK five days ahead of my sister was that a friend from Toronto was going to be in London this week with her husband who is attending a conference.  So, when she asked a bunch of us back in February if we wanted to meet her here, of course I said yes and so did Kerry who was going to be in France.  Kerry flew in from Nantes Thursday and Friday the three of us met by the Eros statue in Piccadilly Circus and spent most of the day wandering around London.  After a quick coffee to plan our day, we set off.  As an aside, I was sad to see that the Criterion Restaurant on the Circus had closed.  It was one of my favourite places in London.  We took the Tube to Embankment station by the Thames.  From there we walked to up Covent Garden where we wandered through the stalls.

        

Next, we strolled along the Thames and walked over a pedestrian bridge to the south side.  We were lucky as it was a warm (almost hot) day with scattered clouds. From the bridge, we got great views of Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, and the London Eye.

The Southside had a summer festival atmosphere:  lots of ice cream stands, a carousel, Pimm's takeaways (really!), free cider, a fashion shoot, sand sculptures, and buskers.  It was fun just to soak it all in - until we decided we needed lunch after all that walking.  We found a lovely terrace table at a restaurant called Sea Container.  The clubhouse sandwich was fabulous and the bottle of French rose with ice exactly what we needed before we set off to the Tate Modern.  We just had to ignore the prices (around $10 for a bottle of still water and the sandwich was about $25).

 



  
The Tate Modern is housed in a former power station - not that pretty from the outside but the lack of windows seem to make it perfect for what it has been "repurposed" to.  Now, I readily admit I know absolutely nothing about modern art.  So, before even entering the gallery, I knew much of it was going to be lost on me.  I did remember what my friend Gail had told me when we were at the Maeght Foundation in St. Paul de Fence:  "You don't have to understand it; you just have to feel it".  Good thing Maria and especially Kerry appreciate this sort of thing or I would have no idea about it at all.  After seeing many of the exhibits, the Picassos actually started to look "normal" to me so that gives you some idea.  I took quite a few photos and below are a few of them.  One thing London is wonderful about is that all its museums are free which is a terrific way to expose people to art, history.

The Tate Modern

This work represents the restrictive nature of art galleries and the way they exhibit artists' creations



The terra cotta circle represents the span of the artist's arms and
the thing above it is the height of the artist's head.  Therefore,
this is self-portrait.  WTF? 

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See, the Picasso looks normal!

 After about 1 1/2 hours at the gallery, we walked over the Millennium Bridge towards St. Paul's admiring the varied skyline of old and very modern buildings - the latter having nicknames:  the Shard, the Walkie-Talkie, the Gherkin, and the Cheese Grater!  What fun!

St. Paul's Cathedral

The "Walkie-Talkie" and the "Cheese Grater"

By the time we crossed the bridge, we were pretty much done.  We stopped for a juice (yes, truly!), said good bye to Maria and headed back to the Warwick Ave.Tube station.  We did stop to share a prosciutto and melon starter and have a couple of glasses of rose overlooking the canal before we headed back to the apartment.  I was so tired; I could not believe it!  However, it was my first day without having an afternoon nap!  Pedro and John headed off to a masquerade party.  Kerry and I just foraged for a light dinner and then I went to bed.  What!  Only 17,000 steps today?  It sure felt like a lot more!

View from our table at Café Laville close to John and Pedro's