In which I explore even more of London

When visiting London, it quickly becomes clear just how expansive the city is. Spending a couple of weeks in many other cities would be enough to see most of the significant places and sights, but in London one gets the feeling that they've barely begun to scratch the surface. Even people who have lived there permanently won't have seen everything, or even nearly everything. While I was there I felt like I'd already seen so much, but there was still even more out there, and it was exhausting. But I did still manage to get a lot done in my final week before heading to university, so here it is!

Returning from a visit to Saffron Walden (I'll get to that later, I promise), I headed out to Parliament Square, a.k.a Tourist City apparently. This was definitely the busiest area of London I'd visited, in terms of visitors to the city. I got great views of Big Ben and Houses of Parliament from across the Thames, and then up close, but I also enjoyed watching the other tourists at work. Every red phone box was busy with people taking the photo opportunity, and it was impossible to walk in a hurry because the person in front of you was likely to stop at any second to snap another picture. You could see the locals trying to get to or from work looking about ready to kill a man. As it got later in the afternoon it became less busy, so it turned out to be quite a nice time to visit. I walked around some of Westminster Abbey, which was a very beautiful building. Churches and cathedals always seem to give rise to some of the best architecture, especially inside, but unfortunately Westminster was just as expensive to visit as St Paul's. After this I headed in the direction of Oxford St to do some shopping. I walked via St James Park, which was very nice, especially just as the sun was setting. After a nice relaxing walk I finally got the terrifying chaos which is Oxford St in the evening. In New Zealand the stores a pretty much all closed by 6pm, but in London they're open late which means they're filled with after work shoppers. It was probably busier than Wellington on Boxing Day, and this was a Monday night. I tried my best to breathe deeply and attempt some shopping but alas, given the crowds and the extensive line for the changing rooms, my excursion was in vain. 

Tuesday evening I had the great experience of going up the Shard with my brother. For anyone who doesnt know, the Shard is currenty the tallest building in the European Union, having just completed construction a year ago. In that time it has become an integral part of the London skyline, so after many days of staring at it from afar I finally had a chance to go to the top(ish). It was pretty expensive to get a ticket to the observation deck (25-30 pounds), but even though it seems a hefty price I would thoroughly reccommend it to anyone who gets a chance, because you will get some very unique views of London. We went at night, so we got to see London all lit up, but I'm sure you would get an equally great experience during the day. It took two surprisingly quick elevator rides to get to the first observation deck at the 70th floor. It was a little dizzying at first, and there was some ear popping on the way up, but after a few minutes I was used to the height and felt more comfortable.The windows go all the way to floor the whole way round, so you can see out very easily, but luckily the floor is still solid (for anyone who hates the glass floor part of the Sky Tower). If you walk up a couple more flights of stairs you get to the highest observation deck which is described as 'open-air'. This wasn't nearly as terrifying as I thought. The walls are still there, they just cut off around the top quarter to let fresh air in. Basically it was the same as the lower deck but with more wind. I don't know whether this was meant to enhance the experience? In any case, these were certainly some of the best and most unique views of London you could get. You had a full 360 degree view, with London spread out in all directions. It definitely highlighted the expanse of London, as the lights stretched right to the horizon, with no edge in sight. And sights like Big Ben and Tower Bridge just looked like little toy models.

One other very cool sight was of the train station just next to the shard. You could see all the people milling on the platform looking like ants, and then as the trains approached they would all surge towards the doors in little clumps. It definitely offered a new persepctive of London.

The next day I took a trip out to Kensington, the home of a number of museums, and the well known Gardens. I first went to the Natural History Museum for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. This had some really amazing photography from all over the world, with flora and fauna both featured. I remember going to a previous year's exhibition, and this one was just as good so I would thoroughly reccommend it. It also had a very nice relaxing atmosphere, unlike the rest of the museum. As would make sense, the Natural History Museum is very popular for school field trips, which meant I spent the morning trying avoid gaggles of giggling children. It's a little difficult to enjoy a display when ten children suddenly run in front of you, so I just took a quick glance at a few other exhibitions before leaving. I did manage to see a few dinosaur fossil, a big drawcard for the musuem, and even moa remains. It's always nice to see a little bit of home.

Given how busy the Natural History Museum was, I decided to give the nearby Science Museum a miss and instead headed across the road to the Victoria and Albert Museum. I didn't really have any idea what to expect of this museum, but I ended up really loving it. It's basically an art museum, with collections ranging from sculpture to stained glass to fashion, and anything also you'd care to think of. These were from many different eras and countries around the world. I particularly enjoyed seeing fashion throughout the ages. There was a section containing more recent 'artefacts', and I had a good laugh when I saw a Walkman featured in the display. Even I'm getting old now! The building was also set up with a range of levels, so you could see some displays both at ground level and from above. One room had a lot of large pillars and sculptures, so it was cool to see those close up and then see just how big there were from higher up. The building itself was also beautiful, and had a lovely courtyard area. Having exhausted my museum quota for the day, I took a wander through Kensington Gardens, which contains the well known Peter Pan statue. The gardens themselves were lovely, and it was nice to get some fresh air on a sunny day. 

My last two days in London the weather was less then ideal so I stuck to the indoor activites, checking out the other major art displays in London. I went to the Tate Modern on Thursday. I was a little apprenhensive because I'm not typically fond of "modern" art, but I was pleasantly surprised by some of the exhibitions. Modern art is basically anything from the 20th century, and the gallery was arranged so that you began with the earliest artworks and got to the most recent at the top. I enjoyed the surrealist works from the earlier periods (probably partly because I recently watched Midnight in Paris so I had this kind of art in my mind), especially Dali. I find that these are the kinds of paintings you can look at for a long time because there's so much going on, and so much to see. I'm sure that you would get a different impression of the pictures every time you saw them. Personally, I'm less convinced by the more recent art with it's abstract lines and scribbles. I'm just a little skeptical of finding meaning in those kinds of random forms, although if you can find merit in them then that's great. It was interesting to see some of the artwork from the past 20 or so years, and there were some good pieces, but they just weren't my cup of tea.

My last day in London I visited the John Soane Museum in Holborn, followed by the Tate Britain. The John Soane is a very highly regarded but obscure museum which is actually the converted home of John Soane. Soane was a collecter of antiquities, and his house was filled with paintings, sculptures and many artefacts from around the world. He requested that after his death the house be preserved in its current state, and become available for the public to view his collection. The collection was huge, every corner of the house was filled. I made the mistake of being budget and not getting a guide book. There was so much to see, and very little display information, so this definitely would have been helpful in the future. As it was, the various guides posted around the house were happy to be informative. It was also an odd experience because in order to be more authentic there was very little light, so some things were quite difficult to see in detail. Apparently the house was designed to be much better lit on a sunny day, which seems a little impractical given England's climate. I couldn't possibly tell you everything I saw, but certainly the most striking object was an egyptian coffin in the basement, fully engraved. There was also an amazing designed painting room with the walls on hinges which could be opened to reveal even more paintings inside. I can't remember the artists that were on display, but the guide did tell us that John Soane was offered a collection of Turner paintings, but they didn't measure up to his standards. With that in mind I headed to a gallery with a very large collection of Turners, the Tate Britain. The Tate Britain's collection is mainly be British artists. In an aside, when I went I got the impression that it was only British artwork but apparently I just missed a whole section of the gallery. Oops. I went through the various exhibitions leading from the 1500s through to modern day. They then had a full separate exhibition of Turner paintings, the largest collection apparently. There were certainly a lot of paintings, ranging throughout Turner's career. I have definitely been converted and took a great liking to his works. I don't think I've seen a more wonderful depiction of the sky than in his paintings. 

Travelling around London has been exhausting, and not just because of the crowds on the Tube. There was so much to see, and not nearly enough time. I am sure that I could live there for the next 10 years and still miss out on some amazing sites. In any case, I have now left London for the slightly more manageable city of Nottingham, which I will fill you in on later (spoiler alert: it get's good). Hopefully I will get to return to London soon to see even more!

(Shout out to my big brother Max for welcoming me to the UK and being a great host)

Byeeeee!