24.11.19
The day started early. I was off to Westminster Abbey for 8am Holy Communion.
It was a foggy morning, not many people about. Sherlock Holmes weather!
But what a disappointment! No music, no singing. Only bonus was, no sermon!
At the end of a very average service, I wandered towards the exit, looking at the monuments along the walls. An officious looking man ran up to me and screamed in my face “This is not a walking about looking around day! It’s Sunday! You need to get out now!“
I was gobsmacked and so startled I literally ran out! How wonderfully Christian of him!
Goodbye Westminster Abbey. Thanks for the welcome. I probably won’t be back!
John and I spent the afternoon at the Victoria and Albert museum, a wonderfully weird collection of, well everything! The V&A is one of the world’s leading museums for art and design, housing over 2.3million permanent items spanning a period of over 5000 years from all over the world.
Originally an offshoot of the Great Exhibition in 1851 which was largely the brainchild of Prince Albert, consort to Queen Victoria, the V&A started collecting and getting itself organised in 1852.
It would be easy to spend months inside, but as we only had a couple of hours, I decided to fast track myself and follow the ’20 Treasures Trail’.
I managed to see only three!
The Raphael Cartoons are a set of seven full-scale designs for tapestry painted by Raphael (1483 – 1520), and are considered one of the greatest treasures of the Renaissance. They were commissioned in 1515 by Pope Leo X for the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel. This one depicts the loaves and fishes bible story.
This evening coat was designed by Italian fashion house mogul Elsa Schiaparelli who ran a famous couture house in Paris during the 1920’s and 30’s. It depicts a surrealist design of two faces with lips about to kiss, with intricate embroidered roses on the shoulders.
My favourite was the Bed of Ware, circa 1590, regarded as a national icon. Mentioned in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, the bed is so big it can hold 4 couples.
The massive rooms housed massive items- sculpture, ironwork, and John’s fav, this staircase!
I spent an hour alone in the jewellery room and didn’t even have it on my intended ‘plan’. It was interesting not so much because of how precious the pieces were, but how they had them displayed in chronological order so you could see the development and trends in design.
I must admit I’m a sucker for tiaras. Combined with my insatiable love of the royals, this tiara belonging to Queen Victoria ticked a couple of boxes.
Designed by Prince Albert, it was cleverly hinged so it could be worn as either a crown or as a coronet around a bun. Like this.
We tackled Hyde Park on a long walk back to Marble Arch, intending to visit the theme park set up for Christmas called Winter Wonderland. But the queues were so long, we gave it a wide berth and moved onto Speaker’s Corner. Being a Sunday, the nutters were out in full force.
Open-air discussion and debate might be the intended purpose of this very democratic institution, but it seemed like most speakers were pushing their religious or racist opinion in a one-way public speaking fashion only. The guy from Salam was pretty impressive with his high tech props!
Very entertaining!
But, as they say in the classics, all good things …..
It was time to head home and start packing.
Kanga And Wombats Adventures 