Sunday May 6, 2018        posting April 27 to May 1 with a brief summary of our trip to start

·         We leased the car for 34 days and drove 9075 km = 5639 mi we didn’t keep track of the tolls or gas,  but it was a lot

·         We stayed in 23 hotels

·         We visited 50 museums counting Pere Lachaise Cemetery

·         We saw 3 new Olympic sites: Chamonix, Albertville, & Grenoble

·         We visited 6 countries, 2 were new: United Kingdom, France, LUXEMBOURG, Switzerland, Spain, & ANDORRA

·         We saw 27 paintings on the 1001 list, one of which I had already counted, so total is now 687/1001

·         We saw 10 Caravaggio paintings, some we had seen before, our total is now either 50, 53, or 56 depending on which list I use.  The total number of Caravaggio paintings varies from 66 to over 100.

·         We saw 17 or 18 original La Tour paintings and 14 or 15 copies.  We have seen 23 originals and 14 copies.  The number of original La Tour paintings is 43 or more.

·         We saw 11 paintings by Jan van Eyck, 10 of which we had seen before, we have seen 23 of the 30+ paintings known to exist.

·         We saw 12 paintings from the book “149 Paintings You Really Need to See in Europe” for a total of 85/149

·         Sue said we should have kept track of the Cathedrals we have visited on all our trips.

Friday April 27                    Paris to London
We took the Eurostar from Gare du Nord to London St. Pancras.  Our hotel, the Pullman London St. Pancras is only a 10 minute walk from the station.  This is the same posh hotel we stayed in at the start of our trip.  This hotel is part of the Accor hotel chain.  We stayed in quite a few of their hotels on this trip.  Sue was a Silver member when we left London in March, and now she is a GOLD member.  The Pullman London has a great buffet breakfast, it’s close to St. Pancras, Kings Cross and Euston Station, and it was Sue’s Birthday trip.  It is also across the street from the British Library, so after Sue unpacked we went to look at the Treasures of the British Library.  Then we were off to the Tate Britain Museum to see a painting in the “149 Paintings in Europe…” book

The painting we wanted to see was in the exhibition The EY Exhibition: Impressionists in London, and photos weren’t allowed.  It was a great exhibition, and another example of beautiful paintings by artists we aren’t familiar with because they aren’t famous.  I know I repeat myself, but it’s what I do.  We saw our painting “Nocturne in Black and Gold: Old Battersea Bridge” by James McNeill Whistler.  

I have to tell you a story about our viewing of this painting.  The museum had three paintings by Whistler arranged horizontally, 1, 2, & 3 on one wall.  The one on the list was painting.  Museums as the often do did not have the title cards next to each painting, but located in a column off to the left of the paintings.  Sue noticed immediately that the title cards were arranged incorrectly; from top to bottom they were 2, 1 & 3.  She pointed this out to me when I came over to look at the painting.

Another guy looking at the paintings tried to make the case that the title cards were correct.  I agreed with Sue and then moved on to look at more paintings.  A few moments later Sue came to show me her phone that had a picture of our painting, #2 with the correct title #2.  I said you should show the guy we were talking with.  She had already done that, and he was right behind me, and acknowledged the title cards were wrong.  I said to him, “see what I live with.”

After we finished viewing the exhibition we went back to an Italian restaurant that we had gone to on our first stay in London, and of course we had a wonderful meal.  When we were leaving there was a group looking at the menu outside the restaurant, so we told them that we had the daily specials and they were great.  They thanked us and went in, our good deed of the day.

Friday April 27 London Tate Britain 

Saturday April 28              Hampton Court
The weather was wet, cold, and breezy this morning, not too atypical for London but probably colder than usual.  We of course started the day with a great breakfast.  We are going to the Hampton Court Palace to see a painting by Caravaggio.  Hampton Court was about an hour by Tube, train, and bus.

 

King Henry VIII seized the Palace from Cardinal Wolsey in 1529 and expanded the buildings.  Henry and his six wives are big items in the gift shop.  Once again photos are not allowed in the art gallery.  There are portraits throughout the build, but most are not identified.  The Caravaggio we wanted was on display.  They have another Caravaggio that wasn’t on display, so we may have to come back sometime.

The wind had picked up when we were finished, so we headed back to the hotel to relax before we went to St. Aloysius for the express Mass.  Sue had picked out a pub for dinner that was close to the hotel.  We just don’t have the stamina to keep going as we had at the start of the trip, we are old.

Saturday April 28 Hampton Court Palace 

Sunday April 29                 British Museum
Breakfast was crowded this morning, we actually had to wait a bit before we got a table.  I impressed a lady by taking one of every type of baklava at the sweets counter, and one square stuck to its neighbor so I got two of that type.

Today we are going back to the British Museum because it is fun just to wander around and see famous stuff like the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles and then some not so famous stuff (at least not famous to us) like the Erechtheum Temple.  We went back to the hotel to rest before dinner at the pub again.  Have I mentioned that we are old?

Sunday April 29 British Museum 

Monday April 30               The National Gallery and Grant Museum of Zoology
We went back to the National Gallery because I was feeling guilty about not taking photos back in March.  I got a photo of Jan van Eyck’s “St. Barbara,” one that we hadn’t seen before, so that was a plus.  Then we went into one of the rooms of Dutch paintings and Sue was about ready to leave without me because I took photos of everything in the room.

The next stop was the Grant Museum of Zoology.  We of course have been there before, it was pretty close to our apartment where we stayed for a few months a couple of years ago.  The museum was founded in 1828 when the Brits were collecting everything.  Edward Grant was the founder of the museum.  His radical ideas influenced Charles Darwin, and you know where that led.  They have many displays, but one display the Glass Jar of Moles is on Twitter, so we had to get a photo of the jar.  

Tonight we went back to the Italian restaurant because it is close, and very good.  Tomorrow we fly home.  It has been a good trip, but we are ready to go home.  Having a car made the travel easier and less stressful than taking trains, but seven weeks of traveling we are tired.

Monday April 30 National Gallery and Grant Museum