On Friday my class went to the British museum. What an amazing place! First we looked at Egyptian statues and later the marbles. The Parthenon marbles are astonishingly beautiful and much larger than I thought they would be. It was really mind-blowing to see them in person. I shall have to go back again and again and again. We also saw all of the mummies. They were very creepy. They even had many out of their wrappings. The weirdest part was the bog man they had on display. I don't know if you remember this, but the bog man was pulled out of a peat bog a couple of years ago and was discovered to be about 3500 years old. I am now able to confirm that he indeed has some of his original hair left...yuck.
After class I headed over to Hyde park to see Kensington Palace. On the way there I ran into an absolutely enormous goose. It was the size of a man...at least it looked that huge from a couple hundred feet away. The park is gorgeous even though the weather was not the best I got some very nice pictures of the park and the palace. There is a huge pond in the center that is crawling with Geese and ducks and the most obese squirrels I have ever seen. I watched one eat bread out of a mans hand without the slightest hint of fear. Alright, on to the castle. The castle itself was very nice. I can't imagine living anywhere so huge and full of artwork. I got to see Princess Diana's apartments. They had an exhibit about debutantes which was full of clothes. I took some pictures for mom before I got frowned at for taking pictures. Apparently it is not done. I also got to walk through the King's and Queen's picture galleries. One of the last rooms was Queen Victoria's room. Apparently she was born at Kensington Palace and lived there until she moved to Buckingham palace for her corrination.
On Saturday I went to Windsor Castle. We had this really funny tour guide who told us lots of things about the personal lives of monarchs. I'm sure no one wants to know. Anyways, the castle itself is nestled in a little village (mostly a shopping mall, as I later found out) next to Eaton about 45 minutes from South Kensington in London. Apparently Windsor Castle is the oldest in England and was constructed in 1045. It is also the oldest lived in castle in Europe (apparently..I will look this up later). The Queen wasn't at home though, and good thing because the state apartments were closed for renovation. VERY disappointing. We did get to go in and see Queen Mary's Dollhouse. It was a 1:12 perfect model of a house including working lights, maids quarters, cars, silverware, and a working toilet. It was amazing. We also got to go see the Chapel. This chapel is the home of many royal weddings and is the resting place of the Queen Mum and King Henry the Eighth. It was a beautiful chapel. Later we shopped in the little area and I found an antique book shop. Just my cup of tea.
Yesterday I visited the London Art Fair. It was a huge art fair with over 100 art dealers located at the London Design Center. We were put in groups and sent to find the most expensive art piece in the gallery. It turned out to be a whopping 1.15 million pounds. Can you imagine? Anyways, some things were more moderately priced than that I can assure you. It was very interesting to see some of the more modern things being produced as well as some of the nostalgic art from the more high end galleries. I was very tempted by a 65,000 pound charcol drawing. Too bad I can't afford it. Later that day my friend Ellen and I went antiquing. There is a quiet antique neighborhood by the design center. There were some very cool fur coats. Mom really would have loved it.
Finally today I went to the National Gallery. I have never seen such an amazing collection of famous works before. Everywhere you turn is an essential addition to any modern art history textbook.
Tonight I am off to a play and tomorrow to Hampton Court for a double lecture session. Hopefully it wont rain as we are supposed to go into the maze.
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