The Seventh Day: The London Eye, The Tate Britain and Modern, and Abbey Road

Another ridiculously busy day. We started off bright and early at the London Eye which obviously has the coolest views of the city imaginable. It was built in 2000 to celebrate the millennium and was so popular, they decided to keep it up for good. It takes 30 minutes to go all the way around and gives you a 360 degree view of all the boroughs of London.




Once our trip on the Wheel was over, we walked down the River Thames to the Tate Britain museum. It houses art from all British artists and is pretty cool, but nothing compared to the National Gallery in my opinion. There were some really odd installments there. Since my trip is based on the fine arts, I'm required to talk about three so if you want to skip over this bit I won't take offense. We saw the famous 'Composition C' by Piet Mondrian and that was pretty much the only painting I recognized. I don't understand it, but this was one of the ones that was easier on the eyes, and also one that was familiar from Art Adventure when I went to elementary school. I also saw 'Ochre Still Life' by William Scott which I thought looked like a lot of pairs of sunglasses from far away, but is apparently supposed to show the artists' allegiance to European art as opposed to American art... Shows you how much I know about all of this. The last thing, though, was very very cool. The main atrium of the building was a whole installment where an artist, Douglas Gordon, went around and painted quotes on the ceilings and on the walls. Some of my favorite lines are in the pictures below, but I can tell you I only appreciated this because I'm a wordy person and this was all words.




After the Tate Britain we took a river boat down to the Tate Modern which I know Shaun would have loved. We were here earlier on for a festival, but today we just saw the normal galleries. The space is again very interesting to look at, but I disliked this museum the most. I don't understand modern art whatsoever (I can't actually say I understand art at all, who am I kidding) and this was room after room of modern installments. The one redeeming factor, however, was that it housed 'Water Lilies' by Monet. I think I've made it apparent that I'm a fan of Monet, but whomever decided to house it in the Tate Modern made a huge mistake. That belongs in the National Gallery, or better yet my bedroom. After sufferi...I mean taking in the second half of the Tate, we called it a day.


Next on our agenda was Abbey Road, which ironically is the most dangerous intersection in London. I can see why: its because of stupid tourists like us who whip out our cameras, take 5 minutes to set up a picture, and then do it 10 times in a row so all of our group members could get the infamous picture and pay homage to the Beatles. It was totally worth it though. Nearly getting run over in order to get a quality picture and see some other landmarks where the Beatles once were was definitely worth the 20 minute tube ride it took to get there. Dad, I knew you'd have been proud of me.




We had a few hours to ourselves where I apparently fell asleep on the floor I was so tired, and then we headed back out to see a play called 'Round Two' at a pub called the Electric Shoreroom. THIS was very cool. It was 7 ten minute plays by these people who weren't a lot older than our group and they were all very funny. Before it started, we all sat around and had something to drink with Greg and his wife. That was surreal. Sitting in a pub in London having a Pimms with a professor. It was odd. The plays were done in the lower level of the pub which was interesting, as it had this huge light up dance floor/stage area. It was an interactive show, so a few "lucky" group members were pulled up to participate. We were allowed to decide in what order we wanted to see the plays and also who spoke first and second, thus mixing up the parts. All the actors knew all of the lines for the different characters, and they were surprisingly good at acting. We all loved this show: the atmosphere was great and the plays were all different and short enough to keep us engaged. Very different from anything we've seen thus far, but hopefully we'll see more things like this.


Now it's late and I'm behind on sleep so I'm going to make sure I make it to my bed to fall asleep this time and get some shut eye before an obnoxiously early wake up call tomorrow. We're going to take a train out of London for a bit, which although fun, would be much more enjoyable at 11 rather than 8. I can hear you all playing the world's smallest violins in pity for me. Poor, Sam. Has to wake up to go to the English countryside... I lead a charmed life indeed :]