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(Lori) Sunday morning started with worship at Hillsong London. I had heard about it nearly two years ago, that this amazing church in London rented a theatre on Sundays. They would drive in a few semis full of equipment in the wee small hours Sunday morning, set up their church then pack it all down again late Sunday night. We joined them for an atypical service, so they announced - extended worship with prayer. It was fantastic! And it was so wild to be singing worship music that I figured in about 8-10 hours my friends back home would be singing. Such a great way to get filled up to start the day.
The British Museum is a few blocks away, so we sauntered on over for an afternoon of immersing in ancient civilizations. There are some of the best collections of ancient Egypt, Rome & Greece in the world. There was so much to take in, and to realize it was all real artifacts - not casts- was a bit mind boggling. Most inspiring of all, perhaps, was the Rosetta Stone! It is larger than I had thought - a big slab of stone, flat on one side for all the inscriptions. The inscriptions were small & precise, which makes me wonder how the ancient scribe had tools fine enough to write the hieroglyphs so exactly and how much time it must have taken. Also impressive were tablets from Assyria depicting a king's success in battle and daily life at the palace - the details carved in stone are exquisite. Another amazing exhibit was of pottery, jewellery & other remnants of daily life in the time of Alexander the Great - it's incredible so much survived over 1700 years.
Time flew & I found myself running up a grand staircase to glimpse some of the middle ages exhibit. I didn't get too far, but was able to view a collection of buried treasure - coins & jewellery from the mid 1200's which had been buried and then rediscovered in the mid 1400's. Don't know how they found their way into the Museum, but it was quite interesting to speculate on where it all came from originally.
We parted for Trafalgar Square to visit the British Gallery. The Square itself was alive with street performers, buskers and Mom - please tell Dad I not only waved at the Queen, but she allowed me to approach & have my picture taken with her. She was truly gracious J
We entered an amazing place of collected creativity & beauty. As we roamed through the early middle ages galleries, what stood out to me was the vibrant colours of the paintings from the Middle Ages. Of course there were works by recognized artists, but amidst those well celebrated works of art were many of whom I had never heard. An Italian artist named Bellini (some of you may be more well versed than I and recognize this man) had stunning work displayed. He captured emotion and life in his people in a very alive kind of style. There was another Spanish artist - Savaldo, maybe...- whose use of light was magnificent. He had one painting of Mary Magdalene that was so vivid it looked as if she was really sitting there in the room!
By far the most gratifying for me was to sit in the room with the Impressionists. I have always admired Monet, and I was able to view several of his works, including the Water Lilies, up close & from a distance. I loved being able to approach the paintings so close that I could see the brush strokes on the paintings. The one Monet did as a quick "sketch" of his wife and her friend at the beach still had grains of sand imbedded in the paint. Wow! I could go on saying the same things about Cezanne, Renoir & Van Gogh... it was such a privilege just to be able to sit in the room with so many collected outstanding works of art by people about whom I have only read & seen photos.
Since we were so close to the Portrait Gallery, I popped next door to take a quick peek at a portrait of William Shakespeare, thought to be the most reliably verified to be truly the Bard himself. I was also able to see a portrait of Jane Austen sketched by her sister Cassandra - aaahh! What a fun day it was!
We finished off the day with a pub meal of fish and chips (thanks for the treat Mom!) It was very yummy. But as you warned, Neil, the mashed peas were just not palatable- the cook snuck them on the plate without consulting me at all (since I was prepared to say no thank you!)
All in all, a satisfying day.
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