Sunday 27 July 2015

Today we slept in - oh bliss! Didnt head down to breakfast until just before 9am but not many people around. Dont know if Kev has mentioned but it is a regular United Nations in the dining room. Not many people speaking English believe it or not! Anyway off out we headed towards the Albert Hall. Not so easy to get there as it is a bit in "no man's land" but we went to South Kensington and then negotiated about 800 meters of tunnel to come out a few blocks from the Royal Albert. We used our London Passes to purchase tickets (another 6 pounds each- these passes have really paid for themselves) and joined yet another tour. Ramira was our tour guide and she took us on a very informative tour of the theatre. It is again a beautiful building - built on land purchased by Prince Albert using the proceeds of sales at the Crystal Palace exhibition held in 1851. Thirty Nine acres of land was purchased only a portion of which was used for the Royal Albert hall. The rest houses various schools of art and music. Unfortunately Albert did not live to see his dream realized but I think he would have been very pleased. The glass dome ceiling was the first of its kind in the world. It was built in Manchester, dismantled and transported by horse and cart in 6 days when the time came for it to be put in place. It weighed 700 tones! It was reassembled on site and supported by many large upright beams. Once it was finally in place the architect cleared the site of workmen and with his helper went around and one by one removed the supporting beams and chocks until the dome settled into place. It fitted perfectly and is not fastened down - just sits there! Amazing!

The Proms are on at the moment and there was an orchestra rehearsing while we were there. We were able to imagine just how fabulous it would be filled with people and lighting and special effects in place. We were allowed to sit in one of the boxes and also gaze in on the Queen's private box from the doorway. We also trudged up to the top floor where the gallery is. This is used for various purposes - sometimes it houses viewers who have to stand during the performance and sometimes it is full of camera equipment when filming takes place.

The whole place was very impressive!

Just as an aside there were 12 people in our group and 6 of them were from NZ! After the tour we had a coffee in the cafe and spoke with one of the NZ couples who actually live in Christchurch. We had an enjoyable chat with them and promised to meet up for coffee once we both arrive back home!

Our next port of call was the Courtauld Gallery. It houses one of the best collections of Impressionist paintings in the world. The collection is displayed in the elegant setting of Somerset House which in itself is a beautiful building. We were able to enjoy iconic works by Renoir, Manet, Monet, Van Gogh and Gauguin, amongst others.

Haven't mentioned but it has been raining most of the day and we came out of Somerset House and once more donned our coats. We walked down towards the river and meandered our way along The Strand where we found a delightful pub for lunch (2.30pm). We spent a lazy hour and a half chatting to the publican (charming lady) and one of her bar workers who incidentally was from Newcastle in Australia. The publican was a wealth of information and we discovered that the pub was formerly part of the Lyceum Theatre but had been sectioned off a number of years ago and made into its present premise. It was the most charming pub building beautifully decorated with lots of paintings and photographs of prominent artistes over the years.

Eventually we headed down towards Trafalgar Square where we said our goodbyes as sadly we are leaving tomorrow for Maidstone. The week has flown by!