We've been in England for almost a week. The first 5 days were in London and it was interesting, although not nearly as inviting and fun as I remember it from the several trips I made here in the 1970s while living in nearby Belgium. It's summer in London. It's completely mobbed with tourists - lots of queuing up and shuffling your way around others on the sidewalks, lots of noisy and polluting vehicles on the roads, lots of rain, wind, cool temperatures and grey skies. So just getting around was very different from Amsterdam. With walking being less pleasant much of the time, we used buses and the Tube to get around after nearly killing ourselves walking way, 'waaaaay too many miles the first day or two. Amsterdam, being more compact, allowed us to ramble around town all day without feeling worn out. Not so in London.
While we did some of the typical stuff one is meant to do in London (Westminster Abbey, Portobello Road, Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard, etc), it was more fun and more interesting to get off the beaten track. We enjoyed spending time in beautiful London parks, of which there are many. And walking the smaller side streets where there's nothing much happening but the architecture is still stunning. And visiting popular sites at less crowded times of the day. But most importantly, we were totally amazed and impressed by a handful of exhibits at various venues, which I'll describe a bit below.
Our first day in London we stumbled upon the Saatchi Gallery where the work of 10 young British photographers demonstrated how the advances in smartphone cameras have made them a new artistic medium with diverse results. Here is one example - a self portrait using cut-outs.
Unfortunately my favorite parts of this exhibit were interactive and involved movement. The videos I made of them won't load properly into this blog. Rats. But if you want to see them, they're viewable on my Instagram account.
In the gallery shop Jim found this mug. So true!!
The next day we spent many hours at Churchill's War Room. What a brilliant and effective leader he was.
This is the enigma machine that coded German communications
A photo of an Italian worker lighting Churchill's cigar
The famous 1941 portrait by Yousuf Karsh, who snatched away Churchill's cigar, getting this annoyed expression as a result. It's a look we're familiar with today in US politics.
Jim at a phone box. They work!!
The following day we went to Tate Britain, where there was a wonderful exhibit of British photographers' work on the evolution of culture in black communities in Britain.
This is part of a beautiful staircase at Tate Britain.
It's possible to travel from Tate Britain to Tate Modern by boat, which is what we did. Unfortunately we were so exhausted and our heads were so full of art exhibits by the time we got to the Tate Modern that we crashed, wandered around like zombies, and finally packed it in for the day.
The next day we spent a long time at one gorgeous spot - the Design Museum which opened around 2012. Spectacular! Here is an example of items displayed there.
Changes in the Apple logo over time...
This is complicated to explain, but basically in the center of one wall was a smart phone and leading into it like spokes in a wheel were displayed devices as they had evolved through distinct stages of emerging technologies in typing, music, photography, accounting, etc - all finally rolled into the single little device we now all take for granted.
A display of leading examples of many types of design - bikes, jeans, backpacks, phones, etc, etc
The special exhibit at the Design Museum was "California: Designing Freedom".
Ostensibly the first light-weight bike, designed for riding in Marin. Probably my son Jake could confirm if that sounds about right.
The most "evolved" skateboard in a series....
...shown here from oldest to newest
A cardboard open-source surfboard that you can slot together and fill with epoxy resin to make it solid and waterproof.
A bike from the film "Easy Rider"
The iconic 1968 Whole Earth Catalog, a $5 guide to self-reliant living. A reference for cheaper, sustainable design for counter-culture communities. I had a copy and read it for hours on end. I'm sorry I don't still have it!!!
Our last day in London was the best. We went to the Victoria and Albert Museum and saw a couple of wonderful exhibits there. But first, here is Jim are outside the V&A with an Italian guy we met who'd just bought a Polaroid camera - I asked him to pose for me.
The V&A had a great exhibit on the development and uses of plywood. I know that sounds a bit odd, but it was terrific - videos on making plywood from different types of wood and its many and varied uses through the decades. Formula One race cars, molded chairs, airplanes, housing materials, luggage, you name it.
But the best thing we saw in London was a V&A exhibit on Pink Floyd's 5-decade career. It was epic.
This hugely popular exhibit has been mobbed by fans of all ages, ethnicities, nationalities and walks of life. It was hard to capture in photos because the impact was obviously mostly musical tracks, interviews with important personages as the group advanced through decades of evolving work, and so on. Here is a photo of David Gilmore, Roger Waters and Nick Mason (Rick Wright had died of cancer at this point). The second photo is of some of the lyrics from Dark Side of the Moon. The exhibit made such an impression on Jim (normally not a big fan of music much beyond jazz and Motown) that he bought a t-shirt. Holy crap.
That's it for London - We're now in Cambridge, so more on a new post soon.
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