Day of little time

So today, we started off at the National Portrait Gallery, and then moved onto the John Soane Museum, and finished with a walk through the Royal Courts of Justice. The night was capped off with attending a performance of The Observer.

No cameras allowed. Anywhere.

The National Portrait Gallery is a nice place to see portraits. Period. There is a 500 year time frame covered in the exhibition, and it is very interesting to see the various ways that portraits were laid out. But again, I felt there was poor planning by the professors leading the excursion. We got to the gallery when it opened, but then stood around for and hour while a professor explained what a portrait was. Then we were handed an assignment; to find a portrait in the gallery, and answer the assigned questions, and oh, by the way, you have an hour to do it. Great. But we could go back if we wanted to, amongst all our free time and plans we've already made, to finish the assignment. Great. Well, I finished mine, and am quite proud of it. I did my assignment on Charles Burney.

From there it was to the John Soane museum. Wow. If you ever go to London, and have any interest in either Victorian eclecticism, architechure, antiquities, or anything else, go there. Its free. This gentleman started a collection of rare things during his lifetime, and had an act of Parliment passed to make sure that his house and collection remained the same, and that it would be turned into a museum. Quite lovely. Sure, he boned his youngest son out of his inheretence, but the youngest son (the eldest had died) had it coming to him...he went into the theatre as a profession. :) Anyway, this house is amazing. Quirky rules when you first go in, but once you get in, you'll understand the reason for them.

The Royal Court was a nerve wracking trip, because I'm used to the concept of being at a court as being a bad thing. But this place is rather awe-inspiring. Great big palace constructed for the court system. Like the Supreme Court, but different. Its hard to explain, because the British judicial system is so different than ours...but trust me, you know you're in a place where major things are decided.

Finally, the Observer was a nice little play that made our group think. Sure, we talked about production value, acting and the like, but the bottom line is that we got caught up talking about the message of the play, which is always a good sign. It means the play and the production was sucessfull.

So, as I said before, no pictures, but here are some from days past.

A view of St. Pauls from the Millenium Bridge


The Royal Crapper.