You Will Need a Cup of Tea

I'll start today's post with something for my son-in-law: weighing coffee beans.

It was a good latte.

We took the train a few stops and dropped off our bags at a Holiday Inn in Fitzrovia. Joel has managed to modify my behaviour: I no longer walk around with a backpack.

Our intention as to walk down to the Courtald Gallery and see what we could see along the way. I could look at this architecture all day.

Some store windows had a fall look to them.

The Courtauld Gallery is in Somerset House. Here is what Somerset House is about:

As the home of cultural innovators, Somerset House is a site of origination, with a homegrown, multidisciplinary cultural programme offering alternative perspectives on the biggest issues of our time. We are a place of joy and discovery at the meet point of artistic and social innovation: a centre for ideas where everyone is invited to ‘Step Inside and Think Outside,’ regardless of age, professional stage or background.

If you don't like art, we'll see you later.

If you do, get a cup of tea or a glass or wine. Here are my top 5 favourites.

Can you imagine carving out those tiny fingers? They are less than 1 cm. long!

As we made our way through the various rooms, we followed the changes in art starting with art commissioned for churches....

... to landscapes....

... and, be still my heart... another Van Gogh!

This is a far more civil gallery than the Louvre. Thank you, Lorraine for suggesting we go to the Courtauld.

So well done! I got some great tips by spending time examining the paintings that interested me.

The rest of the day was spent with Joel saying, "You need to see...., and you need to see....".

These are English Tea buses. Yes, you sit at tables on the bus and have an English Tea as you are toured around the city.

The image below is for our granddaughter, Frances, the crocheter. All of these flowers were crocheted!!!

One of the places Joel wanted to take me was Covent Garden. Isn't this a beautiful building?

I have to admit that we could not pass this store by. Some chocolate came back to our resting place with us.

Joel's place of employment does lights for a number of shows in the Entertainment District. This was one of them.

I was smitten by this art piece in the Fortnum store window. It is "made from old Fortnum's staff uniforms, damaged Bags for Life and sample tea towels." How cool is that???? It is called "The Hyena".

St. James Park was a welcome oasis after the crowds. Some other parks were closed for safety reasons because of Storm Amy.

This is the closest we got to The London Eye. Fine with me. My legs were getting sore.

Making our way to Harrod's (another "you need to see" place) there was art around every corner.

So, look at the building in the middle, the one with the yellow ochre pillars. Do you see the side of that building? That is a digital image printed on a huge surface. It is covering up construction and keeping the neighbourhood looking beautiful at the same time. We saw the same thing done many times in Paris.

I could have spent a lifetime wandering around the downtown area. Just letting you know, that none of these chocolates came home with us....

... and home? This is our new home.

It was a very windy day, I figure I got bonus points walking the 19,758 steps, often into a headwind from Storm Amy.

Tomorrow, we hope to take the train to Oxford.