Day 2 Monday 16th

This morning I caught the tube to Westminster. I came out of the station and stood there gawking at all the buildings. I walked north along Parliament St and Whitehall to Trafalgar Square., taking photos like all the other tourists. I went to the British tourist office and then walked back to Trafalgar Square. It was my intention to go to the National Portrait Gallery, but instead thought it was past coffee time so went into the crypt of the Academy of St Martins in the Field. I had read that the café was good value – and the proceeds go to a good cause. They have a huge outreach program and a huge music program. They have free lunch time concerts several days a week, jazz on Thursdays, a concert every Saturday, music things for kids – the list goes on. After my coffee I wandered around the church but it was a bit difficult because the 6 harpists were practicing for today’s lunch time concert. I will make a point of going to something musical there. Apparently the acoustics are excellent.

Then I walked over the road to the National Portrait Gallery. This gallery is arranged chronologically and it is really a summary of British history. You are advised to take this long escalator to the top, start with the Early Tudors and work your way down, which I did. There was a teacher with a group of 10 and 11 years old who were hanging on her every word as she told them about the paintings of Henry VIII and Edward. It was fascinating – both what she was saying and the way she made it so interesting for the kids. I wandered along. I talked to 2 old ladies who were looking at John Donne’s portrait at the same time as me. Somehow we got onto the Tintorettos in Venice. They had both been to Oxford together – they looked to be 80ish to me. I thought about the painting of John Bunyan. I received a copy of Pilgrim’s Progress when I was at school. Apparently he was jailed for preaching without a license. There was also a portrait of Nell Gwynn – after who this place I am staying in is named. John Wesley had a lovely calm, slightly unworldly expression compared to the intensity of the engineer James Watt. There was a large painting of Florence Nightingale at Constantinople with lots of different people in it. There were 2 people in the modern section I was interested in – Jan Morris, the English author whose book on Venice I did not quite finish before I left and Peter Mansfield. I had never heard of him. In 2003 he won the Nobel prize for medicine for discovering MRI’s – so I thought of the many John had. I had been told that there was a nice place for lunch at the top of the building with nice views. It was full – you have to book the day before.
Oh well, a little way up the road there was a place that was listed under the ‘cheap eats’ section of one of my books. I had one of the 2 daily specials – a delicious starter thing of 2 small falafels and dip and then vegetable lasagna and salad – plenty for a main meal for ₤7.50 not bad by London standards.

I was on my way to Euston to collect some train tickets that I had ordered on the internet and, instead of walking, caught the tube. I think I am starting to suffer from too much walking on hard surfaces – my knees are not brilliant. After sorting out the tickets – there always seem to be plenty of people loitering waiting to help if you appear like you may need it – I set off for the British Library nearby at St Pancreas. It’s a new building with people everywhere – you walk into a courtyard and there are tables and benches and people . Inside the Sir John Ritblat Gallery has many treasures and it is set up for the public to view these. Amongst other things I saw an early draft of Handel’s Messiah. From this draft, copies were made for the first performance. It was open at ‘The Trumpet shall sound’ – John’s favourite bit. There were many sacred texts from many different faiths, many beautifully illustrated. There was a book used by the Bishop of Winchester in the late 900’s , a Wycliffe bible from the first ½ of the 15th century, ancient Persian texts, old Qu’rans , old Jewish tests. There was something that one of the Bellinis wrote and illustrated when Christofo Moro became Doge of Venice in 1462 etc etc. I skipped over the cabinets full of original Shakespeare stuff. There are 2 of the 4 Magna Carta’s in the British Museum and 1 was on display with interesting info about it. That was more than enough for the day so I caught the train back to Victoria – the station 1 away from me- where I had to pick up tickets for my trip to Oxford on Wednesday. On the way home, I thought – when in Rome- and stopped for some afternoon tea and cake . It will be soup and a roll for dinner.