London in three days

Riding at the top of a double decker -
Trafalgar Square here we come!

WE MADE a lightening trip to London at the end of February. What a buzz - back in the centre of the real world just for a few days. Adios Spanish suburbia, hola big city. The Artist was on a mission to visit every art gallery and museum that was open. I was hoping for a rather slacker pace. 

He almost managed his objective but I did slow him down every time I succeeded in squeezing in a quick coffee somewhere before being whisked off to the next exhibition. If you're up for burning your throat, have tireless legs and just can't get enough of virgins, Renaissance landscapes and religion then it's fine. We saw truly beautiful paintings, others were awe-inspiring and then there was stuff that you just wondered how it had made it into a museum. I was OK with most of the contemporary work until I saw the red-triangle-on-purple-background legpullers that just don't do it for me.

I also sneaked into the gift shop at the Tate Britain and National Gallery but was very restrained, buying just two books - one on Turner and another on Impressionists. Which is just as well as I already have a shelf full of unread art books.