London

Saturday 9 August

In the morning we visited the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. We enjoyed having the opportunity to look at a selection of the works of artists, particulalry those from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, that we have seen in books and in the media but could now actually view in the gallery.

This was the weekend of RideLondon. The main race is on the Sunday but on the Saturday members of the public were able to ride through the streets of London which have been blocked off to traffic. This also created challenges when pedestrians needed to cross the road but there were designated points where the riders had to stop occasionally to allow pedestrians to cross the road.

Trafalgar Square was also very busy and sections of the crow were being entertained watching street entertainers and living statues. We walked out of the art gallery to meet a friendly Batman who adopted a suitable pose for a photo.

Nelson's Column, is of course the most famous statue in Trafalgar Square but the lions at the base of the statue are also interesting. The four bronze lion sculptures, by Edwin Landseer (1802-1873), are often covered with people sitting on them.

This lion appears to be not too impressed with another 'piece of wildlife' in the square - a large blue chicken. Apparently the blue cock is to be on display for eighteen months from July 2013.

The remainder of the day was spent exploring the shops including visiting the Liberty department store.

I made sure that we went upstairs to the fabric section to look at the liberty prints.

Back to the hotel for dinner and then it was time to repack the suitcases for the trip to Scotland the next day.