Trafalgar Square
| With my newly purchased and invaluable London A-Z in hand, I decided to set off for Trafalgar Square on my first real day in London. I wasn't quite up to the crowds involved something like St. Paul's, but definitely wanted to do something big and touristy - so to Trafalgar Square I went. I jumped on the Tube at King's Cross and got off at Charing Cross station. | |
St. Martins-in-the-Fields |
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| From the station, one enters the square between St. Martin-of-the-fields and the National Gallery. The church is lovely, and I definitely plan to go back to do a brass rubbing. The square does not seem that large to me as I began to take it all in. The National Gallery sitting high in the square and its front lawn so to speak is a large balcony that overlooks Trafalgar Square proper. | |
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The National Gallery |
Lord Nelson's Column |
| From this vantage point, I could see the two fountains and Nelson's column. It is this column that gives the space its grandness because one has to crane one's neck in order to see the statue of Lord Nelson at the top. It is perhaps the most phallic structure, ever (especially if you consider the fountains on either side). Leave to the English to stick to the French, as it were. My favorite part about visiting the square is the people watching I did for hours. There are school children, backpacking college kids of all nationalities, English businessmen in suits, and families all mixing and watching each other in the square all day long. The school children and backpackers scramble all over the four lions at the base of Nelson's, as if they were the creature's cubs playing on their sires. | |
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See, Darci, your bracelet made it all the way to Trafalgar Square |
One of the square's fountains |
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One of the figures in the foamy fountains |
The one of the four famous lions at the base of Nelson's Column |
| On such a warm day, the children also playing in the foamy water of the fountains, luring other more dignified playmates to join them with their own happiness at the cool water. The surprising thing about the balcony is that if you're just the right place, you can see all the way down Whitehall road to Big Ben. Usually landmarks like that don't really impress me, but Big Ben is very striking even from this distance. | |
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The view of Big Ben down Whitehall |
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After wandering around the square for a while, I went into the National Gallery. I decided to only do the East Wing, which includes paintings from 1700 to 1900. This collection is absolutely wonderful. My favorite painting is Cézanne's Bathers - eleven women, all in curves and movement against a bluegreen background. I think I spent at least a half an hour looking at this piece - it makes one feel like part of the group of women. On the opposite wall from this painting was Van Gogh's Sunflowers. When I entered the room, it was surrounded by a school group on a tour, and I almost dismissed it as just an overly popularized painting. When I got closer, however, the painting's beauty overcame all of my distaste for its placement on everything from coffee cups to umbrellas. The flowers themselves are so thick with paint that they seem to be the actual texture of sunflowers, or rather convey the essence of sunflowers - their goldness and softness. The background surrounds the flower in yellow cream and seems to be part of the flower's beauty rather than merely a backdrop. Another favorite of mine is Degas's After the Bath, Woman Drying Herself. Degas's use of pink pastels to suggest the sheen of water on the woman's back gives the piece a stillness and intimacy one would not usually associate with pastels. The three Turners are also very fine - particularly the one with train emerging from the light fog. I highly recommend only doing one wing of the Gallery because that way you can just sit and take in paintings that strike you, rather than keeping the brisk pace necessary to see it all. After all, it's free and I plan to go back and see other parts later. Of course, I spent too much at the museum shop - damn exchange rate - but it's so hard to pass up lovely art. The small prints I purchased have given my bare room some character that has made the pounds very much worth it. |
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a not so good picture of the Cezanne painting (I didn't want to take it out of the plastic cover) |
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Very hungry, but not willing to eat boring take away food, I found a vegetarian restaurant recommended in my guide book near Leicester Square (not far from where I was). I walked over, only to discover it gone and replaced by strip clubs. Sigh. As I wandered back the way I came, I luckily noticed a natural food store and restaurant called Fresh and Wild. Here, I got some yummy brown rice and a cooked vegetable mix of some sort that was also wonderful. As I was about to sit down, a woman with a better table asked if I would share it and I took her up on her offer. After a slightly odd conversation about tofu, the woman proceeded to tell me her life's story and only stopped when I got up to leave. Weird natural food store people - friendly, but weird. It's nice to know that they're everywhere - like Waffle House people. I did get a chance to get some soy milk and other veggie products that looked yummy. This food, coupled with what I purchased later at the grocery store near my London home is keeping from spending all my money the first week. I'm here. What's odd about shopping in foreign country is that you'll never get precisely what you want because it's always a little different from what you think it will be. Mostly, it's been a good thing - but there have been some unpleasant surprises. By the time I got home with all of this food in my pack, my feet were refusing to go anywhere else in spite of the very comfortable shoes I had worn. I pretty much collapsed, again. |
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