Getting cultured and that...

Last thursday I headed back to the Tate Modern, this time I actually went inside! I intended to get to both the Tate Modern and the Tate Britain galleries but I had my first public transport mishap. I meant to get the central line to St Paul's but instead got the district line to St Paul's Park. Very different places, let me assure you. Eventually I got back to my intended destination, though the light was fading pretty quickly.

I have to be honest, I don't have a huge appreciation for modern art so most of the exhibits were a bit lost on me. I did enjoy the photography displays though - some of the photos really were amazing. On the tope level of the building is a cafe and a balcony, from which you can see this...

The Tate Modern building is in itself pretty impressive. It was built in 1947 as a power station. Essentially it is just a shell with very little internal infrastructure. I tried photographing the inside of the building but there were hardly any lights (other than on the levels with displays) so they just came out as black blobs.

Relative to my other sightseeing adventures this day was pretty short. After the Museum I headed home. Although, I did see the lead singer from Sneaky Sound System on my walk past Shakespeare's Globe. She was pretty easy to recognise with her white afro! Best game of 'Spot the Famous Person' ever, although I'm not sure it counts if you are playing by yourself.

A Big Day Out

Friday was a day for lots of walking. From my usual stop at Fenchurch Street station (near Tower Hill) I walked to the Bank of England. I took a slight detour through Leadenhall Market which is a beautiful old arcade, made up mostly of cafes, bars and restaurants. By the time I got there it was lunch time and chockers with suits on their lunch breaks.

Then it was time for St Paul's Cathedral.

Obviously there were no photos allowed inside so the exteriors will have to suffice. I spent hours inside - by the time I left it was getting dark outside. I'm far from a religious person but you can't help but feel the atmosphere once your inside. The interior is beautiful. I never realised the images on the ceilings were mosaics; I always assumed they were paintings. The uppermost dome is painted though because when it was being commissioned they felt mosiacs would have been too 'Catholic'. I also didn't know that the dome we see on the London skyline is not the dome we see from the inside. There are two structures on top of each other.

It completely baffles me as to how they managed to do all those mosaics and paintings, the carvings too. They are so intricate and delicate and beautiful.

I underestimated just how high the ceilings were until I got up to the Whispering Gallery. As cool as the novelty of being able to whisper against the wall and someone on the other side of the gallery hearing you is, the walkway is very narrow and looking through the narrow bars of the hand rail is very unnerving. Needless to say I didn't stay long. I then took some very narrow and very steep stairs up to the Stone Gallery. The view from the Stone Gallery looks something like this...

It's a shame there were renos happening.

Not the most exciting photo but this is the, rather famous, Millenium Bridge. The building behind it is the Tate Modern Gallery

Crazy uni kids protesting something or other (there are considerably fewer tents than when we walked past on New Years)

After finally dragging myself of way from the Cathedral I headed over to the Tate Modern which meant adventuring over the Millenium bridge, which has a view like this...

I had very good intentions of visiting the Tate Modern but by the time I got there I was starving so I decided to look for somewhere to eat and then I just kept walking. I walked all the way along the south bank, past the eye and all the theatres, across the bridge and past the Big Ben. This is what I saw...

I ended up walking all the way back down past Somerset House before hoping on the tube and heading home. It was a very long day with lots of walking but definitely worth it.