55 Hours in London

I had to take a quick trip to London last week for a one day meeting. Because of the flights the options are to arrive late at night or very early in the morning. I chose the AM arrival, which gave me a full day to take in a bit of the city.

I'm not much of a museum person but there are two museums I never get tired of visiting, the Musee D'Orsay in Paris and the Tate Modern in London, in part because of the architecture of the buildings, the former is in an old train station and the latter in an old power plant. With that in mind, at 8am I arrived at my hotel which didn't have the best of views but was located was only three blocks from the Tate Modern. Since I couldn't check in until noon, I set out on a walkabout to bide my time until the Tate opened.

A stroll over the Millenium Bridge led to a coffee and pastry next to St. Pauls Cathedral . Coming back across the Thames there was a nice view of the Tate Modern and its plea to the Chinese to free artist Ai Weiwei . After another cup of java, something called a Flat White , I finally started to wake up.

I was hoping to see Ai Weiwei's Sunflower Seeds installation at the Tate but it ended two weeks ago. Luckily, the removal of the 100 million "seeds" wasn't quite finished and I caught a glimpse .

Next up was a special exhibition of Joan Miro. I'm not a big fan of surrealism so Miro never grabbed me but after viewing the exhibit I have a greater appreciation of the troubles Spain, or more specifically Catalan, was experiencing that are expressed through Miro's art (I think).

There was one painting that caught my attention more than any other, Miro's burnt canvas. Photography wasn't allowed so I snagged this image from the Tate exhibit off the net.

A stroll (is it really that easy?) back to the hotel for a siesta, then off to another art gallery, the streets of London.

After taking in some street art , a walk along the Thames (mermaid included) , and a fish & chips dinner I finished the day at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre with a production of "All's Well That Ends Well."

The next morning I was up early to catch a ferry to Canary Wharf which provided some excellent views the city .

Following the meeting, I stopped in a pub for a pint , had a brief but hilarious chat with some folks waiting for Lady Gaga to exit a TV studio, dined at Live Bait, and called it a night.

A short jog in the AM, a few photos here and there and there and it was off to the hustle and bustle of Paddington Station to catch the 15 minute express train to Heathrow.

A quick breakfast of champions at 10:45am (when else can I have a beer so early?) and I was soon on my flight and headed home.

All's well that ends well, indeed!