London, A Day at Hampton Court Palace

View of Thames and palace as we crossed the bridge from train station

Outer entrance to palace on a very cold and cloudy day 

inner court with fountain

one of the 9 mantegna paintings of "The triumphs of Caesar" 1485, acquired by Charles I in 1629.

having the entire Mantegna sequence  all together in one space is amazing

detail of one painting, the Romans extracting booty from their enemies as was a favorite pastime for them!

one of the court ceilings

grand hall with amazing tapestries 

and amazing stained glass with Henry VIII right in the middle 

grand hall windows

they had a wonderful linen tablecloth on the huge table in dining room with great sayings

close up of one of the tapestries, The Story of Abraham, worth millions of dollars,  colors were much more vivid on site

view toward entrance to hall, photo again doesn't do it justice. it was rather breathtaking

tapestry detail

a part of the gardens

another inner courtyard

 Fran and I  with cafe in background where we had  a warming lunch on the grounds

4 of us at entrance, it was windy and cold

Caravaggio's Christ with Peter (with fish in hand) and Andrew, also acquired by Charles I.

One of the rooms with two caravaggio paintings as well as many other outstanding artists

fabulous wood (closet) room with a wonderful cycle of frescoes discovered recently when they were cleaning the 16th century frescoes they found 15th century frescoes. I loved this room.

there were a series of room describing the young Henry

Caravaggio's boy peeling fruit

detail of Last Supper fresco on closet described above

same cycle of frescoes, detail 

We even met Henry himself and members of his court

some more gardens on the grounds

the flowers were glorious

another wonderful table saying

The kitchen was huge as it fed thousands of people a day. I believe they said they cooked hundreds of sheep a day. in a year they ate 8.200 sheep, almost 2,000 pigs etc. 

This is the story of two palaces: a Tudor palace, magnificently developed by Cardinal Wolsey and later Henry VIII, alongside a baroque palace built by William III and Mary II. -We spent all day here and it was well worth it. I have way too many photos to post but this place had many treasures and I learned a lot.

London, April 24-28th, 2013 Arrival Day and Day Two

ceiling in courtauld museum

Monet's vase of flowers (1881)

Manet's " A Bar at the Folies-Bergere"

Van Gogh's peach blossoms

courtauld stairwell

venetian statue at entrance to one of courtauld's rooms, 1700's

courtauld's early renaissance and byzantine painting room

square at  Somerset House where courtauld is located

St Clement Danes church on the Strand

entrance to twinings store, a landmark

covent garden

on our walk to the british museum

gold leafed clock in the british museum from 1700's

mosaic and fresco from Roman Britain in British museum

ceramic piece from iran

gorgeous iranian 1st century A.D. gold mask in british museum, most likely used in burial

the shard appears everywhere

scott at entrance to borough market

huge plate of paella in borough market, where there were lots of stalls selling food for lunch or take away

lots of traditional British meat pies at borough mrkt

there were a fish stall or two

southwark cathedral next to borough market

another view of shard from the cathedral

walking along promenade, Bankside,  near the Tate Modern, with view of Thames and St. Paul's church

view of London Bridge as we walked across the Millennium Bridge

water view

remains of a bridge near the Blackfriars bridge

fabulous Blackfriars Pub built in 1875 on site of a Dominican Monastery which was there in 1276-1539

with its art nouveau mosaic signage (1905)

wonderful art nouveau door handle

bar area of pub with its great mural bas relief of the monks

wonderful stone vaulted ceiling in pub with stucco characters

stained glass window in pub

Leighton House Museum, well worth seeing with its outstanding "arab room".

busy, busy days on two very nice, warmish and sunshiny days.  shortly after arrival we headed by tube to the courtauld gallery to see their collection and the small, but excellent, Picasso exhibit. From there we met two of Christopher's friends for a drink at covent garden and then a late Indian dinner near our hotel. Thursday was action packed: morning exhibit of the "Ice Age" at the british museum where we saw many pieces of small sculptures made of bone, stone, antlers etc dating back to 23,000 year ago. The age of these pieces was astonishing. nice exhibit.  We also took in a few more rooms of the regular collection before we got hungry. Then a lunch time trip to Borough Market, followed by a walk along bankside, across the millennium bridge, stopping in the blackfriars pub for a drink, then on to the delightful Leighton House Museum. Hurried back to hotel to meet Fran and Bill and off to our great chinese dinner and fabulous play "The Audience" starring Helen Mirren. Well worth every pence spent on it. Made all 4 of us very happy. A great day and a half.