It turns out that you can take the Heathrow Express to get from Heathrow Airport to Paddington Station. The Days Inn Hyde Park is just a few blocks from The Station (and I GET POINTS in my Wyndham account):
OF COURSE I asked Wendy if she would like to join me for this adventure. She smiled and rolled her eyes and said: "Thank you so much, but I don't want to "do museums" the way you "do museums" (um, 90 miles-an-hour?)." So that freed me up to plan my assault. The first thing that crossed my radar was an Exhibition at The Courtauld Gallery:
It quickly became apparent that my original plan (3 days) was not going to work - Blessedly, Wendy said "Why don't you just take a 4th day?" BIG SMILE on my face! Virgin Atlantic has a red-eye from Boston-to-London, and a Friday morning flight back, so I booked them. I booked 4 nights (Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday) at the Days Inn Hyde Park for about $250-per-night. The Courtauld was the only museum that charged and had a specific entry time; The King's Gallery and The British Museum have no charge, but you must sign-up for a timed-entry-ticket. The Museum of London is closed until 2026. It looks like my itinerary will be:
Victoria and Albert Museum, and The King's Gallery on Monday
The Courtauld Gallery (Monet exhibit), and The National Gallery on Tuesday
The Wallace Collection, The British Museum, and Sir John Soane's Museum on Wednesday
Tate Modern, Tate Britain, and Westminster Abbey on Thursday (maybe fit in The London Eye between Tate Modern and Tate Britain)
Except for maybe getting over to the Tate Modern, I plan on walking everywhere.
On Sunday, Dec 1, Wendy dropped me off at Terminal E (Logan Airport) at 4 PM. It was a breeze checking my bag and going through Security, and I was at The Gate at 4:28 for my 8:10 PM flight:
Terminal E has a nice clean look to it:
Pretty cool lighting on The Plane:
Very Bad Turbulence 3 hours into the flight, but it went away, and 2-and-1/2 hours later we were over Greater London:
We landed at 7:55 AM Local Time. I got my bag and pulled out my phone to access the QR code for my "Heathrow Express" ticket:
Heathrow Express to Paddington Station £20.00 (one-way) The trip takes 15 minutes
To Paddington: train leaves every 15 minutes from 5:12am to 11:58pm.
From Paddington: train leaves every 15 minutes from 5:10am to 11:25pm.
This is where I saw "The Warning":
I was at Paddington Station at 9:25, where I had to re-scan my phone's QR code to exit the Train-Track:
Out on the street, and 3 blocks to my hotel (can you see R2D2?):
I had exchanged emails with them last week, asking (since I was staying 4 nights) if I could leave my bags behind the desk while I explored London today, and then "officially check-in" when I returned. They had said that would be fine. I introduced myself to the lady and gentleman behind the desk, and IMAGINE MY SURPRISE when he handed me my key!!! I went upstairs (took the lift to my 4th-floor room, but the stairs back down) and showered-shaved-and-shined! And headed out to the Victoria and Albert Museum:
Fun sightseeing south through Kensington Gardens:
Royal Albert Hall (where The Stones recorded their "Got Live If You Want It" album during their Autumn 1966 tour):
The dinosaur outside the Natural History Museum:
And then it was time for the Victoria and Albert Museum at 11:22 AM:
People generally "collect a lot of stuff". Imagine how much STUFF The Queen of England could collect:
The art is wonderful:
J.M.W. Turner - "Venice from the Giudecca", 1840 oil:
J.M.W. Turner - "Life-Boat and Manby Apparatus Going off to a Stranded Vessel Making Signal (Blue Lights) of Distress", 1831 oil:
David Roberts - "Old Buildings on the Darro, Granada", 1834 oil:
John Martin - "Mountain Landscape with Rocks", About 1851 oil:
Bernardo Bellotto - "Capriccio with bridges and figures", About 1740-47 oil:
That was a good hike - I didn't realize I was right around the corner from Holy Trinity Brompton:
Then I was back out on the Streets of London:
I stopped at The Apple Store to recharge my phone:
Some streets are less-busy than others:
I reached The King's Gallery at 1:58 for my 2:00 entrance ticket:
This is where I turned-off MapMyWalk because it was just eating up too much battery, even with one of my rechargers:
The King's Gallery Exhibition is "Drawing the Italian Renaissance":
Beauties include: Daniele da Volterra (c. 1509-1566) - "A seated man", c. 1550 grey-black chalk:
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) - "The muscles of the trunk and the leg", c. 1510-11 pen and ink with wash, over black chalk:
And then it was back out on the streets around Buckingham Palace:
There was still plenty of daylight, so I made my way up-and-around to Christie's London:
Beauties include a pair of oil paintings by Michele Marieschi - "Venice, a stonemason's yard on the Grand Canal, with a view of the Palazzo Ca' Tron, the Palazzo Belloni Battagia, the Fondaco del Megio and the Fondaco dei Turchi" and "Venice, the Doge's Palace with the Campanile, the Libreria and Santa Maria della Salute beyond":
Rembrandt van Rijn - "Christ crucified between the two Thieves: 'The Three Crosses'", 1653 drypoint etching:
It was a festive walk back to my hotel:
Near as I can figure out, I walked 11.8 miles today. Thank you God for these wonderful "Adventures-in-London" days!
Past entries of this blog are available on the website https://dixonheadingwest.blogspot.com/
Shameless Plug: if you enjoy this blog, you may like my other one about Hiking the 4,000 footers in New Hampshire/Vermont/Maine/New York:
hyperlink: dixonheadingnorth
http://dixonheadingnorth.blogspot.com/
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