A Walk, The National Gallery

On our last day in Farringdon, we set out after dinner to take a long walk. We decided we would just walk along Farringdon Street and see where it would take us. It was a lovely evening and the walk was wonderful.

Not too far down the road, we came across a high traffic bridge crossing the road. It was beautifully painted and looked very inviting to climb the street level stairs on either side of the road and get up onto it. This was Holborn Viaduct, built between 1863 and 1869. Once up there, you can see that it's a busy thoroughfare and also that it has large statues on each end; two on the south side representing commerce and agriculture, and two on the north side representing science and art.

Down we descended again to Faringdon Street and kept walking. Various street scapes caught our attention, but eventually, we reached the Thames at Blackfriars. Rather than crossing the Blackfriars Bridge, we turned right and stayed on our own side of the river and headed down towards and past Temple.

Ultimately, we came upon the famous Cleopatra's Needle at Embankment. This 21 metre (69 feet) obelisk is three and half thousand years old. Apart from the earth itself and its geology, it is the oldest thing in London. For once, the British didn't steal it. It was given to them as a gift in 1819 by the Egyptians and was finally transported there in one piece in 1877. It is very impressive. The Victorians buried a time capsule underneath it when it was erected on the Thames. People go there just to sit and talk by the river or eat some take away. It's a nice place and has a good feel about it.

The following morning, we headed to Clerkenwell for coffee at Knockbox and moved out of our Farringdon digs and farewelled the place. It was a bit sad, as we had now stayed there on two occasions around two and half weeks and were beginning to feel like locals and to bond with the place. But to the Tower Bridge Hotel we went. Such is travel.

As the name implies, the hotel is next to and overlooks the amazing Tower Bridge. More about that in another footprint.

After we settled in, we went into the city, again to Trafalgar Square and decided we would visit the National Gallery, whose memory burns bright for us from last year. We would do another set of rooms.

Just a few highlights for me. There was the exquisite painting of Susannah and the Elders by Reni. I'm noty sure what it was that took me about this painting, but it did. There were a number of Reni works equally impressive. Another was the Incredulity of St Thomas by Guercino where I think a very earthy quite sexy Christ took me and of course, the famous scene of 'doubting Thomas'. The famous picture by Turner of the Fighting Temeraire being towed up the Thames by a steam tug is stunning. Turner's use of light is jsut out of this world, in not only this work, but all his works.

The Gallery is fun, so is the gift shop. We did the usual and poked through this and that in the gift shop buying only a msall trinket this time.Read more