What I Did in London (Part 1)

I travelled up to London yesterday morning, to meet up with N and A and to see Neil Gaiman at the Barbican.

The day started with a good omen - at Chippenham, all of us  in the quiet coach were told we would have to move, due to a fault with the door lock. Which would have been annoying, except that they moved us all to 1st class. Which was nice. It did amuse me that after we'd all moved, the conductor made an announcement, apologising for the delay and inconvenience, and then apologising specifically to the 1st class passengers for the [long pause] inconvenience. Poor 1st class passengers, being invaded by the common herd!

Once arrived in London, I checked into my hotel before heading over to Tate Modern to see the Matisse Exhibition 

I enjoyed it. I'm fairly familiar with his blue dancers, but there were lots of other pieces which I didn't know, including stained glass (and studies for other windows) and 'Oceania', which Matisse had on his own studio walls.

Celebes (Max Ernst) 

I was also pleasantly surprised that the exhibition was not overcrowded, unlike other exhibitions I've seen recently!

After seeing the Matisse, I also wandered through some of the other galleries, getting my fill of surrealists. 

Turns out that the Tate has some rather nice pictures. I haven't been for a while, and I tend to forget, between visits.

There are also some nice views from outside the gallery.

I always rather enjoy the fact that you get Tower Bridge, and the Shard, and the Globe, all in one relatively small piece of skyline!.