London in May

Once I was in London, I felt like I was following in the steps of Hugh Grant. Like in "Notting Hill" I stayed near Notting Hill just blocks away from Kensington High and saw N52 bus at night, and just like in "About a boy" I was in the park near Buckingham palace except no duck was killed.

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The staff was very nice. We arrived early and left our luggage at the hotel, registered and went to do some sightseeing. When we came back, the room was waiting for us. The façade of the hotel is being renovated, so you might want to ask for a quiet room. This Hilton has a great location. It is facing Kensington gardens and is very close to the center of the city. In addition to the subway, there is a bus stop a little to the right of the hotel entrance and there are 3 buses that stop there. The bus schedules are posted on each stop and you can figure out when the next bus is expected.

The room was nice and quiet; we had 3 separate twin beds in the room, TV, wardrobe, and a desk with chair, coffee-maker, free tea, coffee, sugar. The bathroom was a normal size with towel, shampoo, conditioner, soap and paper tissue change every day. They have a hair dryer in the bathroom as well.

The pay phones are in the basement and restaurant is one flight of stairs below the lobby. There 2 elevators. Get a rate that includes breakfast. The breakfast is continental, and the chef can make you an omelette right in front of you with anything you want. There are also fruits, salads, yogurt, lots of baked goodies, also bacon and cereal, and lots of other stuff. If you don’t get and inclusive breakfast, it might cost you 25 pounds to have breakfast here.

There is a produce store across the street from the subway exit where you can buy anything you need for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Overall, I liked the hotel and its location.

The museum looks very modern inside, and very 18-19th century from the outside. What a contrast. You enter through the black iron gates and see the neo-classical façade with heavy columns supporting the portico. And then you come inside the museum and something unexpected happens. Inside there is a very large modern court, well-lit through the glass roof with a staircase in the middle. This is the Great Court that was built for the new millennium in place of the inner courtyard. Courtyard was blocked fom public view by the British Library that was moved to another location about 5 years ago. The Round Reading Room is in the center of the court and the staircase curves around it on both sides leading to the giftshop, bookstore and restaurant at the top of the stairs.

The museum is very large and impressive from the outside and when I approached it I felt like the character in the "Mummy" except that I couldn’t drive in a car right to the doors of the museum. That’s too bad!

If you want to see the largest collection of the most famous mummies from ancient Egypt – this is the place. I haven’t seen so many well-preserved mummies with sarcophaguses painted in bright colors. Seems like several dynasties are right here in front of you so close that if not for the glass you could touch them. The walls of several halls are covered with ancient Egyptian paintings with those famous static figures that haven’t lost the brightness of color either.

You can also see here the famous Rosetta Stone that was discovered in 1799 by Napoleon troops. The stone has the same message written in 3 language, 2 of which are ancient Greek and Egyptian hieroglyphics. This is probably the most important discovery in modern archeology. Thanks to this stone, scholars were able to begin deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs. British Museum also has a large collection of Roman and Greek statues that came from English expeditions to Italy, Greece and Turkey in the beginning of 19th century.

I got to Courtauld Gallery through the Somerset House which is located right on the Thames Embankment and the closest subway station is Temple (closed on Sundays). If you walk through the Somerset House you will find yourself in a large yard with fountains in the middle and Courtauld Gallery all the way across the yard, entrance on the left under the archway.

This museum has a large collection of Impressionist and Post-impressionist paintings, as well as some old masters. As you enter, the first floor has paintings and frescoes of Italian Renaissance from 14th-16th centuries, the most interesting of which is large altar piece by Botticelli. In other rooms of the first floor you can find paintings by Lucas Cranach, Rubens, Van Dyck and Tiepolo. To get to the rest of the collection, you have to take the stairs to the second floor (or an elevator), where you will find a great collection of impressionists and post-impressionists. As you enter from the stairs, for me it was as close to heaven as you can get. You see paintings by Renoir, Monet, Seurat, Degas, several of the most famous Cezanne paintings, Gaugin, Van-Gogh, Manet, Sisley, Pissarro staring at you from the walls. These are the paintings that you see in the catalogs, that you know so well, and now you finally get to see them in real life, real size, they are so close you almost can touch them. To the side there is a small room with paintings by Modigliani, Bonnard, Vuillard, Soutine, Kandinsky. This is truly a great collection and I would recommend everybody to visit it if you haven’t already, my only regret is that they don’t allow to take pictures.

The closest underground station is South Kensington.

As you walk in to the museum, look up and you will see one of Chihuly’s gorgeous glass chandeliers: blue and green glass sculpture coming out of the ceiling. Admission to the main collection is free but admission to temporary exhibits cost money. Students can get discounts, you simply need to ask. The museum also has a restaurant and a nice bookshop.

The main collection is dedicated to decorative arts and it’s unique because it is very large and it is like a review of world history over the last 5000 years – ceramics, glass, paintings, dress collection, silver, jewelry, furniture from different continents – America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Here you can find Donatello’s sculptures and collection of Art Nouveau furniture, ancient African artifacts and a huge collection of Asian art – vases, furniture, sculptures, woodwork, jewelry, carpets, fabrics and tapestries from Japan, China, Korea, India and Arab countries, also among other things a collection of British silver.

In addition to the amazing permanent collection, at the time I was in London there was an exhibit of royal tiaras. This was truly great. There were so many of them, with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires and any other possible precious stone you could think of, huge pearls, corals, in different styles, in gold and platinum, big and small, Art Nouveau and classic design. I just wanted to stay there for a while surrounded by this luxury, looking at these man-made creations and as any woman out there secretly wishing to once have one of these.