We woke up this morning to a little walk to St. Pancras International Station and jumped on The Tube, as the English refer to it. At first, we were given the wrong directions and had to recover quickly. Moving from the Northern Line to the Piccadilly Line, we boarded from King's Cross Station to Leicester Square. We discovered that The Tube was not only much cleaner than that of the subways in New York City, but it was a tad smaller.
P.S. Mind the gap between the car and the platform.
We were given an amazing and intellectually-stimulating scavenger hunt that excited the mind, body, and soul. We were split up as groups and powered through the hunt. As we went through the scavenger hunt, we discovered a good amount of team work and the city of London. As we went along, one of the stops was at Covent Garden Market, an open air market that was home to a wonderful cookie shop that is shown to the right. We enjoyed the requirement to buy a cookie vehemently.
As we moved to another site for the scavenger hunt (Piccadilly Circus), we discovered a man-made flood. We tried our best to keep our feet dry and then failed miserably (even for those of us with longer legs). Better luck next time.
The item that we meant to discover through the flood was this to the right. This is the Antheros statue that is commonly mistaken for Eros. There were many street performers gathered around this area as well.
We caught a quick glimpse of Big Ben as we journeyed to Buckingham Palace.
The last stop on the list was Westminster Abbey which was beautiful and elegant. I (Erica) ran into a friend studying in London for the semester even!
Our last stop before we were allowed to explore for ourselves was the National Gallery. My (Chris) personal favorite piece was J.M.W. Turner's
The Fighting Teméraire Being Tugged to its Last Berth (To Be Broken Up). It has been an influential piece within my art since I had first seen it four years ago. My (Erica) favorite piece in the National Gallery was Jan Van Eyck's
Arnolfini Portrait and it was great seeing the pure talent that Van Eyck put into his artwork.
As we stopped into Trafalgar Square, we as a group had to stop and take a group photo. Any viewer can not help but take notice of me (Chris) was looking unhappy, but I assure you that I was highly excited for the first day of London.
Anne Hobday taking a photo of the candles that me (Chris) and J Walker lit in memory of anniversary of Karene Faul. The candles were in St. James Cathedral. We miss you, Karene.
As Erica and I were writing our blog post at 10:30 pm, some nice french students gave us an extra pizza that they had made earlier in the night. We had yet to eat, so this was a great generosity. Overall, the day way great and eventful!
As I (Chris) was preparing myself for the oncoming trip to London, I wanted to look up some sites that I would like to see. Upon further research of the topic I found the South Banks, a skate spot that is famous in London. As a skateboarder myself, I would have to make this a must-see on my trip. I was lucky enough to be accompanied by two good friends that so happen to be skateboarders as well. As soon we arrived, we were immediately overwhelmed and in awe of the culture surrounding the spot, the grand scale of underground graffiti art, and the attitude of the locals and the Banks. I am overjoyed that I was able to experience the SouthBanks first hand and am deeply upset that the local consumerism surrounding the Banks plans to replace this iconic skate spot with more commercial shops, taking away this great culture bred here at the South Banks.
Chris and I also found a few great graphic design examples to show as well!
This is the logo for the Science Museum in Kensington
These were a series of wrapping papers in the V&A(Victoria Albert) Museum, also in Kensington.
This was a book cover and inside page of a book found in a side shop in Covent Garden.
This was a book cover for a London history book found in the gift shop at the Wellcome Collection in Euston Square.
Hope you enjoyed learning about our day!
- Erica Cotten and Chris Wilson
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