First Week in London

Wow! What an amazing city. We've only been here for a week, and we've done so much!

The day after we arrived, we went for a 5 hour walk. When we came home we looked on the map and had covered the smallest little area-London is huge! At the British Library we saw some amazing documents like a Gutenberg Bible, the Magna Carta, Shakespeare's first Folio, an original Mozart Score, Buddhist sacred texts, and much more. We then found Oxford Street where there is some serious shopping.

We've also seen the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate Modern. The Portrait Gallery was great. We got to see wonderful portraits of Queen Elizabeth, Henry VIII, the rest of the Tudors and so many other Historical Figures and celebrities. My favorite were Audrey Hepburn, JRR Tolkien and Ian Breakwell. In front of the NPG is Trafalgar Square. It is so beautiful there. I sat there by myself and had some lunch-it was very peaceful. The Tate Modern was fantastic! There was a great Surrealism and Beyond exhibit-we saw an amazing film "Meshes of the Afternoon". There was so much amazing art! It was helpful to read so much about surrealism because I am currently working on a show about Salvador Dali. I could have spent 4 more hours in there, but we had to head off to dinner and then to Shunt. Shunt is one of the most amazing places I've ever been to. It's a lounge/performance venue/underground art layer. There was music and pinball machines and talking sculptures and a bar and a really cool girl spitting green paint onto a long white runway. The most interesting thing about Shunt is that it's under the London Tunnel.

We've seen two shows already and will see 5 shows in as many days next week. Last night's show at the National was so exciting. 27 actors, 450 unnamed roles and not words. It was beautiful.

Today was so much fun. We went shopping in Portobella Market. It is huge! There are over 6 blocks of vegetables, fruits, cheeses, bread, purses, dresses, bags, shoes...anything you could possibly want to buy is at this market. The prices are very reasonable as well. It's easy to get a bargain at Portobella.

I can't wait to see what other exciting things we do next week.