I like to share my impressions of our last excursion as tourists in London, which I think we will never ceased to be. I love the sense of exploring this enormous city; every corner of it seems to tell a story. We started our day in one of my favourite’s spots in the city so far: Trafalgar square. It is a large square with a big monument in the centre, surrounded by a large building that holds the National Gallery and some other buildings including the Canadian Embassy. From the square you can see down one of the streets the houses of parliament and the Big Ben. Every time I’ve been here there are lots of people, tourists, activists, scouts, musicians, bands, and cyclists. To me this place represents what London is, a vibrant spot where lots of people from all over the world converge, where there is always something happening and you could never be bored. To my delight, one of the bands was playing one of Shakira’s songs, only instrumental and I saw people grooving on the streets. We had our picnic lunch on the grass in front of the gallery where there were people sunbathing, drinking wine and vodka and enjoying the nice weather, for a change.
Trafalgar Square
The National Gallery has a large collection of some of the most acclaimed paintings in the world presented in the walls of a beautifully decorated building. I will just mention my personal favourites: A Wheatfield with Cypresses by Van Gogh, The virgin in Prayer de Sassoferrato and The Fighting Temeraire de Joseph Turner, named the greatest picture from England.
The virgin in Prayer, by Sassoferrato.
We also visited St Paul’s Cathedral, one of the buildings that you can always recognize in the London skyline. Normally they charge you to visit the cathedral except on Sundays which is the day of worship. We lit a candle and made a prayer for our families.
St Paul's Cathedral, London
We walked to the financial centre of London, known as “The City”, about a square mile with the London stock exchange and the offices of the most important financial institutions in the world. There is a great selection of buildings of interest, among them the 30th Street St. Mary, completed in 2004 and designed by Foster, one of the greatest architects of our time. The building is one of the first fully ecological buildings and in my opinion, somehow this modern building fits well among so many historic old buildings in the city, although the general opinion seems to be that it is not harmonious with its neighbours.
30th Street St. Mary
Another building which I thought is neat is the 122 Leadenhall Street, which is being demolished (see picture) in its place there will be a building which will be ready by 2011. It is very impressive to see so clearly how the core of the building supports the rest. The building is being demolished trying to minimize the impact on the surroundings.
Demolition in progress at 122 Leadenhall Street
1 comment:
Keep up the good work.
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