Saturday 21 March 2009

A Grand Day Out

It all started with a leisurely 11.30 rendezvous with Jude and Valda at the Royal Academy of Arts to see the Byzantium exhibition.

A beautiful exhibition with some amazing atefacts but disappointing due to the crowds and very low lighting which made it difficult for me to see... it's an age thing! From there we moved on to the Victoria and Albert museum, one of my favourite places.... and headed straight to the cafe for lunch! Suitably refreshed we then saw the exhibition "The Magnificence of the Tzars" which was magnificent indeed. The most splendid outfits, well lit and no crowds - wonderful! We still can't work out how all the ornate and richly decorated clothes survived the revolution, but I'm glad they did.

Another tea break and then we were off again, this time to see "Hats - An Anthology by Stephen Jones" which was just fabulous. Literally hundreds of hats, old hats, royal hats, celebrity hats, ourageous hats... just about every type of hat you can imagine. Well worth a visit if you are in London before the end of May.

There then followed the obligatory visit to the V & A shop which I always think is like an exhibition in itself and then not being ones to let a couple of exhibitions get in the way of good food and drink we headed off to another one of our favourite places... Joe Allen's in Exeter Street for a spot of dinner.

A grand day out indeed!

16 comments:

  1. I think the best thing about London is the V&A.
    Sounds like you had a lovely relaxing day, just what the doctor would order for someone with a busy life.

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  2. Sounds like a fab time! I don't think I've ever been to the V&A!!!

    Lucy x

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  3. You must have had a wonderful day out - I have done all three and I agree about the lighting at Byzantium but they have to protect the artefacts I guess. I thought the signage at Hats was appalling and complained about it - that was on the first day and, as everyone was moaning, they said they would re-jig it. Perhaps it was better when you saw it? Mavis

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  4. What a great day!
    Very best wishes, Carolyn
    ps. I am taking a short break from blogging and flickr until April, I will catch up with all your beautiful work when I'm around again!

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  5. I was just moaning to my husband that i wished i'd been able to go to the Byzantium exhibition. Lucky you.Is the catalogue worth having?

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  6. I went to the Tsar exhibition with MissM and although it was smaller than I was expecting I enjoyed it very much. At the time I thought how much you would appreciate the intricate embroidery - I am so glad that you managed to get there.

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  7. Oh London....I love London!

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  8. Sounds like a very grand day out - I love the sound of the hats exhibition especially. x

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  9. Imagine how many hours those artisans took with a single thread of gold to embroider that jacket. Beyond amazing!

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  10. Fabulous Gina - the Russian embroidered coat is amazing! Well done for setting aside time to see these - must have done wonders for the inspiration.

    Celia

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  11. It does sound like a grand day out!
    I enjoyed reading all about your trip to Jersey :-) The news link didn't work though :-(

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  12. looks like a lovely day out - i love the hat! have never been to the V and A but by the looks of it i will have to do so soon!

    x

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  13. I said exactly the same thing about the lighting, and to read the signs you had to be standing right in front of them. We went mid week and you needed spurs on your elbows to see :) I bought the soft cover version of the book and love it. I miss being able to go to the V&A whenever I feel like it, these days it is a major expedition and expense to get into London.

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  14. Sounds like a fantastic day out - glad you enjoyed it - I would love to see the Byzantine exhibition.

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  15. Fabulous post Gina, sounds like you had an amazing day out. I shall definitely have to go to the hat exhibition, it sounds brilliant.
    Many thanks for your lovely comment on my post, I shall be sure to pass on the compliment :-)

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