Today we walked to the National Gallery (https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk). Like many of the museums in London, entrance is free. Neither of us is religious nor an art connoisseur, so we sped through about two-thirds of the exhibition. We did recognize and admire some works by Rembrandt; Manet, Monet and other impressionists; Da Vinci and Van Gogh.
One Van Dyck painting caught our attention because, to us it portrayed three toddlers clambering over their harried mum who was clearly thinking, “dear God, when will they invent contraception?” However, the museum had a different interpretation.
Outside, the National Gallery also offers free seating and sketch pad materials so that budding artists can draw Trafalgar Square and Nelson's Column.
Also in Trafalgar Square, we liked the bizarre sculpture “The End,” Heather Phillipson’s depiction of whipped cream topped with a cherry, a fly, and a drone(?), reminding us of Minneapolis' Spoonbridge and Cherry.
Next we walked to Chinatown for lunch. Chinatown was surprisingly small and didn’t have the kitschy shops we expected, but it did have lots of restaurants and tea shops. The longest customer queues were for bubble tea(!), which tells you something about the customer demographics here. We had a wonderful lunch at nearby Bar Shu (https://barshurestaurant.co.uk). Being Chinese food enthusiasts, Dale ordered fried chicken and Darcie had pork’n'beans. (Translation: Dale ate la zi ji -- fried chicken smothered in chili peppers and peppercorns; Darcie ate gan bian si ji dou-- string beans, Sichuan peppers, and in this case, pork.)
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