A Day Out In London!!

Yesterday, Andrea took me out again!!

We set off rather early and got the bus into town.....

And got off at the train station!!!  Where are we going today then?

I tied one of my weathergrams to the seat in front when we got on the train!!

And here we are going past Battersea Power Station just before crossing the River Thames!!

Andrea had the camera on the wrong setting which is why it looks a bit blurred!!! Silly moo!

We arrived at Victoria Train Station, and there were LOADS of Union Jack flags flying from the roof!

Andrea said there was going to be a big party here over the weekend!!!!!

Then we went round the corner to the bus stop....

And got the number 11 bus!  We sat upstairs, and I tied another weathergram to the seat in front!

On the way, we went past a street market selling lots of different food!

 And we also saw a funny boat bus!!!  It's called a "Duck Tour" apparently - we've never heard of that!

Then we went past Horseguards Parade and saw lots of Guards on horses!!!  All in fancy dress too - Andrea said it was a practise thing for the big party and there was going to be a big parade as well!

There's another guard on duty.  The horses aren't very friendly though, they sometimes bite and kick if you get too close. They're not pets!!!

Then Andrea noticed it was our stop to get off!!

We'd arrived at the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square!!

We spotted a flat up saying "ER, 60 years".  Andrea said that ER stood for Elizabeth Regina who's the Queen and she's been Queen for 600 years and that's why they're having a big parade and a party!  Andrea said it's called a "Jubilillee".  Or something.

There's the bottom of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square and you can see Big Ben in the distance!

We're going in here!!  It's an art expedition called "Turner Inspired"!!!

Andrea needed to use the loo first, so I tied another weathergram to the door.

I have art hanging at the National Gallery!!

I'm famous!!!

That was quite an interesting exhibition really.  It was about Turner getting inspired by a French Artist called Claude who lived in the 1600s.  His paintings were a lot more exact and precise than Turners, who was a lot looser.  Both of them were very good at painting skies though, and expressing sunlight!!

Then we got really hungry so we went in here for lunch!!

We had an enormous pizza and a cola!  It was YUMMY!

Then we spotted there was an art shop a few doors away, so we went and spent some more money!

How fun!!

We had enough time for a look round before going home, so we thought we'd have a look through here.

Andrea says she thinks that posh building with the flags on is called Admiralty Arch, but she's not sure.

On the other side of the building though, is a road called Pall Mall and at the other end is Buckingham Palace where Queen Elizabeth lives!!!  You can just see it, with the gold statue of Queen Victoria in front of it!!!  (On the left hand side of this picture is St James' Park)

Andrea says the Parade will probably come down here too.

Then we decided to make our way back to the bus stop.  We left a card in a telephone kiosk!

Oh here we go - the number 11 stops here!

We sat at the top again and tied another weathergram to the seat in front!

There's the Houses of Parliament..... there's usually a big tent city in front of it demonstrating against various wars, like Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, etc, but they're not there now.  I think they all got moved because of the parade.  It would be too embarassing to the Queen if they stayed.

This time, we decided to get the coach back to Brighton!!!

While we were waiting to board, Andrea showed me what she bought at the art shop.  We got some sketching crayons by Conte, in black, white, sepia and sanguine.

And we got a lovely little travel pack of Sennelier watercolour paper (postcard size), with 6 different Sennelier watercolours and a little travel paintbrush!!!

When we got on the bus, Andrea got out a box of Jaffa Cakes!

I love those!!!

And we're off....

We saw some funny shadow Muriels painted on a fence!

And here we are approaching the South Downs..... nearly home!!

they're so pretty...

Then we walked up the road to the bus stop....

And got the bus home!!

Because we were both hungry, Andrea got a curry on the way!!  We got King Prawn Masala, which is coconut based and seriously Yumtastic, and a garlic Naan bread and a free popadom which she said I could eat all on my own!!

This is the book of the Art expedition we saw..... it was £5 off the usual price too!

Excellent!!

And there's the Sennelier paint stuff we got!!

What a brilliant day out!!