Mondrian and Mudlarking

Today we got up really early which is weird for a Sunday...

....and we went to the bus stop.

We're going somewhere??  We haven't been anywhere for nearly a WHOLE MONTH!!!

We left a CD on the rail....

And we got off at the train station!!!

WAY HAYYY!!  We're going on a ride!!!

They got a CD too!!

Love this bit.....

There's the Shard!!

We're going over Borough Market here... we haven't been there for ages either.

And we got off here, at Blackfriars!!!

We left another CD outside the station.

There's St Pauls on the other side of the river!!!

Oh!!!  There's a Morph statue!!!

And we found some more a bit further along!!!

It's a Morph trail!!!

There used to be a Paddington Bear trail here once, which we did a bit of with Sandy Bear!!

Ooo..... this one's a clue for what we're going to do in a minute!

Oh what fun!!!

And this is what we're going to go see!!!

Hilma Af Klint and Piet Mondrian paintings!!

We're at the Tate Modern!!

We got our tickets half price on our Art Pass and then went up to the third floor.  There's the entrance!!

Oh wow!!  We didn't know Mondrian did landscapes!!!

These ones are Klint pictures.  Both artists are Dutch, and painted at the same time as each other but they didn't know each other.

These ones above are really small pictures, maybe smaller than postcard size

Klint also did botanical studies too

Now THESE ones we know about!!!

These ones were MASSIVE BIG!!

After we'd had a good look round, we visited the gift shop (we'll show you later)

And then used the facilities.  We left them a poppy windchime on the back of the door and then washed our paws forever.

And then made our way to the exit at the Turbine Hall.  Weirdly there were no installations here.

Then we did some more depositing around the gardens.....

we like doing this!!

This is one of our favourites..... it has long dangly chains with feathers on the end!

.....and another one here.....

And then we got to the Millenium Bridge that used to wobble.

We carried on a bit further and found William Shakesmorph!!

He was outside the Globe Theatre!

We found a stone carved sunflower!

And then left some more poppies on little trees.....

And we arrived here, at Tas Pide!  We're having lunch here!!!

We got a fizzy drink and a glass of water....

And had a starter of Taboulleh salad with some warm flatbread.

Then for the main course, we had a Turkish pizza - called a Pide - and this one had garlic sausage, mushrooms, bell pepper, tomato and cheese inside.  It was proper yummy too!!

After lunch we had a walk along the Thames back the way we came....

....and up onto the Blackfriars Bridge!

We're getting a bus now!!

BUS BINGO ALERT!!!  We got the number 40!!!

They got a CD!

Then we crossed the bridge...

And got off near here.

Then we walked up the road a bit - that's Holborn Viaduct there.  Turns out we needed the road on top of that and Andrea thought she knew how to there but but actually didn't!!!

So we ended up getting hopelessly lost for a while!  But we found some interesting buildings like this one.

And this one!!  It was about here that she got her Smartiepants phone out and looked up the maps bit to try and figure out where we were supposed to be going.

And we ended up here at Smithfields Market but it was closed.

Oh hang on, this looks a little bit familiar....

Oh we've seen this before!!  Are we going down here then?

Oh here it is!  The top of Holborn Viaduct!!  Except we've gone the wrong way again and had to double back on ourselves!!!

Well look at that.  We could've just come up that flight of stairs, couldn't we?!!?!?!

Oh NOW I KNOW WHERE WE ARE!!!!

We're at Cutler's Hall!!!

They've got a special Mudlarking expedition on this weekend and we've come to see it!!!

That's a really old calculator!!!

There were lots of glass bottle fragments and bits of pottery....

That little item on the larger piece of marble is a tiny ivory sundial!!  Made in Germany in the 1600s apparently and used by a wealthy sailor who was likely very annoyed when he dropped it in the Thames!!

There were lots of pottery items there... including those long stemmed pipes!

These are kinda pretty!

And a fancy shimmery glass bottle!  There's a word for that kind of shimmery glass but we can't remember it.

Lots of knives....

...and horse shoes!!

...and keys!!!

And even some skulls!  (we saw old dentures too, but we didn't photograph those!)

In another room we spotted an Anal Dilator!!!  Apparently they're used for checking your hemorrhoids but it looks more like a torture device!!!! 

In some of the downstairs rooms were some silverware that Cutlers Hall is famed for, including a posh sword used at King Charlie's coronation bash, the statue for the BAFTA awards and some other swords used in movies like the Pirates of the Carribean!!

There were also lots of elephants too!

That was a really interesting afternoon!!!

Then it was time to head back to the bus stop....

....but this isn't the bus stop that we need, so we had to double back on ourselves AGAIN!!!

And went past where the Newgate prison used to be.

And came to the bus stop that we DID need!!!

BUS BINGO ALERT!!!  We got the number 46!!

They got a CD too...

We went past here....

And past this building!  We remember that one!

And then ended up here at the station!!  It's time to go home!!

We stopped off at Fortnums first (we'll show you later!)

And then used the facilities.  We washed our paws carefully.....

And then it was time to get our train!  We got a window seat too.

They got a CD too!

We're arriving at Blackfriars Station here!!

And then made our way over Borough Market towards London Bridge Station...

Love this bit....

And here we are back home!!!

Then we just had to get the last bus of the day....

And left our last CD of the day...!

And got off here....

That's the leaflet we got from the mudlarking expedition....

And we got postcards from the Mondrian expedition!!

And a philosophy book.

And a tin of Kings' Coronation Coffee.....

Whoo we're exhausipated!!!!