Wednesday, May 30, 2007

The Tate Galleries

Wednesday May 30, 2007

We started our journeys today around 11:00 stopping by Eat for sandwiches, I had turkey with cranberries. Very good I would have had soup, but they do not start serving till 11:30. Rhonda had a baguette with cheese and Sam had a Mexican Wrap.

The Tate Modern was just next door. It is a converted power plant and has lots of space. The things in their were a bit too modern for me. We left around 14:00 and were going to take the Tate-to-Tate ferry but had just missed it. The next one not being for 20 minutes so we took the subway instead.

The Tate Galleries were very nice except we were there on the wrong day to see the Turners. They were in the process of changing the displays from May 20 to June 11. So we did not get to see very many Turners. The Constable gallery was also in the process of being changed. They had a very interesting display about a protester that has been protesting the war in Iraq since 2001. The police had moved some of the displays from around Parliament after the “Serious Crimes Act” was passed in 2006. The law said that no unlawful demonstrations could be held within 1 Km of Parliament. Brian Haw was still in front of Parliament when we passed after leaving the gallery. He is now contained to a small allotment of space.

After changing our Euros into Pounds, we headed off to Brick Street. This is the local Indian district. We took the tube at rush hour to Liverpool station. Then it is about a 6 block walk from there. As soon as we got to the street there were hawkers trying to get us inside their restaurants. We settled on the Dawaat. It was a good choice. The man outside said this was his family's restaurant and that his brother was the chef. We had appetizers of Somosas and Tandore Chicken. Then we had Vegetable Curry and Mutter Paneer. Sam chose the chicken curry dish. The peas in both vegetable dishes were fresh. Everything was excellent. The ladies setting next to our table got a kick out of us taking photos of our food.

We decided to walk back to our hotel after shopping at a few of the local stores. I bought some powdered mangos and some fresh Mangostiens that I saw at the counter. We will have those for breakfast.

We arrived back at the hotel just after the sun had gone down at 21:15.