0 Afternoon in London, or Victoria and Albert Loved the Arts 101

We just got back from a week in Greece.  We flew out of London, and several times on the way we each said "We're taking the train to York.  To take the train to London.  To go to Greece."  Living here and jaunting about to all these "big name" places is still surreal sometimes!  Since we were flying out at 6:50 AM with an even earlier check-in, we decided to head to London the day prior and spend an afternoon.  We hadn't been to the Victoria and Albert Museum yet, and since it's a pretty big deal we decided that would be our thing.  We also (finally!) met up with a friend of mine from high school and her husband, who've been living in London the entire time we've lived here!  Overall it wasn't a bad little layover in our travels.

Our first stop was during our hour wait between our trains in York.  Since neither of us have been to the National Railway Museum, it's free, and it's next to the rail station, we headed over.  We only went to a small section, mostly the Royal cars.  The museum's huge, and we're sure we'll be back, so we figured better to see one exhibit in depth than run through the whole thing.

 This is in the York rail station, whilst waiting for our train to London.

Now to the V & A!  These pictures aren't the best, because as usual in a museum I refuse to use flash even where allowed (it can/does damage wood, fabric, paint, paper, pretty much anything but stone- so be a good citizen and turn off your flash!! *stepping off soapbox*).  I thought I'd share a few of the things we saw with you.  Granted, we saw A LOT- and kept laughing at ourselves, cause I'd say "This cabinet is six hundred years old!!" and then we'd realize we were on our way to see ancient Greece- over two THOUSAND years old!!  This is a cast of some column in Italy, I think.  I didn't do my usual trick of photographing the placard after the image...

 Again, no placard photo... so just enjoy the carving!

 This door (I do have the placard photo for this one!!) is from between 1500-1530 from Ipswich.  I just liked it cause clearly it's from the very first medieval Chick-fil-A Dwarf House!

 This is a portion of the façade of a house in London from 1600.  This would have been the height of fashion, and it miraculously survived the Great Fire of 1666.

 *note to church-y people: we don't intend to be insulting or irreverent.  It's just how we think*

Paul commented here that the disciples, or saints, or whoever it is surrounding Jesus look like they're in a Gravitron.  Now that's all you can see, isn't it!!

 The only way they'd look more like they're on the Gravitron is if one of them was stuck in a halfway-upside down pretzel, cause we've all been there... The second comment to make my mom shake her head- Jesus is raising the roof, y'all. 

The Royal Albert Hall, across from the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens.  V loved her A, that's for sure.  First cousins and all...
*to any Royalists: this is also not meant irreverently.  While I do get the heebie-jeebies over the first cousin bit, I really respect and appreciate what they did for culture and the arts.  Ask Paul, he'll be more than willing to tell you I'm a culture snob.*