Jake & Miles' European Excursion

Day 2 in London, and finally we were greeted with what we came here to see: overcast skies and drizzling rain. A perfect day to see some indoor cultural sites.

Stop 1: Westminster and Trafalgar Square

After downing possibly the worst coffee I have drunk this year (after parting with £3.30), we jumped on the District line to Westminster.

The two Big Bs - Big Ben and Big Bus

Follwoing a visit to Nelson at Trafalgar Square, it was time to answer the greatest mystery we have tackled so far: what’s the best painting in the National Gallery?

Miles’ verdict

Miles was quick to find a winner: Valencian Fisherman by Sorolla (on loan). “It looks like a photo. Are you sure it’s not just a photo”? This was soon replaced by Cenotaph to the Memory of Sir Joshua Reynolds by Constable, but only for a minute as this was overtaken by The Four Times of Day by Jean-Baptitiste-Camille Corot. A clear trend of finding the biggest possible painting was emerging. With this in mind, we headed to the renaissance section. Finally, Miles settled on the biggest and best painting in the gallery: The Adoration of the Shepherds by Reni.

Miles’ Top 4 (please contact me if you would like a quote for my professional photoshop service)

Jake’s verdict

After being inspired by seeing Starry Night over the Rhône in Arles, we decided to seek out some more Van Gogh at the National Gallery. Apparently there are some sunflowers or something stored here. It wasn’t long before we stumbled upon Jake’s favourite painting of the day: Two Crabs by the one and only Vincent van Gogh.

Jake and Two Crabs (although I think it should have been titled “Crabtacular”)

Satisfied with our morning’s work, we set out to find Sonia and head to our next stop: Leicester Square.

Stop 2: Leicester Square

After consuming a couple of cultural icons (namely Bacon & Egg McMuffins), we visited the second largest LEGO store in the world (another victory for Australia over England!), followed by the world’s largest wall of M&Ms.

This is actually only about 10% of the M&M wall. Need to go back with a wider lens.

Then it was time to check out London’s largest collection of stolen objects: The National Museum.

Miles with a stolen mummy. This one was the favourite of both Miles and Jake.

Stop 3: St Martin’s Theatre

We stopped by St Martin’s Theatre in the West End to see what was playing today. Unfortunately there wasn’t much choice as they have been showing the same play 9 times per week since 1974 (when it moved from a smaller theatre down the road).

Thankfuly, they replace most of the actors every year.

Actually there is still one original actor who appears in The Mousetrap. Deryck Guyler died in 1999 but luckily he only appears on tape and so we were able to catch his 29,749th performance of Agatha Christie’s creation.

Due to theatre tradition, the only thing we are able to reveal about the play is the following photo.

No spoilers!

Jake’s rating

4.5 stars. It was good and intense.

Miles’ rating

3.9 stars. It was scary and it was kind of intense and I didn’t really like it that much when it got scary. But that was only one part, the rest was good.