Finding my way around London ...

The last few days I've been enjoying the amazingly huge galleries here, and exploiting the time I have to enjoy them. It's really liberating having a whole day to explore just one gallery. Yesterday I checked out the National Gallery and was once again (like at the Met) blown away by being so close to the actual paintings that I have seen hundreds of reproductions of, but this time for real. The National Gallery had a whole wall of van Gogh's including my favourite: Sunflowers. There was also a whole wing of old, religious art, which I usually don't appreciate, but since visiting the Vatican Museum and also attending a small tour which spoke specifically of one piece, I now can understand where its coming from and really enjoy it a lot more.
Yesterday was also Kathryn's birthday, and we (her, her boyf Julian and brother Robert and myself) went to the Savoy Theatre to see the Ratpack show from Las Vegas. It was really great. There were 3 impersonators of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jnr. They performed for over 2 hours all my favourite songs in the style of one of their original caberet shows, with a full band on stage, back up singing/dancing girls, lots of jokes and on-stage banter between songs. I loved it! It must be great having so many shows on offer all the time, it was such a big thing for me, but fairly normal by now for Kathy and Robert!
Today I explored the Tate Modern. Its on the banks of the Thames and is a new gallery of modern art, opened in 2000 in an old power station. I think the building has caused some controversy, but I think its great! They had a doco showing in one of the rooms about its design/construction etc which gave me much more background info. Kathy, Robert and I saw the Frida Kahlo exhibition there on the weekend, but there are 2 or 3 more huge floors of art that I looked thru today. Its probably getting old, but the whole: 'wow! I can't believe I'm standing infront of this real Matisse/Picasso/Warhol/Pollock etc etc' again. At some points they also have these Audio Points where you can listen to different sound clips of info about a particular artist or work, very useful. And the view of the Thames and London from the huge windows is also amazing.
That's about it for now, I've been kinda playing it by ear, so not sure what I'll be doing over the next week. I've found a few walking tours which would be good, since I really appreciated the one I did in Munich; at the moment the Beatles ones are interesting me most! Miss you, and I'll see you soon! luv E x