We had 4 goals today, visit the Courtauld Art Gallery, eat lunch in one of the oldest pubs in England, visit the Philip Mould Gallery and buy treats at Fortnum & Mason.

We set out to walk to our first stop and found ourselves at Buckingham Palace just at the time of the changing of the guard. We hadn’t planned to take this in, but who doesn’t love a good parade? The weather was cold and rainy so the guards were wearing their cloaks, so it was a fairly unimpressive parade.

We have been avid fans of a British show called Fake or Fortune for a couple of years. On this show, Philip Mould (a high end art dealer) and journalist Fiona Bruce (who also hosts the British Antiques Roadshow) try to figure out whether a specific work of art is either real (and worth a fortune) or fake. They often enlist the efforts of art conservationists from the Courtauld Institute to help them. We decided it would be fine to check out both Galleries. The public gallery at the Courtauld is open to the public free of charge. However, we bought tickets to a special exhibit of Monet’s paintings of London that opened today. Monet visited London several times and seemed to love painting the bridges of London enveloped in fog. He started hundreds of canvases but only finished 37. He did a successful exhibition of them in Paris which resulted in many being sold, distributing them world wide. This was the first time 21 of these paintings have been gathered together to be shown in London in 125 years. One of the paintings was actually loaned for the exhibit from our National Gallery in Ottawa.

The architecture of gallery space was beautiful too. The stairs to the different floors were amazing.

We got to Sommerset House, the home of the Courtauld Institute since 1989, in time to see the usual exhibits before it was time for the special exhibit. The art on display ranged from medieval art, to old world masters like Rubens and Van Dyke, to impressionists like Van Gogh, Manet and Modigliani. The institute was established in 1932 to study of art history.

After viewing amazing art, it was time for beer. Our next stop was Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Pub, one of the oldest in London. A pub has been on the site since 1538 but the original was burnt in the 1666 Great Fire of London. The pub was “rebuilt” in 1667 and has functioned since. Lot’s of famous people have been associated with the pub, for example Oscar Wilde, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens and Voltaire.

We then walked a bit before stopping at another old pub for lunch. The Ye Old Cock Tavern has been in operation since 1549 but moved across the street in the 1880’s to make way for a Bank of England to be built. The food was good but a fire in the 1990’s wiped out some of its authentic historical appeal.

Fortified by fish, chips and beer, we headed to the Philip Mould Gallery. We were buzzed into this gallery and were invited to wander the 3 floors of paintings at our leisure. The art was all for sale and included artists we had heard of before (e.g., Van Dyke, Constable & Gainsborough) and people we are familiar with (e.g., Princess Dianna and King Charles). The prices of the paintings were often listed. One portrait was being sold for £250,000. Some were worth more but we didn’t have the nerve to ask about the ones that simply said, price available upon request. Nothing in that gallery fit our budget.

Our next stop was Fortum & Mason. I had seen a YouTube video about the store. It has been a fine food and luxury wares store for 317 years. They have been providing goods to the royal family since 1910, especially tea and food hampers for special occasions. the Weston family (the Superstore & Loblaw folks from Canada) currently own the store chain.

We found the store beautiful and crowded, so we didn’t stay long. It was an experience. We took a short tube ride to rest our weary feet and got off at the Pimlico station to see a different 15 minute walk to our suite. We had shifted from the highly affluent community around Fortum & Mason to a very quaint working class neighborhood. We happened upon a tiny but lovely yarn shop just 10 minutes before it closed, sadly, not enough time to truly browse.

We finished off our day with weary feet from walking 7.4 miles over cobblestones, pavement and concrete. We find walking in museums delightful but harder on our feet than when we are walking outside.

Tomorrow is our last full day of sightseeing before we start our homeward journey. We are off to Greenwich to see the sights.