We toured the national Gallery today for some time today. There is nearly an endless amount of fantastic paintings hanging in the museum.

I especially wanted to see some Constables and Turners. I love art and follow a few artists on Facebook. There are many secrets to their different techniques that are worth learning even if you don’t paint.

There are paintings here from many different country’s and points in history.

We spent a good deal of time in The national Gallery and then went to the station at Embankment and caught the underground over to The Victoria and Albert Museum.

The tube arrives at the rear entrance of the museum. You just have to walk a few hundred yards to enter on your right and up the stairs.

We were told by one of the helpful staff that the dining room is part of the original museum and the walls are coved in the original tiles. Don’t miss it. The food is good as well. There is a shallow pool between the two buildings there for the youngsters to cool off in.

We then found the “hidden lift” to the fourth floor and worked our way back down to the lower floors over time.

The lift is to the left as you enter from the front. It’s on your right after passing through the entire museum and up the front if your are coming from the underground entrance.

Once on the fourth floor we were met by large clear cases of China and diner ware.

The lower floors contain furniture, ironwork and clothing.

There are monumental pieces of stone carvings, stone coffins, alters, church facades and entire building fronts on the first floor.

The museums are free and great places to spend some rainy days walking around and learning about history.

There has been no rain for us on this trip, however. We are actually entering into a hot spell here as we are about to come home to America.

We had our final diner with more cousins in Soho at a Vietnamese restaurant in China Town very close to our hotel. It was within an easy 20 minute walking distance.

The night was warm and the sun stays up here well into the evening due to how far north we are.

It was a great walk home with my lovely wife beside me watching the red flags of China Town wave in the breeze with many people drinking outside of their favorite pub.

Why aren’t we allowed to drink outside in public in America?

Travel makes us aware of the similarities and differences between nations and people.

The more we travel the more we understand about each other cultures.

That has to be a good thing.

We are off to Portugal in September for another adventure. And we have another trip in the planning stages now. That will be a very interesting trip indeed.

It is to a place so foreign, so different and so draped in intrigue that I can’t mention it yet. Political events could happen at any moment and make the trip impossible.

Many photos will be up soon to go with these stories.

Don’t forget to read the first chapters of my novels here on my website.

As always thanks for spending time here and be nice to each other.

My novels and book of short stories will be on Audible soon.