Michaelangelo, Monet, and Van Gogh Oh My!

Yes, I did it.  I took my kids to the National Gallery and forced culture down their throats! 

I received three very different reactions.  Kimberly was in awe and loved looking around at the artwork.  Evie didn't complain but didn't want to spend a lot of time looking around.  Jack was miserable.  Let me try to explain how miserable he was.  On a recent episode of Dr. Who, The Dr. and Amy Pond travel back in time to visit Vincent Van Gogh.  In this episode, are several of Van Gogh's most famous paintings, three of which are at the National Gallery.  Though Jack is a huge fan of Dr. Who, when we entered the Van Gogh exhibit, he was not impressed.  So, after hitting the highlights, as I like to call it, we had our tea and hit the road.  Needless to say, Jack was less than thrilled when we walked about a half a block and took a left into the National Portrait Gallery. 

Here is where they house the portraits of England's most famous citizens, past and present.  We started off in the Tudor Gallery, my favorite, and then proceeded to the Queen Victoria exhibit, Evie's favorite monarch.  We then found the Pop Culture area to see Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, and Joan Collins (?).  We also ran into a bust of Winston Churchill, Charles Darwin, and a huge painting of Lord Chamberlain.  Jack did not enjoy this either and the fun quickly ran out.  We hopped back on the underground and made our way back to the train station to catch our train back to Basingstoke.  Of course we had poor timing and hit the station at rush hour.  There was not a seat to be had on the train so the 4 of us ended up standing for about 40 minutes of our 60 minute ride. 

Jack's mood continued to deteriorate and my headache began to throb.  The clincher came when we got on the bus and it didn't leave right away.  I tried to tell Jack that these things run on a schedule and the driver couldn't leave the stop until it was time to go.  He saw no reason for this, we were on the bus and the bus needed to go.  When we finally got to our stop, Jack complained to me during the short walk back to the house which seemed to take FOREVER!  He finished by stating that for the next 2 weeks, we were not going anywhere! 

Wonder how he will react when we go to the Tate Museum of Modern Art!

Cheers!