Our first two itineraried days have already taken us on a tour of the city and a couple trips into the London Underground. The hop-on bus tour was a pretty great overview of major landmarks. We even saw a really big clock!

The best stops of the day, though, were our book adventures. We walked down a little lane called Cecil Court. It’s home to a series of shops for collectors, not only of books, but of antique maps, model trains, coins, and other items. Most were closed, as it was a Monday, but we peeped into a few little shops. The bookstores almost exclusively sold volumes of Alice in Wonderland in various editions and bindings, both vintage and new. The cool thing about seeing so many interpretations of Alice’s story is that, this semester, our final Typography II project was an expressive hand-bound book, and one option we had was to adapt a chapter of Alice. Seeing bookshelves upon bookshelves of the same text set (or expressed, or illustrated,) in so many different ways was a cool reminder that a design can have infinite possibilities from the same brief. 

Then we visited a chain bookstore, Waterstone’s. To us from the U.S., they seem like a Barnes & Noble. Despite the fact that it wasn’t quaint/local/artsy/et cetera, we were all such nerds about the design books that we spent a ton of time there just browsing and showing each other cool volumes we saw on the shelves. Harry Potter also had a strong 20th anniversary presence. That’s pretty wild. The first book came out in the U.S. on my fifth birthday, and I received it as a gift from my parents, who’d heard a coworker talking about the novel. Like most people around my age, it was a constant presence in my life growing up. So that was pretty cool to see. 

Of course, one of our projects for this study abroad is a hand-bound book of found typography, so seeing a variety of different types of binding and covers was interesting research towards that. 

I have never seen so many busy people with so many problematic umbrellas.. when it rains, it pours. Today the crew made its way towards the wax museum as the rain came pouring down. This museum didn’t fail to amaze. Everyone from Michael Jackson to the Beatles stood still in the most realistic ways. Similar to the past couple days our group of 16 slowly scattered, separating ourselves into smaller groups, I find it funny how it’s usually never on purpose, just due to the different interests and paces amongst us all. After the wax museum we set sail towards the British Museum. To be honest, it wasn’t that I didn’t have an interest, I just knew myself to get side tracked during exhibits and tend to rush through them so I truly underestimated this wonderful place. This time, the museum proved me wrong. I walked by statues that I had remembered learning about in class as well as the screen prints that I knew and loved by Warhol. It was quite rewarding recognizing some of these pieces and I appreciated a lot of what I saw today. The past year I’ve found art history more interesting than I would of thought and it was nice to see it be brought into this experience.

Although it’s not necessarily about what I’ve physically seen today, I would like to end with the overwhelming feeling of inspiration that London seems to have. I got a mini sketch book today that I would really like to push myself to use during this trip. I feel as if everywhere we go I see images in my head that I need to scribble on paper and I’d like to take this opportunity to keep up with something like this. Overall, today was filled with many forms of inspiration that stemmed from the Ancient Greek statues and the puddles that filled the streets. The creative juices are finally starting to flow and I’m hoping that this feeling just gets stronger.

Hayley

Up and at it we were this morning. Heading out in the pouring rain all 16 of us dodged the speedy business people of the financial district with their colorful umbrellas. Not only was the sidewalk packed, but the underground as well. It seemed as though we hit it right at the busiest time for commuters. Stuffed into the second train that came our way (because the first one was too packed for us to fit), we maneuvered our way to through the tunnels on various lines towards Madame Tussaud’s wax museum. There are a few of these in the U.S. but I had never been to one until now, in London. It was very interesting, to say the least, and a lot more entertaining than I thought with the ride and 4D attraction.

After a healthy lunch in what ended up being a student lounge for UCLU we made our way to the British Museum. And man, is that place HUGE! We were there for a little while before our tour of the American Pop exhibit so we chose to look around at the Ancient Egyptian section along with the one for the Parthenon. It would seriously take you weeks to digest the entirely of the museum. But from the places I was able to explore, the museum’s brand identity and way-finding systems are on point and extremely aesthetically pleasing with all of the white space they use.

After a long day we returned back to the hotel with sore feet and growling stomachs which is honestly a sign of a good day to me. Grabbing dinner as a group at a local restaurant down the street as it stopped raining was a great way to end it. (We even spotted a rainbow from the window!) I’m excited for what tomorrow has in store!!

Today, by far, was the wettest, windiest, and coldest day on our trip. I almost flew away with my umbrella, like Mary Poppins. Although I was advised not to wear a hoodie because I would be noticeably American, but I could not help myself. It was so cold.

We started our day at Madame Tussaud’s wax museum. To be perfectly honest, I was the least excited about this museum. I’ve been to one before, it wasn’t that interesting the first time and the wax figures are SO realistic they are a little creepy. It was better than I was expecting. There were many rooms and there was a little ride too. I didn’t get any pictures other than our entire group with the Royal Family wax figures.

After that Kaity and I made our way on the tube to the British Museum. On our own, may I add, only a little slip up but still… I am super proud of us figuring it out so fast! Once at the British Museum, we were stunned by the massive size of the actual museum. We walked around the upper and ground levels mostly. I grabbed a New Yorker sandwich before entering the featured exhibition on American art. SO good! Sadly we weren’t able to take pictures of the exhibit, trust me if I could I would have. It was an amazing exhibition!!

After, we came back to hotel, eventually going out to All Bar One to share 4 small meals and 3 sampler buckets of fries with Nina, Sheila and Arthur. Right as we were leaving we found a baby bunny that had found its way into the bar entrance. We brought it to the nearest garden safely away from the streets.

We did so much today! And it pretty much rained all the way through until we dropped of bunny near a leafy tree!

Today was another day filled with adventure. We started our day off with a visit to London’s wax museum. I have to say that originally I was not excited to go, but once we started to go through the museum I was pleasantly surprised. My favorite exhibit in the wax museum was the royal family, it was cool to see what they’d look like in person since we won’t get to see them in person while in London.

For the second part of the day we went to the British Museum. Our professors had warned us in advance that there was no way we’d make it through the whole museum, and prior to arrival I thought they were exaggerating. But I have to say that I have never seen a larger museum in my entire life. It was so surreal to see works of art in person that I’ve spent the greater half of my college experience learning about. I don’t have any photos of the museum in this post because I wanted to focus on being present in the moment while at the museum. There are thousands of photos online that I can easily reference, but being in the presence of those works again is not as easy to relive. I hope to go back to the British Museum again over the course of our trip, because there is still so much that I did not get to see. I’m still in awe thinking about it.

While in the museum bookstore I found the book photographed in this post in the bookstore. I was really happy to find it because I’ve been looking for some good historical references to refer to when researching for my senior studio thesis, where I plan to create my own tarot deck. Over all today was full of inspiration. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the trip has to offer.

Well todays adventure started with heading out into the adventurous city of London and walking to the London Underground. Today we had to go to another train stop because the one closest to our hotel was closed because of a mandatory power outage. Sadly, the only downside of walking to the other train stop was that it was raining with lots of wind behind it. This made me have to take out my umbrella and hope that it wouldn’t fly away. After we got into the train station, it was time to take it to the stop we needed so we could walk to the Wax Museum. After getting to our train station destination, we walked outside to see that it had started to ease up on the rain a little bit. When arriving at the Wax Museum we were greeted and climbed a big spiral staircase. When arriving to the correct floor, it was time to enter the museum. When entering, you could see that there were many famous wax figures with such celebrities as Kanye West, Morgan Freeman, and George Clooney. There were 2 doors in this area that connected to different rooms with wax figures. One room only had 3 figures, such as Charlie Chaplin while the other door was the starting point to where you would be able to find all of the other rooms available in the wax museum.

When going through the second door, there were multiple exhibits that caught my attention. These exhibits include Sports, Royals, Spirit of London Ride, Marvel Movie Experience, and Star Wars. Being able to to look through all of these exhibits really allowed myself to see many of the worlds famous people up close. The details that were on the many wax figures at the museum was remarkable and I was very impressed with the workmanship behind them. The the Marvel Movie Experience also caught my eye because it wasn’t until during the movie I realized that the movie was in 4D, which made my experience and happiness for this exhibit increase. After viewing the many wonderful exhibits at the Wax Museum, it was time to enjoy a little lunch break before heading over to the British Museum. During this break, myself and many others from the group decided to jump onto the London Underground so we could get ourselves to the British Museum. After finding our way through the London Underground, we were able to find the stop we needed to walk to the museum. While on the way we found this little shop that we were able to buy lunch from and found a little area to relax in to eat our lunch. After finishing our lunch, we continued out journey to the British Museum. Fast forward and we finally reached the British Museum. While looking at the museum from the outside, you can see how large the museum really is. I never would have imagined how large this museum would have been. When I first walked into the museum, after passing the Rosetta Stone, I was shocked in how large of an open area the corridor on the ground floor was. This was the first of many times walking through the British Museum that I was in shock.

While walking through the museum, it was fascinating to see all of the wonderful art that was being put on display. Surprisingly, I actually found some pieces that were shown in my Art History classes over the course of my career here at UMass Lowell. I found that surprising because I never would have thought I would be able to see those certain pieces with my own two eyes. From walking through Ancient Egypt to seeing all of the many pieces of Ancient Roman architecture, this museum had all of the most incredible pieces that I could of possibly imagined. After walking through most of the museum and trying to contain all of the wonderful artifacts that were being put on display, it was time to go the exhibit that brought the whole group to this museum in the first place; The American Dream pop to the present.

When I first stepped foot into this exhibit, I was instantly blown away with the amount of famous works that they had displayed on their wall. One of the pieces I was blown away to see on my first couple of steps into the exhibit was the F-111 by James Rosenquist. I learned about this painting in my Contemporary Art class the previous semester, and being able to see it up close and personal, rather than just from an image is remarkable and really makes me feel special and that I had made the right decision to come on this trip to see all of these fabulous pieces of art. There were many times throughout this exhibit that I experienced such as I did with the F-111 painting, and I couldn’t be happier. Being able to walk through the history of pop art culture in america is an incredible experience and the way that the museum put the exhibition together really blew my mind. Sadly though, the exhibition had a No Photography rule, so I wasn’t able to take any pictures of the many famous pieces of art that were displayed in this exhibit, but I will have the memories of walking though and experiencing all of the famous pieces of pap art first and and seeing them all with my own eyes. After leaving the exhibit and passing through the gift shop, it was time to hop back onto the London Underground train and head back to our hotel. It was good timing too since most of us were getting tired from walking all around the museum. Once we got back to the hotel, we all went our separate ways and called it a day. This day was one of those days where I was able to see and experience many famous artworks that I probably will not ever see again with my own eyes. This day has been such a great experience for me and a day at the museum that I truly will never forget for the rest of my life. I would rate today a 10/10, which would round the total score for this trip so far to a 30/30.

June 6, 2017

Lady Gaga. I met Lady Gaga — well, her wax statue, at least.

I thought Madame Tussaud’s wax museum was going to be not weird, but I was horribly mistaken. The wax statues were really creepy. It felt like looking at a lifeless life-size  life-like dolls. The museum did a great job with providing a lot of different experiences for their audience with interactivity and such, but their way-finding system was really terrible and doesn’t stand out as one of the strongest that we’ve seen.

Afterwards, we went to the British Museum; and it was huuuuuge. The British Museum reminds me of the Met in NYC. The architecture and way-finding system seems very similar. Some of the exhibits that I was excited to see were the Hokusai pieces and Asian art. As I was finishing listening on a small lecture about the early art of Hokusai and the history of Japanese wooden block printing, I looked to the right. There was an orange textile piece that was part of the Japanese gallery. The intricate details of the etchings and the reflectiveness of the gold threads really caught my attention; and something about that specific piece of cloth was just really captivating. We visited the American Pop Art exhibition afterwards and saw some pieces by Rauschenberg, Warhol, Jasper Johns, and more.

Overall, the day was really great, but another really tiring day for me.

Yesterday was our first full day in London and it was full of adventure! We started off our day with an amazing breakfast and then we took off to start our bus tour. Our tour took us all around London and we got to see some of the major sights. We were pretty lucky with the weather, it only drizzled a little while we were on our boat tour and the rest of the day was only overcast. It was really bizarre to see landmarks that we’ve spent years learning about in person. The scale of these buildings and monuments were larger than I could have ever imagined.

After an afternoon of sight seeing we all hopped off the trolly to explore London. We all got lunch together and then shopped around in some gift shops. After a long first day we all went back to the hotel to take naps and recharge before dinner. It was definitely an exciting and eye opening first day in the city!

Rain, shine, rain, shine, rain, rain with shine.

We started off the day with a nearly twenty-minute soak in order to catch the closest Underground station (unfortunately, our usual was closed due to power outages)… during rush hour… along with everyone else who couldn’t catch the main line at Tower Hill.

How joyous does that sound? Sopping wet, vinyl-clad and sweating humans all piled into Tube cars with little to no breathing room (or pure, unadulterated oxygen).

Quite the treat, let me tell you.

My main gripe of today was all the walking and all the rain and all the walking in the rain. Had we been dancing in the rain, I might have had a different perspective, but walking is not my favorite sport, and as my podiatrist will tell you, it’s not a winning talent of mine.

However, I am here not only to complain, but to celebrate. So here are the celebratory sections of my day:

Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum

While New York’s establishment has much better wayfinding, the London location has much more to offer. “The Spirit of London” was a fascinating little ride smacked right in the center of it all. My absolute favorite part was the final walk-through: Star Wars. Young Han Solo will forever be my favorite character, and I got to sit in Greedo’s spot and challenge 1977 Harrison Ford to shoot first (albeit this Solo couldn’t exactly draw his blaster).

British Museum

I entered the British Museum with the intention of exploring the Egyptian mummy collection, and I was not disappointed. I was expecting sarcophagi and tombs and treasures, but never in approximately 30,000 years would I ever expect to see a genuine mummified corpse right in front of me (with only a single sheet of glass to keep it from coming alive and attacking me). I was also surprised at how much I enjoyed the pop art exhibit. Normally I dislike modern art; it seems too conceptual to me. But seeing these pieces in person is more fascinating and real and seems more like art to me (except the likes of Josef Albers; layering squares in a frame could merit an entire opinion column page in the Times).

Peter Rabbit

I’m sure many of my classmates will inform you, but after dinner at a nearby pub we got a tiny little quivering surprise. A baby bunny had wedged itself in the doorway of the pub, looking for a safe place to burrow. I had the honor of holding him snug in a jacket while we deliberated what to do with him. I’m glad to say he has been released in a pleasant little park on Tower Hill.

Today we found about the new weekend plan, to participate in a two-day Hackathon. This sudden addition of an event I know very little about and feel underqualified for has struck me with anxiety and uncertainty towards the upcoming weekend.

We started the day at Madame Tussauds London. When we first arrived it was really uncomfortable for a lot of us to see such life-like figures scattered throughout a big open room. Some of us enjoyed the museum more and more as we made our way through. Some just became frustrated with the poorly designed wayfinding system. We all took a picture with the Royal Wax Family and some posed with other figures along the way. I personally have never been super comfortable with being photographed never mind posing around a fake human in front of a million strangers. I did snap one photo in my favorite section.

Next, we moved on to the British Museum. I found the building much more impressive than the exhibits it housed. Oddly enough the one exhibit that really stood out to me was The American Dream pop to the present. I think I was more invested in this exhibit because I could relate better to each piece of modern work, and what they were commenting on than I could to the more ancient craft pieces, which didn’t have much of a message. Sadly photography was not allowed inside the exhibit.