Two Tates and the Thames

Our first stop on Saturday was the Tate Museum to see the Joseph Turner exhibition. Perhaps it’s a sign of cultural deficiency on my part, but I was completely unfamiliar with Turner. It’s possible that I learned about him at some point during school (or at least read a paragraph about him briefly in a textbook), but I have no recollection of doing so. Nonetheless, I quickly appreciated why he is considered a master of landscape paintings.

Next we walked along the bank of the Thames and decided to take a boat ride up the river to the Tower Bridge. As we approached the dock where the boats depart, we were overcome by a sea of tourists who were taking the various river tours. We elected for the main commuter boat to avoid the tourist madness and maintain some level of sanity.

The weather was beautiful – sunny and in the 80s – and the ride up to the Tower Bridge was relatively quick. I have to be honest, though...I didn’t find the views from the Thames to be that impressive. Sure there were some nice views here and there (e.g., of the Parliament and the London Eye), but as a whole it was a bit underwhelming.










After getting off the boat we walked past the Tower of London but did not visit since the wait looked a bit arduous. Instead, we walked along the Thames and then across the Tower Bridge










Our ultimate destination was the Tate Modern museum, which Emilie wanted to check out. There was a nice exhibit of photos from the NYC subway system taken in the 70s.

We then walked back along the Thames and across the Millennium Bridge, before spending the rest of the day just walking around in the city and enjoying the warm afternoon sun.

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Before dinner we went to a pub near Covent Garden to watch the U.S. - Ghana World Cup elimination match. It was standing room only, but we were ultimately able to get a small table right before the second half. Aside from a couple of Americans supporting the U.S., the crowd was overwhelmingly in favor of Ghana.

The match was very exciting – particularly when the U.S. tied the score and then controlled the rest of the second half. The dream came to an end, however, as Ghana scored quickly in extra time and then managed to prevent the U.S. from tying the score before the whistle blew.

As a result of the match going to extra time, we ended up being late for our dinner reservation at an Indian restaurant nearby. Fortunately, our late arrival wasn’t an issue as there were plenty of open tables. And thankfully, the empty tables weren’t a reflection on the food, which ended up being excellent. There wasn’t a menu – the waiter simply asked if we wanted the regular or vegetarian option and then brought us all of the related courses based on our selection.