Museums

I love museums!  Especially the ones in London, England that I got to know when I was there researching my Ph.D. thesis. Sometimes I dream about visiting a London museum that's a combination of all of them!

When I visit London today, the first place I visit is the National Gallery next to Trafalgar Square.  If I could be anywhere in the world right now, I think I'd choose the National Gallery in the section with the 18th-century paintings! And next door to it is the National Portrait Gallery, with portraits of famous people in British history. That place interests me so much that I have to go there twice in each visit.  And I always visit the British Museum, of course.

There are several museums in the South Kensington area that Prince Albert helped develop.  One is the Victoria & Albert Museum, devoted to applied art.  (What I like about applied art is that I don't have to worry about what it means; it's enough for it to look nice.) And just around the corner are the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum.  When I visit these places I walk around so much that afterward I go north a short distance to bathe my feet at the Princess Diana fountain.

And there are lots of other museums.  The Tate Gallery is another place full of classic paintings.  The Museum of London tells the whole story of the city's incredible history.  And I also visit the Imperial War Museum--for me, it's the uniforms that make it real. (That building had once been a mental institution, which is oddly appropriate:  Sigmund Freud said that war serves as an outlet for the craziness that accumulates in a society!) And places like the Royal Academy always have interesting exhibits, though I don't care so much for Tate Modern.

One impressive thing about these museums is that they mostly have free admission!  But they do encourage you to donate a few pounds, and you'd be a cheapskate not to do so considering how good they are.