Alister's England Trip: Free weekend in London

On Friday the group arrived in London and we checked into International Hall, our accommodation for the next week. Each of us has our own room.

One of the girls Nicole wanted to go to Tate Modern so I spent the afternoon there with her.

We did two guided tours, including a tour of the Materials and Collections (artworks made out of readymade objects).

One of the artworks was called Ink Splash II (by El Anatsui). I thought it was cool because it is made out of flattened metal bottle caps which have been stitched together to create a large blanket (below).

Also one of the artworks was Marcel duChamp's famous 'Fountain' a highly controversial work challenging the notions of what is and what isn't art.

I found the tour a bit basic. Some of what the tour guide was saying I already knew.

We did a tour of another exhibition, and then looked in a section which had iconic modern paintings (eg. Andy Warhol and Picasso). I liked this painting 'Bowl of Fruit, Violin and Bottle' by Picasso.

Also this one by Fernand Leger 'Still life with a beer mug.' I remember writing about this painting in my art folio at school so it was cool to see it in person.

Another really interesting work was this Tower of radios. The artist stacked radios from different time periods on top of each other (the old fashioned ones at the bottom) and they were all communicating different messages. The artwork was called 'Babel' and it was supposed to be a modern representation of the Tower of Babel.

Then we went up the top of the Tate and checked out the view from the viewing platform. Before heading back to the hotel, we stopped at the oldest street in London called Ironmonger's Lane - it was where Thomas Beckett was born.

The next day, Saturday, the weather wasn't that great so I decided to go to the Museum of London (just by myself). It was interesting though there was a lot to see because it was a whole history of London, from BC times to the 21st century.

I found the section on the Great Fire of London 1666 interesting, and also the more modern sections from the 19th century onwards. They had reconstructed early 20th century stores within the Museum (such as tailor shops) so it felt as though you were walking amidst the streets of 1900 London.

Yesterday Nicole had the idea of going to the Horniman Museum and Gardens in Dulwich Hill, so I went with her. She finds the London Underground really confusing so she wanted me to accompany her and help her out.

The Museum was really cool, especially the gardens. We had to take a train and a bus to get there but I think it was worth it.

The garden was full of different sections - there was a medicinal garden, a conservatory and an animal walk (some of it was more directed towards kids).

After looking at the gardens, we had lunch at the cafe, then looked in the Museum which was full of taxidermy animals. The Museum is famous for its Canadian walrus which has been there for over 100 years.