London: Weekend, 11-12 August

London Art Gallery, Brompton Oratory

  

Joshua and I didn’t get to everything we wanted to, but it was a great week together.  We decided to visit the London Portrait Gallery in Trafalgar Square.

This museum contains some of the most important artwork in the world.  We spent more than two hours taking in pretty much all of it, maybe glossing over the “modernists”!  I noticed that the colors of the walls in each room provided very nice complements to the artwork on the walls.  Having visited my friends at Watt's of London, vestment makers, I enjoyed taking some close-ups of the fabrics in paintings.

We thought we would try out Churchill’s pub on Kensington Church Street, but discovered their food menu was all Pad-Thai!

Instead, we went to our local favorite pub again, The Old Swan.

Joshua’s train was early Sunday, so we called it a night.

Sunday morning, I thought I would ring at St. Mary Abbot’s as I have on previous visits, then walk down to the London Oratory for Mass.  It being August, I guess the ringers were all on holiday as none showed up around 9:00.  So I continued on to Mass.

I arrived at the EF Low Mass Sermon – a good one about our response to the news stories of clerical abuse.  Then I stayed for the OF Mass – also only spoken since the choir school was on holiday.  I also stayed for the Solemn OF Mass with the choir, which was really wonderful!

I tried to catch up on my blogging while I was packing Sunday afternoon.  Since Joshua had gone up to Glasgow, I was going over to Katarina’s house for the rest of my stay – a visit I was really looking forward to!