On Saturday we visited the Victoria and Albert Museum for the first time. Even though we have lived in London for over three years, we've never found the time, or the inclination, to visit.
The V&A is the world's largest Museum of Art and Design, it was founded in 1852 and named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. It's just down the road from us in South Kensington, alongside the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum.
The museum is huge, and beautiful on the inside, with collections spanning over 5,000 years of art from all over the world.
We arrived just after lunch and even though it was the middle of the day, there were no lines to enter and we could wander round freely without feeling like there were people everywhere.
It makes a nice change from visiting other museums in London where often the lines are out the door and round the block, and people queue for ages just to get inside.
We chose our starting point at random, entering the first room on the right that was almost completely full of people. The museum itself is a bit like a maze, with hundreds of rooms leading off each other and taking you further and further into the museum.
This room was full of religious symbols and artefacts, with beautiful stained glass panels on the walls, giving us the feeling we were in a quiet church rather than a museum in the middle of London.
The V&A has a lot of interactive exhibits. In several rooms you are free to touch the exhibits and try on clothing from the period.
Think it's a little big!
We came across this amazing room after noticing several people stopping at the entrance to take photos before going inside. With the statues everywhere, straight away we were transported to a piazza in Ancient Italy or ancient Greece, especially with the balconies overlooking the room.
Turning another corner we found ourselves in olden day London, with the wooden exterior of an old building that survived the Great Fire of London on the wall.
I loved these photos on the wall, we recognised several from places we've been. Like Whitby Abbey and the Alhambra in Granada, Spain.
Beautiful tapestry's hung on the walls
Bradley loved this room, full of Armour, Swords and crossbows!
On the balcony overlooking the 'piazza' below
Amazing sculpture made of glass by Dale Chihuly
This room my our absolute favourite, full of amazing plaster cast replicas of famous art and sculptures. The replica of Trajan's Column in Rome looked so real! The replica was made around 1864, with each section numbered and fitted together like a jigsaw puzzle.
I pretty much walked around the entire room with my head looking up and my mouth open in amazement! Good thing Bradley captured that moment..
Close up on Trajan's Column
After spending a long time in the Cast Courts admiring the plaster casts, we headed outside to the garden to see the Travelling to Wonderland exhibition. This exhibition was created by Chinese artist Xu Bing and is inspired by poet Tao Yuanming’s Peach Blossom Spring.
The exhibition was made up of several rocks from different regions of China, that surround a pool. These rocks are turned into mountains, with ceramic animals, people and houses scattered in the crevices. We wandered slowly around the pool, peeking into the gaps in the rocks and trying to find all the tiny bits of 'life' in the art.
Getting up close!
Loved these little elephants
It was getting very chilly outside, so we headed back inside the museum and came across an exhibition showing fashion from the Victorian period all the way up to today.
These felt like they'd come straight from Pride and Prejudice
This corset was amazing!
Beautiful interior staircases
Peeking down at the people below
We came across the kids area and joined in on some metal rubbing, and creating our own coin stamps. Not sure how kids could do this, Bradley had to use his whole body to get it to stamp!
Towards closing time we headed back out into the winter twilight and across the road to the Natural History Museum. The Museum has their Ice Rink all set-up outside, one of the prettiest locations for ice skating in London.
The ice was packed with people of all ages, families and couples, expert and beginner, all trying to warm up in the cold night air.
There is also a Carousel for those not keen on Ice Skating. We thought about hopping on, but realised we didn't have any change. We'll just have to go back when it's not so busy!
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