Click on images below to enlarge:
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| The Wallace Collection
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| The Wallace Collection is housed in the Hertford House, an
eighteenth-century mansion, and the ancestral home of the person who
bequeathed the collection.
| The Dining Room, like other rooms in the house, is tastefully furnished
with lavish period furniture.
| The Rococo-style Back State Room. I'm used to 18th century rooms
looking crowded with overstuffed chairs. The furniture is this room
looks comfortable and appropriately placed.
| The Great Gallery.
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| The Nineteenth-Century Gallery. The galleries are densely but
artistically packed. For instance, notice the 4-3-2 (bottom-to-top)
pattern on the right wall of this gallery.
| My favorite room, West Gallery I, with its Canalettos and Guardis.
I took this picture at a higher resolution than usual so you can view
the pictures more clearly if you want.
| Another wall in West Gallery I.
| The Study and its tastefully arranged gilded vases.
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The Oval Drawing Room, another example of terrific interior design.
(Look at the symmetry.)
Also note, yet again, the chandelier.
| There's a cafe in the glass-enclosed central courtyard.
| An Ostrich by Elias Zoerer. Notice something odd about its beak?
| The explanation accompanying the previous sculpture.
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| The Interior of Saint Gommaire, Lierre in Belgium by David
Roberts. Looks like an impressive cathedral.
| Goodness, what is she doing? This is The Swing by Jean-Honore
Fragonard.
| A complete suit of armor, one of dozens in the collection.
| Armor from India.
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| Mounted armored horses and riders.
| Fancy swords.
| Fancy pistols.
| Fancy rifles.
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| Dinner at Made in Italy in Marylebone
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| Made In
Italy, the Italian restaurant we decided to go to weeks earlier when
we saw how tempting their Neapolitan pizzas looked.
| The inside of Made in Italy has a rustic feel. I like the look.
| Looking back into the restaurant. I like the look of the bricks even
while I'm amused that they are fake. (Though they feel like bricks, tap
them and it's clear they're hollow.)
| The olives they gave us while we waited for a table.
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| Fried squid and fried squash, served on salad greens and with a creamy
mayo-based dipping sauce. Good. They items are lightly battered and
have an appropriate amount of salt in the batter.
| Quite good Neapolitan margherita pizza, just mozzarella and tomato
sauce. Maybe not as good as the pizza we had
twice
in Portland last month, but still perfectly respectable. I'd order it
again.
Look how big it is and how pleased Di Yin looks. We
finished it.
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| Oxford Street at Night
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| Di Yin really likes this apartment building on Oxford Street, especially
the top floor.
| Street decorations on Oxford Street lit at night. Gift boxes I
understand, but umbrellas?
I previous photographed
these during the day.
| Ditto, also with trees decorated with lights.
| The biggest gift box, along with a nicely-lit building on the left.
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| This building has snowflakes that change shape as you watch. Yes, the
whole building is animated. They're not in sync: some snowflakes pop up
before others. Also note that the snowflakes are different. (Are all
different?)
| Oxford Street, near its intersection with Regent Street, by the Oxford
Circus tube station.
| Regent Street is also lit at night, but with a Narnia theme.
I
like the look of the series of lit "blankets" strewn across the street.
They recede into the distance. I can't see where the street stops being
decorated.
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