This is our new home, till Wednesday, at least. On Sunday we drove to Heathrow (big roads!), returned our car (no scratches or dents—and we drove 1,328 miles!) and took the tube to Victoria Station.

The London tube system always amazes me. It is complex, extensive and efficient. Now you don’t even have to buy actual tickets—you just tap your credit card at the stile and tap it again when you get off.

Our first tasks were checking into our Airbnb, finding a grocery for provisions and finding a place to eat—delicious Turkish food this time. Then we went to the Tate Britain, a museum of British artists. It is a beautiful building, jammed with art—in some cases, floor to ceiling. My favorite part was a room of late era Turner pieces, but I failed to take photos of them.

We spent a lot of time there, then found a pub for a snack of baked Camembert, watching a football (soccer) game between Manchester City and Arsenal. (I only knew which teams by googling the different uniforms of the premier league.) It’s such a fast-based sport, and very exciting on a big screen.

Exhausted, we came back home, eating more snacks for dinner, settling in and planning for our time in London.

On Monday we got up and organized quickly, then took the tube to Leicester Square to see what theatre tickets we could get at the half-price booth. We scored tickets for Hamilton and Matilda, then walked to the National Gallery, taking in the sights along the way on our first real blue-sky day in Britain.

The National Gallery was one of the best museums I’ve ever known. We spent hours, but we could have spent days. We were most interested in the impressionist and post-impressionist areas, but also went to see the amazing collection of Dutch artists, Caravaggios, Rueben’s, and Rembrandts, as well as many others. We were happy to see one of van Gogh’s sunflowers, but this one was a knockout:

It was so dynamic, you could almost see the clouds moving. Some of my other favorites:

And the building itself was grand.

We ate lunch in the museum cafe, went back to the exhibits, and finally, reluctantly, left to walk to Covent Gardens, stopping in to St. Martin-in-the-Field Church, renown for its music program. Covent Garden (not a garden at all, but a lively collection of markets and shops and restaurants) was a surprise delight. There was a string quintet that was playing really professional music for donations. After a while, an opera singer replaced them and sang several arias, then the group (plus a new violinist) returned. We sat and had a glass of wine and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Finally, we stopped for a bite to eat before going to the Victoria Palace Theatre to see Hamilton. It was a great performance—actors, set, choreography all great. It made for a long night, as we walked home and sat and talked for a while. But altogether a memorable day.