Our Valentine’s Day: something very new and something very, very old
Vee and I today celebrated our 31st Valentine’s Day as a couple and did a couple of special things.
In the morning, we went to The View From The Shard. the top of the new building near London Bridge.
The Shard – which has only recently been completed – is already an iconic building on the London skyline, designed by Renzo Piano. At a height of 1,016ft (310m), it is the tallest building in Western Europe. The View – which only opened to the public two weeks ago – is situated at the top of The Shard, on floors 68 & 69 and (in the open air) 72 and it is almost twice the height of any other viewing platform in London – 800ft (244m).
Roger & Vee at 800 feet
We were fortunate that the weather was clear and the views were wonderful – but, at £25 a head, it is an expensive treat and, of course, we had to buy the £15 souvenir photograph.
In the afternoon, we went to the British Museum to see an exhibition entitled “Ice Age Art: Arrival Of The Modern Mind”.
Ice Age art was created between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago and many of the pieces are made of mammoth ivory and reindeer antler. Especially striking are the oldest portrait in the world (a small carving of a women’s head from what is now the Czech Republic which is 26,000 years old), the oldest ceramic figure ever found (the clay woman of Brno which is around the same age), and the Lion Man of Hohlenstein.
The Lion Man of Hohlenstein
As Laura Cumming put it in her review of the exhibits for the “Observer” newspaper:
“It’s not just that one cannot think of a single Renaissance sculptor to surpass them, it’s that the men or women who made them had no training, no knowledge of classical sculptures, no modern tools, and were working twice over in the dark.”
So what did you do for Valentine’s Day?
February 16th, 2013 at 9:56 pm
There was a great piece in today’s Guardian about the Ice age art exhibit: Ice age carvings: strange yet familiar.
February 17th, 2013 at 11:48 am
Nothing quite so thoughtful roger! But I did make Chris a rather nice sandwich before he left for London and we’ve booked a short trip to Marrakech next month! Hope you and vee had a lovely day together.