Kensington Palace & Tate Britain

• The Statue of Queen Victoria is in front of Kensington Palace. On January 16th, I walked to see it for the first time after I had come to Britain. Although it is very near from my dormitory, I haven't been there yet. So I stopped at the palace on my way to Kew Gardens. At that time, I didn't thought of visiting the place again. But about 15 days later, the heavy snow made me feel like seeing it again, because I wondered how the beautiful scenery had been changed by the snow. In short, I just wanted to watch the snowy Kensington Palace. The two pictures above seem to me very interesting. They tell us how the weather adds some special effect on the original scene. The snowy Kensington Garden gave me lots of beautiful landscapes to be taken with the camera. One of them is pasted below in the left. The palace is fronted with a round pond, in which many birds flock together. The panorama impressed me very much.
• Now I have been taking a series of lecture called Victorian Art since the beginning of this term, and week by week I'm getting interested in the paintings drawn during the era. Then, this experience made me head to Tate Britain at last on January 23rd. I took the bus no. 436 from Paddington to Victoria station first. Then, I transferred to no. 24 bus to Pilmlico. When I arrived at the Pimlico station, I walked to the gallery. It took about one hour in total. The admission was free. When I saw the original of J. E. Millais's Ophelia (in the right below, from Wikimedia) for the first time in my life, I got really excited indeed. In my class, I had already learned about his Christ in the House of his Parents, so I think I could appreciate the painting very much. I'm in the reading week now, but the Gallery visit for the class is going to be held tomorrow (on February 11th). Of course, I will go to the museum again to attend it, but this time I can look around the gallery with my lecturer's explanation.