A trip up to London was not part of our initial itinerary, but upon the discovery that my favourite painting of all times, JW Waterhouse’s The Lady of Shalott was on display in Tate Britain my motivation was highly elevated. A little research also revealed that travel time from Paris to London via the Eurostar train was a comfortable 2 hours.

And so we found ourselves at Gare Du Nord station (above) in the wee hours of the morning to catch the first train out. UK customs were cleared here, which was relatively fast and painless. (below) The train departing the station, note the entire stretch of wall decorated by graffiti.  While their work is ubiquitous in Paris, even the graffiti artists have the integrity to leave sculptures and other forms of antiquated wall art alone.

Dramatic god rays bursting through the morning clouds as our train made its way to London.

(above) Arrival at St Pancras railway station; decoration has already began for the 2012 London summer Olympics. (below) The London tube, clean, fast and efficient, not unlike Singapore’s MRT.

(above) As we made our way to the hotel my attention was arrested by some very attractively designed rubbish chutes, complete with sleek lines and that black finish, also note the attention paid to good graphic design with a combination of great fonts, graphics and color. And they even have their own docking bays, ( see below ) fitting snugly like lego bricks ! Just awesome.

(above) A view from our hotel in Victoria, London. The English landscape, at least in London, is markedly different from Paris; more modern, organized, though a little drab by comparison.

(above) And arrival at the most unassuming front facade of Tate Britain, “The Home of British Art”. I’ll cover all the amazing paintings I saw inside in the next post.