Had a lovely day out yesterday with my nephew Wil, down from Newcastle for a concert and to see friends in London and who kindly included me amongst his friends! I hadn't seen him since last Christmas and it's the first time ever I've been out with him by ourselves, so it was a special treat.
We met in Piccadilly and went to see the "Byzantium" exhibition at the Royal Academy.

St Michael

We enjoyed it, especially the old manuscripts and the ivories, but both agreed that Greek orthodox religious icons did nothing for us.

We intended to follow on with a visit to the British Museum, but got side tracked by Wil not having been to London much and enjoying wandering about, so we went to Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square and Charing Cross and down the Strand and Fleet St and Ludgate Hill to St Paul's; then over the bridge to Tate Modern instead. The usual mixed bag of stuff in there - including a particularly unpleasant video installation we weren't keen on - but an interesting starter for a "what is art?" discussion.

We finished off walking back along the South Bank and over the Milennium Bridge to Charing Cross Station, separating at Victoria at about 7pm - he to his evening engagement, me to come home.

A really lovely day out.