Tourist in my own city -

I love London… and I have called London my home for almost a decade now.

But lately I have not seen much of it… other than the office and the route to the station. So last weekend we decided to tackle this and become tourists in our own city again, just for the day.

Ever since I can remember I have been in love with London. It has always been part of my life and a place I felt at home… long before I actually moved here for good.

So once a year (or more if I could) I’d come over for a long weekend or even a week and go and see everything… Visit museums and galleries, see the current exhibitions, stroll the parks and along the south bank and enjoy the stunning view of London from Kenwood House.

And even when we moved here for good in 2008, I would still spend my weekends exploring the city and visiting and re-visiting all it had to offer.

But over the years this has somehow seized, not a sudden stop, just gradually going down. To the extend that I can’t even remember the last time I have been to Kenwood House. I do remember the last time I went to a museum, but I’d rather not say how long ago that was (but it was one of the newer extensions, so we are not talking years… phew) 😉

But all that is about to change. This weekend we decided to go into London and actually visit two museums that have had major changes recently.

First up the Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington.

Have you been? If not, I urge you to go and visit it. It is stunning. And it usually puts on a good show.

Last time I went was for the Alexander McQueen exhibition, which was just breath taking (and probably gives you a clue how long ago that was).

What I was after last weekend was the entrance to the museum, located in Exhibition Road. Tucked behind the existing arches is a porcelain-tiled courtyard leading to the new entrance.

Inside it reveals some interesting glimpses of old and new.

However as it was only opened last month, not all areas were open to the public just yet. So might be worth coming back in a few month.

Overall there seems to be a lot of refurbishment work going on at the V&A at the moment with quite a few galleries and wings closed.

After a quick browse through the current Plywood exhibition, we left the Victoria & Albert Museum and headed to the Design Museum.

Don’t get me wrong, I have been to the Design Museum before, but that was at its old location down by Tower Bridge. Having outgrown that location, the Design Museum moved to a new ‘old’ premises end of 2016 and is now located on Kensington High Street.

I had seen images of the new location, but somehow had not yet managed to actually go and see it for myself.

So off we went. In my opinion the new building has a lot less curb-appeal than the old one had. But once in, the structure of the building and the play with light and shadow on the ceiling certainly makes up for it.