London calling London - again

[laurawaterford]

Difference between tate modern and national gallery (is it obvious - like modern art difference). Having family meeting shortly and presenting all this info from last few threads to family. hoping to impress them with my research..

big difference, tate modern all modern, national, old masters,r in the thick of things, trafalgar sq , the mall, covent garden. a day out in itself.

the tate you take a trip to, the national you can just pop in.

tate better for children - big open spaces, the turbine hall itself is jsut great for kids. also right ont he river and opposite st pauls so better for sight-seeing. nice cafes etc but downside is the art is rubbish.

National gallery has fantastic art but very much roped off, not for children to run around in. nice cafe though and trafalgar square is good for kids. Lovely cafe in the crypt of st martins in the fields, the church opposite.
HTH!

star how can you say that? picasso rubbish?

Just had our family meeting about what to see. DH very excited about all the things he has heard about as a child; westminster abbey "where all the kings and queens of England are crowns" and the british museum "I heard about the dinasaur as a child, and I'd LOVE to see the Egyption section".. so think we are going for the being able to say 'I was there!! trip and really do all the sights.

Youngest child is 14 so hopefuly he won't be running amock around the national gallery..

Thanks for all help!!

dinosaur at BM ? did he mean Nat.History Museum ?

I would do tate modern as you can walk along the southbank to it
go over the wibbly wobbly bridge to St pauls walk to the london eye and big ben
I love tate modern

plus Tate Modern has the most excellent shops - brilliant books and cards and wonderful childrens books

Thanks for all your help on my multiple London webs!! Can I ask yet another question? We want to do a tour of the sights - do we go via open top bus (which are pricey enough, but I think you can sometimes get walking tours and a boattrip included) or will the ducktours - across river and land - do the same sights? any recommendations?

the open top bus covers a wider area, and you can hop on and hop off during the day. Whereas duck tour is a shorter trip and you don't get on and off!

when we did bus, we took it to london eye, and it included a ticket on the boat, that took us to the Tower of London.