You know a situation when you plan something but then it doesn’t turn that way at all? Well, that’s what happened with our Christmas trip to London.

We planned one-week visit to the royal capital of UK for Christmas 2021, but instead ended up battling Covid for few weeks.

However, the Universe had different plans for us. Beginning of the New Year we were invited for a family birthday celebration in Surbiton, London.

We were in doubt if we should accept the invitation at all as we just got better from the sickness and we haven’t been sleeping well during that time, but the visit was just for a weekend so we decided to go.

M & I met with Debeli on the train station after his work on Thursday, to catch the airplane to Heathrow. It’s been snowing for a while and the metro from our home station was heavily delayed so I took the bus from another stop. Luckily, I decided to send the strollers with Debeli so I only had M in a carrier. Would be a lot of fun if I had to drag the strollers downhill in a snowstorm. Life in Norway….huh

The flight was on time and we were picked up by a cousin for a 30 minutes ride to the family accommodation during which M fell asleep because it was his bedtime already. One down, two more to go 🙂

The real reason I wanted to go for a weekend in London, other than visiting the city, of course, was The Van Gogh Exhibit: The Immersive Experience.

The real-life or virtual reality exhibits of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings are being held all over the world, with first show opening in the 2000s.

The van Gogh immersive experiences have received varying degrees of criticism, including over ticket providers, confusion over similar event names, and over artistic licenses taken to van Gogh’s paintings*.

Most of the experiences involve guests moving from room to room, with walls (and sometimes floors or ceilings) decorated with moving projections of van Gogh’s works. The works are typically accompanied by music, set to pair with them while some exhibits also use sensory tools like aromas of cedar, cypress, lemon, or nutmeg to help visitors feel more immersed with the works.

Some events involve virtual reality headsets that take visitors through the artist’s experiences which was the best part of the exhibition.

Although one should admire van Goghs work through his painting and not poster copies or through many research biographies, emerging yourself into the space where he used to live, pass daily, spend hours and hours on manically sketching it’s truly something else.

Even with a bad criticism, the show is reaching larger audience and not just art connoisseurs and art lovers. Combining ones painting and drawing visions with another digital skills it’s the real magic.

London itself is a story on its own. We all know it, even if we have never been there and I don’t think there’s much to say about it.

Nine million city with century’s long history is a chaotic place to live, I assume. It was hell of a chaotic when we have been there, and it was February for 3 days.

The traffic, the locals, the tourists, the tube with no elevators in sight so we had to carry the baby strollers, the noise….it’s been a challenge. Must have been nice to live there few years back, or a child ago :), but now I find the mini size of a capital of Oslo perfect to my needs.

This time a short visit was just fine. We strolled around the city and Camden town, got me shoes at Irregular choice, visited the van Goghs Sunflowers in a National gallery and had a lunch at Lyles, but that is a complete another blog post. Until then, enjoy the photos!