- Arriving
- Visit to Cornelissen & Sons - art supply store established 1855. See also here.
April 2:
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- Hampton Court Palace includes 60 acres of beautifully maintained gardens. The annual Florimania takes place this day at the Court.
April 3:
- Visit Ann Swan and her studio in Wiltshire – lunch
- Visit Avebury Henge, Avebury – the largest prehistoric stone circle in
April 4:
1. Kew Gardens including
- Library, Art and Archives (arranged possibility to study a selection of original art by Ehret, Redoute (Kew holds some original illustrations for ‘Histoire des chênes de l'Amérique’), Bauer brothers, Margaret Mee and Edouard Morren) ,
- Shirley Sherwood Gallery: From Eye to Hand, The Botanical Brush and The Secret Garden: This exhibition will feature work from the Kew collection alongside illustrations by contemporary artists associated with Kew. A timeline pinpointing key artists in Kew’s history will include an Ehret illustration, and a work by Bauer, alongside a Margaret Mee sketch and full painting. The exhibition will also include a selection of work by the Hampton Court Palace Florilegium Society and Leicestershire Society of Botanical Illustrators),
- newly renovated Marianne North Gallery.
3. Westminster Abbey organ concert 17:45 p.m (free 30 min. organ recital). If you like to take a 1.5 hr tour on your own, it costs ~15 pound and you can get into the cloister and museum. You can go and pray without any cost. Westminster Abbey is the greatest church in the English Speaking world with 3000 tombs, remains of 29 kings and queens and hundreds of other prominent people.
April 6:
1. Victoria and Albert Museum:
3. Flight to Madrid.
1. Victoria and Albert Museum:
- Medieval Illuminations,
- William Morris and Charles Voysey collections
- original botanical drawings not on display in the galleries
3. Flight to Madrid.
- The archive of the Real Jardín Botánico stores the botanical material produced by the scientific expeditions of the 18th and 19th centuries. It also includes collections deposited at the garden, donated to it, or bought by it, such as the private collections of Cavanilles, Lagasca, Cuatrecasas, Winthuysen and Emilio Guinea, and the drawings and engravings by Van Berkhey. It is home to one of the world's most important collections of botanical drawings and plates, of which the more than 6,600 drawings made during José Celestino Mutis's Expedition to the Viceroyalty of New Granada stand out. This material was first publisher 1952 and a small fraction (68 plates) of it was for the very first time exhibited 2010 outside Spain.
- Parque del Retiro
April 8:
- Visit and tour of the Royal Tapestry Factory
- Mercado de San Miguel
April 9:
April 10:
- El Rastro, Europe’s biggest flea market next to Europe’s biggest stamp and coin market, both open on Sundays only.
- Palacio Real – collections and garden
- Plaza Mayor
- Flamenco (e.g., Las Tablas) or Bullfight on your own
April 11:
- Last minute shopping/sigh-seeing on your own
- Those extending their trip start their explorations (e.g., Toledo, Spain's former capital and the home town for El Greco and with a magnificent cathedral)
- Flight home
The tour is limited to 13 participants.
Price without the airfare is $2,775US (includes hotel accommodation with breakfast daily, London Travel pass, Madrid Travel pass, Private Day excursion to Wiltshire, Group Travel Insurance, Entry tickets where applicable). Group airfare Denver-London-Madrid-London-Denver is ~ $965 US which allows deviation from the scheduled return flight.