Blog 4 Saturday 6th October

Remedied that immediately. Having woken to find we were again surrounded by roads and high rise blocks we headed riverwards to establish connection with the land. The river's promenade was always going to have a hard time competing with Amsterdam last week and Hong Kong this but we ploughed past fairly uninspiring skyline dwarfing the bizarre and huge St Pancras-type Victorian railway station and headed towards parkland and the Victoria Art Gallery. The entrance is a brilliant sheet of water cascading down and gives life, movement and excitement to herald the collection. You turn to a door to the right to get in and onwards. The gallery itself is a huge and clever modern architectural space inside, though a blank wall outside which is slightly reminiscent of the Forbidden City. We skipped the huge queues on the last day of the Guggenheim exhibition to see the permanent collection and what gems! It had fabulous representations of European painting, porcelain and furniture and there's still more to return for tomorrow.