Museums, Parks, Food, and The Theatre

Our plan was to spend three more days in London before venturing off to explore other places in Great Britain. Then we would return to the city for another five days at the end of our trip.

On the day after our Stonehenge Tour we slept late and took our time leaving the hotel. It was a lovely autumn day, albeit a bit cloudy, so after a leisurely breakfast we decided to take a stroll through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. The first amazing thing we encountered in the park was the rather incredible Albert Memorial which stands directly across from the Royal Albert Hall. I had never seen a monument quite so tall and ornate, and I was very impressed by it. The memorial commemorates the death of Queen Victoria's husband Prince Albert who died of typhoid fever when he was 42. The picture on the right is of Albert Hall.

A long man-made lake called The Serpentine separates the parks. We crossed it and came upon Henry Moore's 19 foot tall arch made from 7 travertine stones sourced from a quarry in northern Italy. If you look through it, you can see Kensington Palace in the distance. The bird was standing in a clump of trees near the arch.

This is a picture of the Serpentine.

It felt good to be strolling through the park at our own speed, happening upon unexpected statues and watching people enjoy the day. We made the occasional half-hearted attempt to find various places of interest indicated on park maps, but mostly we just wandered about.

Our final discovery of the day was the Italian Gardens - a gift from Prince Albert to his beloved wife.

We had walked a long way, and, as you can see from the pictures, the dark clouds were building so we decided it was time to return to the hotel. As we neared the Albert Memorial, we were assaulted by a sudden gale force wind and a torrential downpour. We had expected a shower, but the intensity of the sudden storm was astonishing. We huddled under some trees for awhile waiting for the rain to subside and then we made our cold, wet way back to our room. It had been a fun day.

It was still raining the next day so we spent several hours perusing the Victoria and Albert Museum. Then we relaxed for awhile because we had a big evening planned. We were going to the Palladium Theatre to see "The King And I" starring Ken Watanabe, Kelli O'Hara and Ruthie Ann Miles.

The tube was packed with people much like the Tokyo subway system is at rush hour. Large groups of British teenagers prowed the corridors and periodically errupted in shouting matches which echoed off the walls in an alarming manner. When we emerged at Oxford Circus we were swept along in a torrent of humanity. I expect crowds like that in Shibuya, but I wasn't expecting them in London. We somehow managed to extricate ourselves from the flow when we reached the street where the theatre is located and to muscle our way into a crowded Italian restaurant across the street where we enjoyed bowls of pasta before showtime.

The performance was wonderful. If you are visiting London, I highly recommend a visit to the theatre.

So many museums, so little time. The next day we set off for The British Museum.

The somewhat curious area in the picture on the left below is called "The Great Court". When the museum was originally designed in the mid 1800's, the area was meant to be a garden, but instead it became the museum library. In 1997 the library was finally relocated, and an architectural competition was held to re-design the courtyard space. The area is now the largest covered square in Europe. The roof is constructed from 3,312 panes of glass, no two of them the same. There is a circular structure in the center called "The Reading Room". Gift shops line its walls, and stands selling food sit along the outside walls between the doors that open into various museum exhibits.

We decided to concentrate on the Egyptian collection which contained a wonderful assortment of artifacts.

Another wonderful museum that we visted on a cold, wet day later in our trip was the Natural History Museum. Like most of the museums that we visited in England it was free and the crowds were intense. A long line of people stretched out the door and extended to the sidewalk. The building itself is colossal. You would think that at some point it would reach capacity, but people just kept filing slowly through the entrance doors.

The picture on the left below is the entrance at the center of the building. The picture on the right shows the left side of the building. An identical expanse of building stretches to the right of the entrance door.

The entrance hall could serve as a set for a Harry Potter movie. I feel like it did, but haven't been able to confirm that.

The dinosaur exhibit was extremely popular. The T-Rex model moves and roars, and the lighting changes.

We were surprised to see the scary looking little deer-like animal with fangs on the left. On the right, is a model of a wooly rhinoceros.

There were many fascinating exhibits, but the crowds were really too much so we only stayed for an hour or so.

When we tell people about this trip, they usually ask "How was the food?", and the answer we give is "Not good." The British seem to have a compulsion to eat things on toast - plain toast unadorned with butter or any sort of condiment. Thank goodness for ethnic restaurants. Our favorite was an amusing Indian restaurant which we returned to several times, and the best thing we ate there was the sous vide tandoori lamb chops shown in the picture on the left below. Another highpoint was the night we splurged at a fancy restaurant which featured beef that you cooked yourself on a hot stone.

One thing that Walt did enjoy was the full English breakfast which consists of eggs, bacon (which is really more like what Americans would call ham), grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, sausages, toast, and baked beans. One restaurant menu actually boasted that the beans were Heinz and that they were straight from the can.

Another treat that we discovered was sticky toffee pudding which is really more like a cake. The British use the word pudding as a generic term for dessert. We enjoyed it so much, we looked up a recipe and made it for Thanksgiving dessert.

London was slowly revealing its charms, but it was time to venture afar. We would return.