Day 4 - Museums

Day 4 – Day at the Museum

We were thinking of taking a day trip out of London but overslept after our exhausting Ripper tour.  Instead, we made Thursday our Museum Day.

British Museum

This museum boasts a huge collection of ancient and priceless artifacts.  It's amazing to view antiquities from all over the world.  Giant Abyssinian walls?  Check.  Original Rosetta Stone?  Check.  Egyptian sarcophagi? Check.  One could say that the British have stolen the world's history and made it their own.  But if one thinks more on the subject it become apparent that if the British hadn't preserved these treasures they'd likely be lost forever.  That said, after 2 hours of viewing artifact after artifact it becomes just rooms of old stuff and is it lunch time yet?

Which pub should I go to next?

Take it back!  You are not Mom's favorite!

This toothpick is almost 7' tall.  The Mayor of London went into hysterics when he saw it.  I think that's what started his current Knife Control initiative.

Memorial to Avatar Ang in his later years.

Lunch at Harrods

My wife's brother and his wife recommended the Food Hall at Harrod's for lunch based on their previous visit so we made the trek.  Turns out that Harrod's is Hell on Earth.  It's a huge department store which in and of itself isn't all that bad.  But it's packed with pretentious posh people, navigation aids are laughably bad, and the smell of expensive perfumes assaults you everywhere you go.  The food hall turned out to be multiple halls on multiple levels.  Too many choices to be had and in our hunger and fatigue we were overwhelmed.  We decided to go the Harrod's Café, thinking it would be less crowded and cheaper.  Wrong.  The food was actually pretty good but not worth the cost or the noise of the surrounding tables (you guessed it, more English brats).  We beat a hasty retreat from Harrod's and would never go back there again.Well, I wouldn't.  Cathy would under the right circumstances.

Victoria & Albert Museum

We decided to brave one more museum (they're free) and the V&A is very impressive.  Probably more impressive than the British Museum because it does a better job of telling a story through artifacts.  Nevertheless, an hour or two was plenty sufficient before thoughts of dinner took over.

The chalice from the palace has the brew that is true.

Covent Gardens

This is actually a large open-air market, not a garden.  We were entertained by street mimes who didn't suck and street magicians that were also worth a pound or two in their hat.  Most of the temporary kiosks were closing up for the day so we decided to make our way elsewhere for dinner.  It looked like the young professional workers, who are EVERYWHERE in London, were ready to start a block party as we left.  We subsequently saw that the tiny pubs make up for their size by cordoning off parts of the street and letting their patrons stand around outside.  The London yuppies flocked to these drinking corrals.

She appears to be poised on one toe.

He bent completely over at the waste without his feet moving.

He's holding himself off the ground with one hand.

Dinner at Punjab Indian Restaurant

We didn't hold Cathy's brother's Harrod's food recommendation against him and his Indian food recommendation did not disappoint.  The wait staff was friendly and efficient and the food was delicious.