11 May (Thursday) continued.
After I got back to my hotel, I washed my face and ate cornflakes and some fruit leather I'd brought to England from home. After I'd cooled off a bit, I tried to decide what I wanted to do next. On Tuesday, when I'd gone to the tourist office, I'd picked up a fold-out brochure of London Walks and tried to decide which tour I might want to take. Not a pubcrawler, I stayed away from those that seemed to be focused on pubs, but that was difficult, because most of the night walks were pub crawls. I finally decided to take one that began at 6:30 PM that Thursday night, called "The Ancient City at Night." Its description included a bit that went, "crystalline, transparent as a dragonfly," and I was thinking...interesting. Over the last couple of years, I've adopted the dragonfly as my personal symbol of sorts, as it's a very gentle insect, flying so lightly on air, seemingly with little or no effort. In our own garden, there is a family of these dragonflies that times their appearance to us when we are out watering the plants; presumably, they do this to get a guaranteed drink of water.
Anyway, I decided that's what I'd do that night...but what would I do in the meantime? I looked at my map. How about squeezing in the Victoria and Albert Museum, then walk across Hyde Park? By the time I got to Bayswater Road, I could hop on the underground and head over to Bank station, where the tour I picked would start. I estimated how long it'd take me to get to the V&A via the Knightsbridge station, walk through the museum, hang around and take pictures of the Albert statue and maybe the Royal Albert Hall across the street, then eventually get to Bank station. I decided it was doable. Somewhere along the way, I'd have to find some food, but I figured I'd grab something from a minimart if it came to that. You may be disappointed that I did not stop at either Harrod's or Harvey Nichols. Had I been assured to find a green Harrod's van, operated by shilling, as seen the Beatles' movie Help!, I probably would have gone. But it's for another time. I'd probably be drooling in the food hall as it were.
The front doors of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Running across the road to get to the museum was quite a task. I got beeped by a bicyclist who ran a red light. I can't tell you if I was more mortified or annoyed that people run red lights in other countries besides my own!
The following three pictures are of random statues I found aesthetically pleasing in the museum.
A photograph taken in honor of the high esteem the British take with their tea. God I love Twinings. Next time, I am going to their gift shop in the city. That and the
Brahman Tea Museum.
Two pictures of the dome of the museum, as seen from the inside. One is of the glass chandelier-like thing hanging from the ceiling of the foyer, and the other is of the dome itself.
Will! (Shakespeare that is.)
There was a whole hall of statues on the ground floor, but it was all too much for me to take photos of them all. I remember there was one of Poseidon that I was particularly taken by. But by that time, my tummy was growling and I needed some food. It was another hot, sunny, but beautiful day, so I stepped outside onto the patio where they had a smallish outdoor cafe. I ordered a bacon and onion salad with hard boiled egg and sat down, feeling very cosmopolitan cutting up my salad with a knife and fork. It was a chance to rest in the shade of a cafe umbrella, gaze at the kids playing by pondside, and thinking just how very far removed I was from my regular life.
posted 12/04/06
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