Travel Tales of London, Part 3

On our second full day in London, we began with a visit to the Victoria & Albert Museum, which was just about a 10-minute walk from the flat. But, first . . . breakfast:

Here, you see that milk from only Jersey & Guernsey cows, the gluten-free meusli I ate almost every day (we timed it just right -- one box lasted a week) and apricot yogurt! I love the un-sweet European type of meusli that makes you feel like you're eating bird seed (very pure food). There was some dried fruit in this brand, so it was naturally sweetened but not sickly sweet. Yogurt and meusli is my standard breakfast in England, often with one of those little boiled eggs in a cup. On to the V & A. The Victoria & Albert Museum is so huge that you can return numerous times without repeating the view. It was new to husband, though, so we did cover a little of the same territory I saw last year, like the casting rooms.

One of the areas that was new to me, though, was the Theatre & Performance Collection, which included a First Folio of Shakespeare's plays.

(No flash was used; don't worry.) I didn't photograph the sign, but I'm pretty sure it said this First Folio was disintegrating and carefully salvaged. Looks like it. Restored or not, I thought seeing pages from the original Shakespeare work was awfully exciting. There were also costumes from various theatre productions, models of sets and descriptions of how they were created, along with a continually-running film of clips from various London plays. We walked through the ironwork gallery, admired medieval woodwork salvaged from homes, twisted our way through a maze of statues. Then, we grabbed some sandwich wraps and drinks and ate lunch in the courtyard. I could gush about our perfect weather, but I think the sky makes a statement all its own.

After our visit to the V & A, we went to Persephone Books. You already know how that turned out! I'll be reviewing my first read from that stack, soon: Operation Heartbreak by Duff Cooper. I'll photograph the Persephone Book and bookmark, since I couldn't find an image online. Love the exit signs in the tube. "Way out," makes me think in Hippie. "Far out, man."

After Bloomsbury, we dashed over to Piccadilly to fetch our tickets for "One Man, Two Guvnors", then on to Green Park to buy tea (because our host had yucky tea) at Fortnum & Mason, a jar of jelly babies for Kiddo (a Dr. Who fan -- Tom Baker used to always hold out a handful of candy and say, "Jelly baby?") and our favorite sandlewood soap at Taylor of Old Bond Street.

We headed home for dinner and then went to see "One Man, Two Guvnors," which was delightful. The woman next to me said, "Oy, oy, oy, oy!" during the funniest portions. I got a kick out of that. There was an article in the Guardian about keeping the play "full English" on Broadway and I must say, I agree with all my heart that the script should not be messed with. There were words I didn't catch because it takes time to get used to the Queen's English (as opposed to our American versions) but "One Man, Two Guvnors" is a very British play and I hope that it will not be watered down on Broadway. It's Englishness is a major part of the fun.

After the play, we trudged down to Trafalgar Square to make some attempts at taking night photos of double-decker buses, lights, police cars in action, etc. Suffice it to say, I still have some learning to do with my new camera, but I did get a few shots I liked, including this one of two police cars and a cyclist rushing past Trafalgar Square. I don't even feel safe cycling in my own neighborhood in the daylight! It's quite amazing to watch people pedaling in London traffic, day and night.

This was Monday night. I finished up Kitty Cornered and read a bit of Fever before falling asleep. From this point on, I had a bit less reading time because our evenings were taken up with theatre and a concert, but I still did manage to squeeze a little reading time into each day. That is always a big thrill when it happens. Usually, I don't read much at all on vacations and I credit the quiet and comfort of the flat for making reading possible. I'll share more about our vacation in a few days. Storms have shut me down a few times, so I have a little catch-up book reviewing to do. May your Wednesday be full of wahoos!

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