We Get By With a Little Help...

Wow, our friends give good advice. First, on Johnny & Terry's recommendation, we took a tour of the Sir John Soane museum. We hadn't bothered to look up exactly when the tours were but the first one was at 11:30 and since we were a half-hour early, they gave us a coupon to go across the street into the park for half-price coffee and pastry. That was our second meal of a four-meal day. That museum is in all the guidebooks but I doubt we would have picked it out if left to our own devices. The collection of the 8 Hogarth paintings,
The Rake's Progress, are perhaps the highlight but it is the architecture of the home that is surprising. Soane copied a lot of ideas from his studies in Rome but the design of the house is really his architectural achievement.  Elaborate skylights, ceiling mirrors to reflect candles, hidden rooms, perfectly displayed art works, etc. One of his claims to fame is that his design of a memorial for his wife became the model for the phone booths of London. He was chief architect for the Bank of London and there are a few other buildings in London that he designed. The art and sculpture collection is amazing. One item of his collection is the sarcophagus of Seti I that he bought because the British Museum couldn't afford it.

Since this museum didn't have a cafe, we were forced to go to Fortnum & Mason and eat at the hoity-toity cafe. We had Welsh rarebit and bottles of coke that had this slogan on them: "Have A Coke with Your Mate." It's Christmas season in all the stores. There are Christmas window displays, trees and decorations everywhere, and Christmas music playing.  The only difference from the US is that no one says "It's not even Thanksgiving yet." I think there are not enough holidays in this country. We couldn't afford anything in the store...except the candy, of course. We were looking at the Marc de Champagne Truffles when a lovely British customer assured us they are delicious and told us to buy a bigger box because we would "inhale them." He was so right.

V, haloed by the window at Fortnum & Mason

In the afternoon, we were determined to prove we could sucessfully wash and dry a load of clothes. We accomplished this by setting it to wash/dry, then to dry only, then to dry only again. I think total drying time was around 2 hours.  

Thanks to a recommendation from Greg Hudson, we got tickets to the Old Vic to see Electra starring Kristen Scott Thomas. Truly one of the best shows I've ever seen. Here is what I've observed about the theater experience in London (based on the two plays I've seen). First of all, there is no "settling down" period before the show or any announcements or instructions to turn off your mobile. Tonight, the audience was especially noisy but when the light started to fade, everyone shut up and the play began. At the end of the play, people cheered but only about three people stood so I'm guessing standing ovations are much rarer here than they are in the US. Finally, it seems the actors wouldn't care if the audience was standing and cheering and stamping their feet--they come out to bow twice and that's it.

We traveled by tube and bus both today and made this discovery--the names of stops often describe what is there. Yesterday we found the monument that was at the Monument Hill stop and today we discovered as we walked to the Green Park tube stop that there is actually a green park there! Amazing.

Lola's picture of a dragon at the Tower of London which I forgot to post yesterday