un-lagged

For the first night since I've been back, I don't feel exhausted (and sore), so I figured I'd start my trip report (in easily digestible lumps). I might even stay awake until 10:00 tonight.

As you know, Bob, acanthusleaf (hereafter known as "L") and I went to London last week. The theme of our trip turned out to be Medieval cathedrals and Roman Britain, plus good friends and good food. I also discovered that British waiters are much more polite than American ones, in that they won't come up to your table unless you gesture to them, which means that they won't automatically bring your bill, take your order, refill your water, or anything else except clear your plate. This is nice, except when you're in a hurry, as we often were. (Also, there's no such thing as a free refill on drinks, and every drink cost two pounds.)

So, on to the first rock....

Friday and Saturday -- London

acanthusleaf and I arrived in Heathrow around 8:00 p.m. Friday night. Getting our passports stamped took forever, though customs didn't have anyone there to even look at our bags, much less search them. That is, if I'd had my bag. American had lost it (though L's bags made it). Fortunately, I had brought a toothbrush, nightgown, and change of underthings in my carry-on, and it made the trip to the hotel in the Underground easier.

We had booked rooms in the Park International in South Kensington over the Internet, which was fortunate, since we didn't have to find a place to stay late on a Friday night. We found the hotel easily enough, checked in, then discovered that the only place open to get food was a Kentucky Fried Chicken, so L's first English meal was greasy and nasty. We didn't care -- we were tired, we ate, we went back to the room and crashed.

We woke up a little late the next morning (another theme of the trip), and wandered off to the British Museum via Underground. Next to the Museum we found a little family restaurant still serving a traditional English breakfast, in this case eggs, bacon, toast, baked beans, and tea. We then did the fast walking tour of the Museum.

Since I was last there, they've moved the British Library to its own building, so the area where that used to be is a big open space under a skylight, with the shops, bathrooms, and a meeting room in a big round buiding in the middle of the open space, with galleries opening off it. We went through the Egyptian room very quickly -- "Look, there's the Rosetta Stone. There's a famous statue. There's a famous monolith." -- then went to see the frieze of the Parthenon (which is what they're calling it now, instead of the Elgin Marbles). This was also in a new room, very vast and tall, and was very impressive. I particularly liked the depictions of the battle between the centaurs and the lapiths. I'm going to look that up, since there's bound to be an interesting story in there.

We then went up to the Medieval area, where L went crazy (understandably). Since I had less interest in the jewelry and had seen it all a couple of times before, I wandered into the Roman Britain room and took a good look at it. I particularly liked the items from the temple to Mercury, including the lead curse tablets. These are thin slabs of lead that had a stylistic message on it that comes down to "please curse the people who stole my cow in many horrible ways unless they give it back". The lead was then folded up several times and given to Mercury. They didn't say what he did with them.

We tried to visit L. Cornellisen and Son (artists colourmen who have a shop right next to the British Museum), but they closed at 5:00, and we just missed them. This also became a theme.

We went back to our hotel (my bag was there! yeah!), where we had a delicious dinner at an Italian restaurant across the street. Afterwards, we went looking for a pub, and went down the wrong street. This was fortunate, because it meant we got a beautiful look at the Natural History Museum all lit up at night. I don't what it was before it was a museum, but it's a beautiful building.

And so to bed.