LONDON--DAY 4

Monday, June 4

After two days of eating breakfast (Coffee Americano and pastries) at the Island Restaurant (white tablecloth, small coffee cups, and expensive food) we discovered Caffe Nero, a Starbucks-like chain with locations all over London and the surrounding areas.  Caffe Nero became our “home away from home” while we were at the Lancaster London.  It was about a 5-minute walk from the hotel but was definitely worth it, even in rain and cold temperatures.  Our grande café Americanos were made with not one but two shots of espresso and were so strong that we had to doctor them up with lots of cream and brown sugar.  We treated ourselves to almond croissants or muffins each morning.  So much for the South Beach Diet and the 13 pounds I had lost prior to the trip.  As Glenn says, we are more full of starch than a Chinese laundry.  I could actually feel the weight packing back on with every bite of cream, sugar, pastries, and other carbohydrates, but every carb was worth it.  Like Scarlet O’Hara, I shall worry about that tomorrow.

Because I had watched the movie about Queen Victoria on the flight to London, I was anxious to see the Victoria & Albert Museum.  Our Original Bus tickets were good for an additional day because of the traffic jams and road closures occurring as a result of the Queen’s Jubilee, so after breakfast we headed back to the bus stop and caught the first red double-decker that came by and made our way across town to see what Victoria and Albert had to offer.  We were not disappointed.  Housed in the Museum are decorative arts from all over the world dating back over a thousand or more years.  There are 150 rooms and twelve miles of corridors—no, we didn’t see it all.

Chandelier in the lobby of the Victoria and Albert Museum

The new Medieval and Renaissance Gallery

Samson slaying the Philistine

with the jawbone of an ass

One of the very disappointing things about our time there was the fact that we had to budget our time in order to see as many different things as we could.  We saw only a few rooms of artifacts before we realized it was time to move on and rejoin our tour bus.

One of my favorite rooms included tomb effigies including this one of Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of King Henry II, who is reading a book while dead.

Hungry for American food, we hopped off the bus near the Hard Rock for lunch.  We discovered that this was the original Hard Rock.  It was opened by two Texas businessmen who were in London and were disappointed because they could not find a restaurant that served a really good hamburger.  They made the decision to open their own restaurant.  As the story goes, Eric Clapton enjoyed eating there but didn’t enjoy the wait for a table, so he asked if he could hang one of his guitars over his favorite place and have that sspot reserved for him whenever he was there.  Others followed suit, and soon the restaurant was filled with donations from many popular musicians.  Here is one of Elton John's costumes.

The last thing on the agenda for the day was our boat trip down the Thames.  Excitedly we boarded, found a seat, bought bottles of water (from Turkey) to quench our thirst, and settled in for a long boat ride.  About ten minutes later, the boat docked at the next pier, and it was announced that everyone had to get off.  So much for a scenic river tour.

We returned to the good old Lancaster London via The Tube and enjoyed an evening meal of peanut butter crackers while we watched the Queen’s Jubilee Concert on the telly.  Having seen the ridiculous number of people lining the streets we knew that the Concert was best viewed from our bed.  When the fireworks started at the end, I turned off the sound on the television and listened to them live from across Kensington Garden.  Pretty cool.