London
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| British Museum |
Roger was supposed to
meet me in London, but sadly, the British Air strike interfered with his plans.
Left to my own devices, I formed a mission: visit all those renowned big free
museums I’d been hearing about for so many years. There sure are a lot of them
(British Museum, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Victoria and
Albert, Tate, Tate Modern.) – and they were all much bigger and better than I’d
anticipated. I also managed to get to several smaller museums that friends had
recommended – the fun, quirky, and claustrophobic Sir John Soanes’ Museum, the
elegant Wallace Collection, the Courtauld Gallery (a real must-see), and the
cutting edge Saatchi Gallery.
At night I attended
theater. Billy Elliot and War Horse were both fabulous productions. So was Henry
IV Part I at Shakespeare’s Globe – standing in the pit as a groundling is one of
the best deals anywhere. However, after 18 days of the most glorious weather
ever, it rained on groundling me.
Unfortunately, I can’t
recommend any restaurants in London as most of my meals consisted of grabbing a
quick bite in a museum café.
It’s a great feeling to
be able to cross something off your Life List, and Stonehenge is finally off
mine! I took an Evans Sunrise
Tour that arrived at Stonehenge in the wee hours of the morning, well before
it was open to the public, so we could actually walk amongst the trilithons. It
was an incomparable experience – just a few people and all those gigantic
stones. The tour also went to Oxford (Harry Potter Land) and Windsor Castle
(Queen Mary’s dollhouse), making for a long but very satisfying day.