This morning began gray and drizzly. After breakfast Scott, Sherrie and Brianna headed to the Tower of London. I didn’t go with them because I knew my back wouldn’t be happy with the amount of standing. Instead, I took off for the Victoria and Albert Museum, my favorite museum in London. It’s a world-renowned museum, famous for art and design, with nearly three million objects spanning 5,000 years.
When I lived here, it was my go-to place, well that and the parks, when I needed to decompress. On every subsequent visit to London, whether for business or pleasure, I’ve managed to spend at least an hour or two wandering through the collections.
Today I spent many hours there. It’s a place where I can visit old favorites and scout out new exhibitions. However, the museum was very crowded, so I didn’t even attempt to see the jewelry or theater exhibits. Instead, I headed to the ceramics and glass galleries.
The V&A covers an enormous space. One could easily spend many days there and not see it all. However, it’s got a confusing layout, with two buildings that don’t connect on every floor. Three different employees gave me three quite different directions on how to get to a lift (elevator) to the glass galleries. The route that finally got me there went to the fourth floor, through the ceramics galleries (which I was happy to explore), then down a different elevator to the glass gallery on the third floor.
My friend Pascale came over to have lunch with me in the museum’s beautiful café. We ate and gabbed for a couple of hours. Then she left and I wandered a bit more before heading back to the hotel.
When I arrived at the hotel the sun was peeking through the cloud cover. I decided to spend a few minutes in the park across the street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields. There I came across a man feeding the pigeons. He put on quite a show. I also got to watch dogs romping across the field and kids running like lunatics (probably after having been cooped up all day).
At the hotel I met up with Scott, Sherrie and Brianna and we headed off for dinner. It was a short walk to the Rock and Sole Plaice, my favorite fish and chips restaurant in London. It’s been in business since 1871, longevity that testifies to the quality of their food.