London: Day Five
This morning we hit the British Museum, one of the few museums open on a Monday. I think by this time I was museumed out -- I was kinda wandering around aimlessly and couldn't find anything that really grabbed my attention. The last time we had been to the British Museum it was undergoing a huge upgrade of the facilities. The work has been completed now, and, though they have created a wonderful open space around the original reading room with plenty of entrances to the museum's vast collections, I felt nostalgic for the old museum layout. Before, you felt like you were wandering through an eccentric aunt's attic; now the museum has a sterile, public institution feel to it.
We had lunch at Wagamama's, a Japanese eatery. We've been craving real ramen (soup) and gyoza (dumplings) since moving from Tokyo. My miso ramen was pretty close and the gyoza were passable, but I think we will just have to go back to Tokyo for the real thing.
After lunch we went to the discount ticket booth at Leicester Square and picked up a couple of tickets for Anything Goes. The 1930s muscial revival, featuring songs by Cole Porter and a script co-written by P.G. Wodehouse, has received good reviews and we were both ready for some good escapist entertainment.
For dinner we decided to get Afternoon Tea at Harrods. Fortnum and Mason was our initial choice but, oddly enough, they don't serve Tea on Mondays. Tea at Harrod's was good, but not great. Our first pot of tea began to taste bitter after awhile and even a second pot could not dispel the bitter taste. The sandwiches were tasty, the scones passable and the sweets a bit too rich for me. One of our servers was named Domenica Amore. I struck up a conversation with her, sparked by her name. She says she hates her name because everyone teases her about it -- It translates from Italian into Sunday Love. I think it's a beautiful name. I told her that one of my sisters is named Domenica and then we lauched into a conversation about Sicily. Domenica Amore comes from Catania, south of Mt. Etna. In heavily accented English, she complained about the weather in her home town. She says it has become just like English weather -- always rainy. She also told me about the ash that was spewed from Mt. Etna. For two months you could not go out of the house without and umbrella to shield you from the ash, which was blown by the wind as far away as Malta. Domenica assured me that Mt. Etna has calmed down now. (for the time being, I guess!)
After Tea, we did a bit of browsing at Harrod's, then breezed through Covent Gardens on our way to the show, which did not disappoint. The singing and dancing were great, there was a fabulous tap dance sequence and we got plenty of chuckles out of the script.
Tomorrow we head back to Harrogate and, believe me, I'm ready to go home. London has been fun but I am worn out. We have spent a lot of time on our feet and covered an awful lot of ground. It is good to know that we can come back here easily -- it's just a three-hour train ride out of York.
This morning we hit the British Museum, one of the few museums open on a Monday. I think by this time I was museumed out -- I was kinda wandering around aimlessly and couldn't find anything that really grabbed my attention. The last time we had been to the British Museum it was undergoing a huge upgrade of the facilities. The work has been completed now, and, though they have created a wonderful open space around the original reading room with plenty of entrances to the museum's vast collections, I felt nostalgic for the old museum layout. Before, you felt like you were wandering through an eccentric aunt's attic; now the museum has a sterile, public institution feel to it.
We had lunch at Wagamama's, a Japanese eatery. We've been craving real ramen (soup) and gyoza (dumplings) since moving from Tokyo. My miso ramen was pretty close and the gyoza were passable, but I think we will just have to go back to Tokyo for the real thing.
After lunch we went to the discount ticket booth at Leicester Square and picked up a couple of tickets for Anything Goes. The 1930s muscial revival, featuring songs by Cole Porter and a script co-written by P.G. Wodehouse, has received good reviews and we were both ready for some good escapist entertainment.
For dinner we decided to get Afternoon Tea at Harrods. Fortnum and Mason was our initial choice but, oddly enough, they don't serve Tea on Mondays. Tea at Harrod's was good, but not great. Our first pot of tea began to taste bitter after awhile and even a second pot could not dispel the bitter taste. The sandwiches were tasty, the scones passable and the sweets a bit too rich for me. One of our servers was named Domenica Amore. I struck up a conversation with her, sparked by her name. She says she hates her name because everyone teases her about it -- It translates from Italian into Sunday Love. I think it's a beautiful name. I told her that one of my sisters is named Domenica and then we lauched into a conversation about Sicily. Domenica Amore comes from Catania, south of Mt. Etna. In heavily accented English, she complained about the weather in her home town. She says it has become just like English weather -- always rainy. She also told me about the ash that was spewed from Mt. Etna. For two months you could not go out of the house without and umbrella to shield you from the ash, which was blown by the wind as far away as Malta. Domenica assured me that Mt. Etna has calmed down now. (for the time being, I guess!)
After Tea, we did a bit of browsing at Harrod's, then breezed through Covent Gardens on our way to the show, which did not disappoint. The singing and dancing were great, there was a fabulous tap dance sequence and we got plenty of chuckles out of the script.
Tomorrow we head back to Harrogate and, believe me, I'm ready to go home. London has been fun but I am worn out. We have spent a lot of time on our feet and covered an awful lot of ground. It is good to know that we can come back here easily -- it's just a three-hour train ride out of York.
posted by lenora at 6:29 PM
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