Wednesday, May 23, 2007

London Museums and Harrods

Wednesday May 23, 2007

08:45 down for breakfast consisting of toast, cereal, cheese, and tea. Rhonda asks the owner what it is like living with CCTV everywhere. He tells us that Britian is essentially a police state now. The cameras were put in to combat terrorism, but they are mostly used to tax the people. He says that it is almost impossible to drive or park in London without getting a ticket. The speed limit drops from 60 to 35 and it you don’t get down to 35 in time you see the flash of a camera. A few days later you get a ticket in the mail for £100.00.

09:30 we are off to the British Museum. We arrive at XXXX station. We follow the signs to the British Museum. Somewhere along the way there must have been another sign because we come to another subway station. Rhonda asks a construction worker were the museum is he points us in the right direction.

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The museum has been remodeled since we have been there. They had enclosed the courtyard for the millennium. It is very nice. The museum is vast and crowded with school children. they are packed around the rosette stone and the mummies. We wonder the isles for several hours. Sam feels ill - too much culture, maybe.

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For lunch we pop out on the street to a Thai restaurant that we saw on the way in. The Thai Garden Cafe is a nice clean place. The meal is very colorful and good. It is a bit fancier than The Thai Place at home. There are some fancy mushrooms in my dish. Ginger Tofu. Sam has Pad Thai, and Rhonda has the Red Curry. We relax in the restaurant till 14:30. It’s too late to make the last trip on Jason’s Canel trip. Maybe we can go on our return trip.
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Ginger Tofu

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Red Curry

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Pad Thai


Rhonda wants to go to Harrods so we begin the cross-town journey. Harrods occupies the entire block. The store has been decorated in the Egyptian theme. We go to the food court. Here you can buy tomatoes from France for £10.99 per kilo (that’s about $10.00 a wares section. Rhonda buys 4 desert spoons. Sam is sleeping on a near by couch. Jet lag.

We journey to see the Lady Di memorials in Harrods. They are kind of creepy Di and Fiad holding hands and flying away. There is a wax figure a short distance away of Fiad SR. surveying the store. This is really weird.
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We go outside the store and see a street lined with Bentleys, Ferraris, and Minis. We walk down the street to find a bench. From our perch above the street we see no less then 50 Bentleys, a dozen Ferraris, and many Lamborghinis. There are also lots of Minis and Smart cars. Sam and I are much more impressed then Rhonda.

It’s now 19:30 and we head back to the Gloucester Road Station. We ask the station attendant when the first train leaves the station. We must be at Waterloo by 06:00 the next morning. He says that the first train arrives at 5:20. He thinks that we will have plenty of time to get to Waterloo by 06:00.

We have Fish and Chips at a place close to the station. It is what we expected -greasy, but good. The mushy peas have been reheated in their styrofoam container. They have a strong taste of vinegar and are a bright green.

We decide to set the alarms for 04:35 this should give us plenty of time to get to the tube station by 05:20