July 03, 2004 - London


     After a session online in the library and a breakfast in the hotel, we were ready for a few more adventures in London.  To accomplish our goals, we needed to learn a little about public transporation and ended up buying weekend passes on the underground.  

     That done, we were zipping under the city on our way to Harrod's Department store, comprising 4.3 acres of floor space.  In addition to its size and variety of products and services, Harrods has a number of motifs, including an Egyptian theme featuring King Tut.  Ten feet away, there is also a memorial to Princess Diana and Dodi Fayeed, whose father owns Harrods.


     We shopped til we dropped--and dropped into a sushi bar, followed by desert at the ice cream bar.   A part of Harrod's special charm is a   multi-room food hall with about every kind of food you can think of.

Following lunch, we were off and walking at semi-random.  Eventually, we were at Hyde Park and the connected Kensington Garden.  At the far end of Kensington Garden, we found Kensington Palace, formerly the home of Princess Diana and another opportunities for memorials.  The phrase we saw--"Princess of the People"--seemed to capture the popular sentiment, which is more jaundiced about the rest of the royals.

     To wrap up our adventures for the day, Sheila had discovered an obscure museum that the newstand guy two blocks away had never heard of.  Sir John Soanes was evidently a collector of about everything people collect, and his former home is now open for people to see the stuff he collected: books, sculpture fragments, coins, keys, paintings, but no big ball of twine as nearly as I could tell.  I was "reminded" that photos were not allowed after I had already taken these, so realize that you may be commiting a crime by looking at them.



     We were so keyed up after seeing whatever it was we saw in the Sir John Soanes Museum, we had to stop into a neighboring pub for a cool one.  I chose a Guiness Stout in preparation for our trip to Ireland.  We were tired enough after all this, we got on the underground to travel just one stop, but closer to our hotel.  (We walked around much of the city totally lost last night.)  Now we'll have a bite to eat and hunker down for the night.


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