3/16/2008

London Adventure - Part Two


January 21, 2008 (Monday)


The day's adventure began with the famous 9 3/4 station at King's Cross. It was shabbier than I expected, with construction work going on nearby. From there we strolled to Charles Dickens Museum. What I appreciate about it is that they've collected real artifacts used by Dickens. I wish I had known this author better, instead of just having some vague memory of his abridged novels.

Why did so many friends tell me that British Museum was a bore? They haven't joined the many free tours maybe. We had a look at the Divine Cat exhibition, displaying an ancient Egyptian cat statue. Then we joined a 50-minute tour on Egypt and another tour on ancient Rome. These tours were like brief history classes, with just limited reference to the exhibits. But I liked them anyway. Saw the Egyptian mummies, Rosetta Stone and Chinese collection.

The Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221b Baker Street was a real disappointment. Costing 6 pounds to enter, it offered some wax statues of Holmes crime scenes and a lousy gift shop. Holmes and Dr. Watson's study redeemed it somehow, and we rejoiced with a photo or two there.

Selfridges & Co. department store has a fame for its artistic window display. We went to the one on Oxford Street. The window displays were decorated with white stripes of paper (it's hard to describe). It's minimal but elegant. We shopped for a little while down at the food hall.

Be sure to walk to the end of Marylebone Lane and turn at the corner to find Golden Hind fish & chips. Owned and run by Greeks, this Lonely-Planet-recommended eatery didn't disappoint me. The fried haddock was finger-licking good.

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London Adventure - Part One


January 20, 2008 (Sunday)


Got to Trafalgar Square before National Gallery opened at 10am. What a refreshing morning with slightly chilly air and quiet streets! But the sky was grey and stayed mostly so throughout the rest of my trip.

As I've only got limited time, I rushed to see the highlights: Monet, Van Gogh's Sunflowers and Cypress, Jan van Eyck's Arnolfini Betrothal etc. Joined a one-hour free guided tour which looked at four highlights. The tour was illuminating.

At 1pm or so, we went to Covent Garden to see if there's any street performers and the market. There was a guy mimicking passers-by in a hilarious way. Later on he did juggling while standing on one leg on a rope. There were four or five young guys playing string instruments at a restaurant. They surely knew how to heat it up with the audience, who happily applauded for them. On the whole the Covent Garden Sunday market was not as crowded and diverse as I imagined. We passed by Chinatown on our way to tube station. London's Chinatown's just the size of Philly's. No match for NYC's mega-huge Chinese clusters.

The highlight of the day was an afternoon tea at a recommended hotel. The four of us ordered three sets but still couldn't finish it. The fact is after you ate all the sandwiches on the bottom tier, you're most certainly 70% full already. The salmon one and ham and cheese sandwiches are my personal favorites. I can’t remember much for the cakes in the middle tier, except for the cream strawberry fruit tart. What a shame I couldn't eat just one more scone with cream. The scones are divinely delicious and go perfectly well with the cream. My champagne tea set comes with a glass of house champagne and a mixed blend tea with Assam. It costs ₤25. Tea time started at 3pm and we hung about till 6.

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