Today was another museum day, as we spent most of the afternoon at the British Museum.
R made sure we saw the Big Ticket items first: The Rosetta Stone and The Parthenon Marbles.
The Rosetta Stone looks like a big rock, mainly obscured by other people’s heads and is enlivened by people trying to elbow you out of the way so they can take pictures of themselves in front of it. We went around the back instead, so we could have an unimpeded view.
The Parthenon Marbles were more my cup of tea, having studied them at uni. Seeing them all there was pretty mind-blowing, and I did love the nasturtiums cast on Greece for having the temerity to actually want them back!
We also saw lots of Egyptian mummies, the Lewis Chessmen, and the Portland Vase which I also remembered studying at uni – so very cool. The Reading Room (the cool round building in the middle) has begun to be used for (paying) special exhibits, so we didn’t end up going in there, even though we climbed all the stairs.
After leaving (through the gift shop of course… you too can take home a life-sized plaster head of the horse of Selene from the Parthenon pediment for only 1650 pounds. Plus shipping of course!) we wandered down to Drury Lane, home of theatre. We stopped for a drink in the Lowlander Grand Cafe, on the erroneous prediction that it was a cafe (it’s actually a pub) and tried some beer (the raspberry beer tastes nothing like beer, by the way, which is good!) and chips and took in the dramatic atmosphere (we were on Drury Lane after all, even if we weren’t in a theatre) before heading back to the hotel to refresh before meeting L, an old buddy from home, for a (another) drink and dinner.
We met in Piccadilly and detoured to one of the Slug and Lettuce pubs, which was warm and served cold drinks. After a couple of ciders, we wandered through Chinatown, trying to decide which of the many very similar restaurants we would bestow our custom onto. Choosing The Crispy Duck simply because it had a great name (without Pagoda or Dragon in the title), we sat down for a yummy meal. R, emboldened by the offallicious delights of the night before, decided to try the Octopus With Pig Organs, a dish which sent shudders down L and my spines. The waiter was similarly surprised, and went do far to doublecheck – “You want… with ears? and tongue?” It actually mostly wasn’t that bad. I’m gaining an appreciation for tongue, in a small corner of the gamut of offal, although there were bits (ear maybe?) that were just wrong. Ick. Needless to say, we didn’t finish that. The king prawn omelette and garlic bok choy was muuuuch better.
Two Weeks Away 