West End Girl

Today was lovely although a bit bittersweet, with the knowledge that I'm leaving London tomorrow as a cloud over my head. I walked down Cromwell Road to the Victoria and Albert Museum, or the V & A. I had been thinking of checking out the Natural History Museum, which is right next door, but was a little deterred by the hoards of very small children entering it. Nevertheless, I'm glad I bypassed it for the V & A. I actually broke my usual museum-going convention and spent an entire two hours in it, that's how much I loved it. The museum is affectionately known as "Britain's attic," which is a very fitting nickname. That is, if you happen to keep thousands of priceless treasures in your attic collected from 1500 to today. And if your attic is big enough to store hundreds of pieces of furniture, paintings, costumes, jewelry, glassworks, metalworks, ceramics, and any other oddbits you may have saved. Oh and lots of sculptures and photographs and tiny models of buildings. But you get the point. I toured the British history rooms, arranged chronologically, which gave a fascinating viewpoint into the ever-changing styles and fashions and art over the past 500 years. For a Sunday, it was surprisingly uncrowded, although I guess the hoardes of people were there to visit the current exhibits. But you have to pay for those.

After my time-traveling through British history, I wandered down Cromwell Road to Brompton and popped in Harrods, where I browsed and tried on jewelry that I pretended I could afford. Finally on the way back to the hotel I stopped into a little Indian restaurant for my best meal yet...papadums, onion bahjee, saag paneer...and oh the mixed pickle! To die for. The experience was made complete by the plethora of overly attentive young Indian waiters and the warm washcloth at the end of the meal. Why do I have to leave tomorrow!?