London, Day Two - or, the Hodgepodge of Hotspots

Today (7th August) in London my Dad and I visited the British Museum, strolled through a delightful local outdoor market (by accident), watched the Bard's final play in his (faithfully recreated) theatre, walked among the kings and queens, nobles and noble commoners entombed in Westminster Abbey, and dined at Gordon Ramsay's Maze Grill. A full day to say the least, in an understated British way, of course.

The day began inauspiciously, I'm afraid. We left the hotel at about 8:00 AM for breakfast at a pub near to the Tube stop. We had our breakfast then my Dad exclaimed, "Oh, Hell!" He had forgotten his Tube pass (the Oyster Card) at the hotel - a ten-minute walk away. His feet were still whimpering a little from yesterday's efforts, so I volunteered to scamper back to the hotel for his Oyster Card while he enjoyed a second coffee.

This put us behind a little, but didn't seriously derail our plans. First stop - the British Museum, home to everything the Empire was able to pillage and plunder from near and far away.

Here are an Egyptian column with cool hieroglyphs, and the Rosetta Stone. My Dad and I used a Rick Steves free audio guide on our iPhones to tour the museum. It took us through the highlights of the museum in the Egyptian, Roman and Greek collections. We saw the Elgin Marbles, which were the original friezes above the Parthenon, and we saw really cool displays of sculptures and pottery.


My Dad liked to take pictures of my backside for some reason, and I feature in many of them. I'm the guy with the blue shirt and blue pack looking at the false door in a tomb facade. These false doors were designed to let the spirit escape the vault, but prevent tomb raiders from entering.

From the British Museum we scurried across Londontown to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, a faithful recreation of the original, near to the place where it once stood. While navigating to the theatre we happened upon, and sauntered through, the Boroughs Market, which is a delightful open-air market with dozens of stalls offering prepared and fresh food and wares of all kinds.

Having found the Globe in due course we watched a performance of the Tempest - a comedy and Shakespeare's last play. The 3-hour performance was actually pretty darned good, though our feet and legs were crying for mercy by the end. You see, we were "seated" in the pit as Groundlings, meaning that we stood and looked up at the performance. No photos, I'm afraid.

Our next stop took us to Westminster Abbey, that venerable British institution and home to the interred bones of kings, queens, poets, noblemen, clergy, and those rich enough to afford burial there. No photos are allowed inside, but here's an obligatory pic of the outside:
A couple more hours well spent, and then we were off to the fashionable Mayfair district of London and Gordon Ramsey's Maze Grill - a steak and sushi place. Our 7:30 reservations were honored after we relaxed with a pint in the lounge. Once at the table my Dad was asked, "would you care for still or sparkling water?" Before I could say anything, he answered "still, please." £4 for the water. I explained to him later that it was a false choice - the correct answer is "neither, but I'll have some tap water, please." I'm surprised Ramsey's restaurant would permit such a cheap tactic, particularly where it is an upscale establishment. I was also put off by the £2 per person cover charge on the final bill. Those disappointments aside, my ribeye was very good, as were the roasted garlic cloves, the mushrooms and the hearty chips (really goodly-sized wedges of potato carefully deep-fried to perfection.) My dessert, a chocolate brownie with salted caramel ice cream, was delicious.
Tomorrow we have a bicycle tour on the docket, followed by the Cabinet War Rooms!