- British Museum: Wow. Wow, wow, wow. Egypt, big pieces of Parthenon, and the Rosetta Stone. And so much more. I spent all day in here.
- Covent Garden: After the British Museum, I wandered through Covent Garden. I was particularly entertained by some street musicians who were following pedestrians while playing Canon in D on their violins.
- Trafalgar Square: a beautiful place. They have a Uganda House there. And a Canada House. They aren't embassies... I don't quite know what they are.
- Antony and Cleopatra: I wandered down Strand and came across a theatre which was home to a performance of Antony and Cleopatra. So I got a rush ticket. It just happened to be in the front row. I could see the sweat on Patrick Stewart's forehead! His performance was spectacular. And he was almost overshadowed by the absolutely perfect performance of Cleopatra (I don't know the actress). It was, I think, the best Shakespeare performance I've ever seen.
THURSDAY
- Natural History Museum: I had wanted to visit this after the Science Museum on Tuesday, but I hadn't had the time. On Thursday I didn't quite have the time either, but I made a hasty tour through the dinosaurs and mammals. I missed Darwin's collections.
- Regent's Park: Big park. BIG park. Very pretty. I only spent about 10 minutes here.
- (meet Nancy and Stuart here)
- Pub for lunch! With a pint! Whee!
- National Gallery: a hasty perusal while Stuart was on the phone. At this point, I begin to get the feeling I could stay in London forever and never see all the art.
- St. Martin in the Fields: a beautiful church. Somebody was practising Vivaldi on violin while we visited.
- The Man of Mode: a National Theatre comedy: a recreation of a 17th-century comedy about a very promiscuous ladies' man. Amazing how well it translates to today. (And of course, that's sort of the whole point of the production....)
FRIDAY
- The Tate Modern collection: we spent a couple of hours in the Tate Modern, which is a converted power plant. The surrealist exhibit we saw was very impressive. My favourite piece was a set of five photographs with various people in London holding up signs bearing "what they want to say, not what we want them to say" (e.g., a businessman holding up a sign saying "I'm depressed"). Apparently the subjects picked the words and posed with them voluntarily.
- Greenwich Village: we took the boat down to Greenwich Village. It's a bit tourist-y, but this was offset by the relative lack of tourists (it being winter).
- Royal Observatory: I now have a picture of myself straddling the prime meridian. All of Harrison's important clocks are here, too. I loved it all.
- Painted Hall: it's a hall with paintings on the ceiling and walls. Very pretty.
- Picadilly Circus: ooh, fun. Big and shiny.
- The 39 Steps: a hilarious comedy with four actors. A great way to end the day.
Tomorrow I'll have enough time to visit The Globe, hopefully meander a bit, and then catch my plane to an entirely different world.