Day 3

Friday May 27

We slept very soundly and couldn't believe that it was already 8 am when we woke up. I went to the tea/coffee station down the hall opposite the elevator and made our first cup of tea we usually have. That station was excellent with instant hot water and excellent throw-away cups which were so good that we used them again the whole time. You didn't burn yourself carrying them.

We had to hurry a little and went without breakfast because we were not really hungry.

We had those tickets for the British Museum for 10:30 am and set off to make our way across the Waterloo Bridge. More lovely views from there.

When we finally reached the museum we could not believe the queue all along the fence to the gate and more inside to the tent to search bags. We thought we could just go to the gate since we had tickets and the website had said to better get them because there could be a line but were told it didn't make a difference.

It didn't actually take too long.

The reason why we wanted to go to this museum was a movie we had seen some time ago. I had written about it in this blog HERE!

So room 41 was were we went first. We were not disappointed. Just awesome what was found. So interesting. Really a must see.

Soon we found though that we were still dehydrated and not having had breakfast was catching up with us. We found this cafe (photo taken later from the stairs going up) and got a sandwich we shared and 2 bottles of water which we kept when empty and kept refilling them. A couple sat opposite of us on the long table and we started chatting. It was a very lively discussion and very funny. But finally it was time to continue.

We were back to room 41 but oh, there was so much to see on the way to it.

Like this Royal Game of Ur from 2600-2300 BC.

Or this little bronze figure (about 2 or 3 inches) from AD 100-200.

I took a lot of photos and had a difficult time to decide which ones to include here. I think whatever I do will not explain it anyway.

Of course a lot of the items found had partly decayed and several items were replicas. It was very impressive how archiologists can figure out how something used to be. In this photo fragments on the wall show parts of the chain which was found from which they recreated the item.

As with many items in the museum it is so impressive what people used to make with the tools they used to have at their time.

When we decided we were on 'brain overload' we still had to stop and marvel at things while on the way out. This is a medieval chess set which was carved walrus ivory and whale teeth (I don't know when). I was happy to read that the ivory used was from collected tusks from long dead anymals. 

It was after 1 pm when we finally had left and felt very dehydrated, something we did about across the street.

When we walked further we couldn't pass a pub which advertised real British cooking. And yes, it was. James' fish and chips was how I remembered it should be and my beef ragout pie was piping hot as it should be and delicious.

Picadilly Circle

The way to Buckingham Palace was being decorated for the Platinum Jubilee Celebration.

This is how far we were allowed to walk to it.

The walk back through St. James's Park was lovely. But an icecream from a little hut and a bench next to the pond was just the thing.

At the edge of the Park we came to .....

Honestly, we had walked a lot and were a bit tired. A good thing to do was to take a boat ride on the Thames. We were so lucky with the weather all this time. Westminster Pier!

We went further than Tower bridge and stopped at another pier to let passengers off/on.

We saw that some buses, cars and pedestrians had stopped on the bridge before the towers on each side. That means that the bridge was going to open for a bigger ship to go through. 

But there was no big (high) ship and the bridge only opened a little and then closed right away. I thought there must have been a malfunction. Ha-ha, quite entertaining though.

When we were off the boat we changed our plans. Too early to go back to the hotel. More liquid. And may be a little something to eat. We wandered about. This pub was promising. We found something on the menu we would have liked to order ... but they were out of it.

We wandered a little more. It is just so lovely to walk through the streets with lots of pedestrian areas and tables outside. This was an italian restaurant but the people were so nice. A fun place.

James had Pappardelle with wild boar ragout. I had tagliolini crab chili (Devon crab). It was very tasty.

And very unusual for us: we also had dessert. James had tiramisu. 

I could not resist the cannoli I had never had. 

I asked the Italian young server girl how it should be eaten because the spoon just didn't look practical. She said she would use fingers. I think the spoon would have made it hop off the plate. And yes, it was excellent. We discussed our dessert and their dessert with the people on the next table. So much fun.

Yes, it was good.

We made our way back over a different bridge. The Jubilee Bridge.

A lovely view from that bridge. 

It didn't take us long to fall into bed when we had reached to hotel. 22,756 steps!