LONDON AND AMSTERDAM 2013

September 12
Expanded bus tour took us through Mayfair and Kensington. One property in Kensington cost 300 million pounds. Mind boggling. Spent the afternoon at the magnificent Victoria and Albert museum, my current favorite London museum. It houses every form and era of art from every corner of the globe. Glass, porcelain, silver, fashion, sculpture and jewelry; rooms and rooms of treasures. It could be said that the British Empire pillaged the riches of the countries it colonized and explored but in the 21st century I'm grateful to the British taxpayers for the opportunity to visit all London museums for free.
We had a light lunch in the Pre-Raphaelite room adjacent to the V&A tearoom. The decor is 19th century elaborate, over the top elegance. Delicious.
Sat at a bus stop on the way back to the hotel and had a fun conversation with two little sisters and their mother from Kent. The older of the two was severely disabled and was on the way to a doctor's appointment. The little sister got off school in the bargain. We talked about pop music, who they liked and didn't. They were big fans of Emilie Sande. Both wanted to be actresses/singers and had already chosen their stage names. Reminded me of myself at their age and really made my day.

September 13
Moved on to the Grange Whitehall Hotel next to the British Museum. The Grange is an old world hotel housed in a Georgian building on a short block of Georgian buildings, literally right around the corner from the BM and Russell Square. We had a spacious room with an elegant decor. Great breakfast in the dining room overlooking a private garden. Really friendly and helpful staff and lots of American tourists.
We toured the library at the BM; a treasure trove not only of rare books but all form of ephemera so popular in the 18th century private collections of the upper class. Natural wonders of the world; shells, corals, gems, rocks, taxidermy, coins, pottery and an enormous collection of wax seals took hours to see. There was an exhibit of Meso American wall friezes and sculpture that was creatively curated.
Amazingly bad Italian take away spaghetti dinner in our room.

September 14
Another day at the British Museum. Very crowded. Paul pushed me in a wheelchair  today because of bad knees. Saw every manner of artifact from every century and culture. Viking hoards, mummies, Etruscan wall friezes. After a while it's a little overwhelming and needed a slow lunch in the restaurant. The Elgin marbles are so impressively displayed in the bright, white galleries lit by skylights overhead.

On the bus tour back to Bloomsbury we passed the tower of London via the Tower Bridge. I've seen so many films about King Henry VIII lopping off the heads of his wives, these places seem a little cinematic at first until it sank in that the tower has stood there since 1066 and that the people portrayed by so many actually walked these grounds, languished in the tower bridge prison and lost their heads on the grounds. It is sobering to think that this city and these buildings which have witnessed so much human history still stand. We Americans love to tear things down and build new things all the time.
London has its share of new architecture too. The bullet shaped building known to locals as the gherkin, the city hall they call the onion and an enormous tower nicknamed the shard.