Another amazing day in London. Feeling so incredibly lucky to be here!

This morning we paid a visit to The Swan, a restaurant Ray remembered fondly from a previous trip, for their (huge!) English Breakfast (beans, eggs, tomatoes, sausage, and back bacon + coffee).

I about lost it when a pair of chimney sweeps came in to clean the fireplace! Granted, they carried their brushes in a golf bag and had a camera attachment to do their chimney-oscopy, but still! Ray also overheard what sounded like a private eye chatting with one of his customers. What is this place?

We took a lovely walk through Hyde Park. There was a flock of parrots hanging out around a tree. We got them to land on our hands!

 

 

 

 

Along with a couple of pigeons, too.

Before they flew away, frustrated that all we had to offer was grass …

Got to check out the “Summer Houses” – little structures built by architects from around the world.

We also saw loads of baby swans and ducks.

We went to the spectacular British Museum – got to see some grand and imposing Egyptian pieces (including sarcophagi, heads of colossal statues, and sphinxes) as well as the Rosetta Stone. In lieu of going to Greece, we were able to see major pieces of the Parthenon including the marble statues depicting the birth of Athena from the pediments of the Parthenon. So astonishing the detail of the fabrics, and how accurately they captured movement in stone. Oh, and the dalek.

Ended our extremely brief visit with a tour of the European gallery. One of my favorite pieces was a depiction of Jesus’ childhood, in which he killed kids that bullied him (bringing them back to life when he was inevitably punished) and pulled his friends (whose parents had locked them up to keep them from playing with Jesus) through keyholes in doors.

Next we made our way back to the Southbank, at my insistence, to see the parliament buildings, Big Ben, etc. from the other side of the river. It was rather lovely save for the enormous crowds flocked around the base of the London Eye. From there we walked over to the Tate Modern art museum. We got to see three Mondrians and a ton of political pieces from around the world, including this model of Ghardaia, a town in Algeria, made entirely out of couscous.

We headed back to the West End to eat at Mother Mash. With a primary focus on mashed potatoes, I’d been looking forward to eating at this establishment this forever. I had “bubble and squeak” potatoes with a mincemeat pie, parsley gravy, and a dandelion soda.

With a toffee pudding with custard for dessert. It was pretty okay.

We’re calling it another early evening in order to get prepared for our train ride to Edinburgh tomorrow!

Signing off,

Jessie