Sue and Dana wanted to go back to the Camden markets, so we decided to split up Thursday morning. They headed north and I headed towards the Victoria & Albert museum. Once again, I seemed to be on the protest circuit, and my taxi was rerouted due to protests in the area - this time against the UK's involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was the amazing police presence, first vehicles then personnel, that caught our attention first. Because of the protest, the taxi dropped me off a bit further from my destination than expected, but I enjoyed the walk along the street. I love to look at architecture and the V&A and its neighbor, the Natural History museum were splendid buildings to gawk at.
A friend from the UK has been sending me postcards from various V&A exhibits for a couple of years now and she has been correct all along that I would love it. Like most museums, it's exhibits bring out a sense of wonder and awe, but additionally, I found the V&A to be truly inspiring. There is a kind of creative power that rises from the exhibits like scent from a flower (or steam from a hot fish pie which I had in the cafe there), and taking a deep breath of it is heady stuff. Honestly, just the first few exhibits left me verklempted and I was only in the gift shop at the time! Garden sculpture, miniature portraits, the history of jewelry, Japanese textiles, costuming for the theater, silversmithing, furniture, photography, lace-making, and embroidery (and so much more). By the time I saw the large pieces of Belgian lace, it brought tears to my eyes. I saw lace-makers working with their bobbins on small pieces when I was in Brugge 10 years ago, and to imagine the amount of skill and time to produce such a large piece...
It seems one can only handle 3 or 4 hours at best in any museum and I was done in by mid-afternoon. I was expecting to meet the other two back at the hotel room around 4 pm.
We had had a lot of very delicious pub food during our visit. It seemed that each time we decided we were hungry and wanted a place to sit and relax, warm up and dry off, the pubs were the only thing available, but on this last night in the UK, I wanted some ethnic food. It seemed most of the notable ethnic restaurants were further away from where we were staying but with some research I found Masala Zone in Covent Garden. Not only was their food delicious, but their decor was divine, and prices were quite reasonable. From the ceiling hung several hundred colorful marionettes from Rajasthan. It was a terrific end to the day. Photos: 1: the front of the V&A 2.the police presence. The protesters were in front of them. 3. a closeup of part of the lace piece 4. the ceiling of Covent Garden's Masala Zone restaurant
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