London… been there, moving on…

Karen and I have done our best to experience everything we could from Tuesday afternoon through Thursday night. I think we did pretty well! We’ve eaten at pubs, and mastered getting around on the Tube.

We went to two shows! Matilda on Tuesday night and, sad to say, I did a bit of napping once the lights went down. I do, however, remember a lot of it. Last night we saw The Play That Goes Wrong and that is one funny play! No photos allowed during either so you just have to take my word for it.

We went to the Imperial War Museum which I might not have visited but it was high on Karen’s list. It is a find museum, and very moving. Only some areas could be photographed.

We went to Westminster Abbey. Again, no photos in most of it and honestly, that was OK. It makes you live in the moment. I visited with one guard who ended up showing me places upstairs where boys long ago dug there names into the stone. Some things never change.

Downstairs I visited with a young electrician who was working on rewiring one of the chandeliers. Eventually they will all be dimmable and have the ability to change color. Cool, right?

I did take some interesting photos where they were allowed.

We had afternoon tea at Fortnum and Mason on Wednesday. Very posh!

We did visit the other floors on our way out. What a beautiful building! We might have actually shopped if we hadn’t needed to make it to the show.

Thursday began with a visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum. Karen suggested we take the hour long tour to learn about the building. You know, I don’t usually do that and I really should because it was fantastic! This is a wonderful museum and I am going to have to come back when I can stay longer.

I took quick photos, focusing on patterns in ceilings and floors.

The image in the center of the next photo is tile work. Look close and you’ll see that it’s all painted on hexagonal tiles! It made me think of English paper piecing.

There are halls with life-size plaster cast reproductions of famous statues. As our guide explained, they capture this art as it was, exactly, when the cast was made. And the original idea still holds… for the average individual who cannot see the real thing, this is an excellent alternative.

If you get close, you can see the seams in the plaster.

We took the Tube to head over to the Tower Bridge area and got to visiting with a couple sitting across from us, Mandy and Collin. They were on their way to the Spitalfields Market. Not only did they tell us about it… they became our tour guide. Along the way we stopped at White Chapel and detoured through the neighborhood made famous by Jack the Ripper.

And we shopped at the market…

We walked past London Bridge and the Tower of London…

And then, finally, we went to Liberty of London!!!!!

I resisted the urge to buy a Unicorn head. They were a little scary.

I did come away with several lovely bundles of fabric and I fully expect to be sewing with them soon. Some will surely end up in my Hand Sewing Adventure quilt. And, just so you know, you can buy from Liberty of London online.

We walked a lot, saw a lot, visited with a lot of people and just generally had a wonderful time! Tomorrow we leave really early for Rome. Maybe I’ll have time to sew on Block 1 on the plane :-).