Dodged Tourists in London

One of my Colby roommates emailed back in January to say that she and her (British) husband were going to be visiting the UK in March and to ask if I wanted to meet up. Um, yes!

We had a relatively unstructured day, which began by a fabulous meander through the good old V&A. I think it might be my favourite museum on the planet. Second favourite: Musee d'Orsay in Paris, third favourite Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Anyway.

Ironwork, because it's awesome.

I mean, seriously, this tin. Not sure why it's in the museum but it's brilliant.

Mannequins, having some sort of meeting:

Glass:

A pac-man ghost (not really):

We also went through the Ceramics section, where they truly have All The Things. Why have one example of a particular style of pottery, when you can have hundreds!? Also, put them all in a huge room, stacked floor to ceiling and several layers deep. That's not overwhelming at all.

Once we'd had enough museum-standing, we tried to go to Tombo for lunch, but it was packed. We ended up at another Japanese cafe around the corner, which was perfectly tasty but essentially unremarkable.

We hopped onto the Tube up to Hyde Park Corner, where we selfied.

Note: we spent All Bloody Day dodging selfie-stick-wielding tourists. Not cool. This selfie was taken with my arm only and no mechanical assistance. Perfectly acceptable.

We popped by to say hi to HRH (my first time at Buckingham Palace since becoming one of her loyal subjects). Sadly, she did not come out to invite us in for tea. Must try harder next time.

We walked through the park, then across the bridge to the Eye.

London obliged with truly stunning skies and fabulously atmospheric lighting all afternoon.

Seriously. Look at those clouds behind Tower Bridge.

Ellie spotted this dignified statue, wearing a traffic cone at a rather jaunty angle:

Oh, ok, just a few more:

We stopped in to peer up at Lord Nelson, and then attempted to have an early supper at Dishoom. Yes, it was rated the Best Restaurant in the UK on Yelp earlier this year, but I figured dinner at 5pm would be safe. We were told that the wait for a table would be "about 70 minutes," which set us off on Plan B. Delhi Brasserie in Soho, right across from Bar Italia (and about 20 steps from our old London office). Very tasty and just what we needed.

After dinner, we decided that the day had been a roaring success and set off back to the sticks! (I drove to Blackhorse Road tube rather than wrestling with the railroad - it's about an hour and a quarter on the M11, and 30 mins on the tube into town - not bad, although I wouldn't want to attempt it on a weekday...)