Wednesday - May 10, 2017 - The Victoria and Albert Museum and the Natural History Museum and ABBA!

Well, time is running away and we have done so much. At the V&A we visited the British section that includes Mary Queen of Scots' embroidery. It's the second time I have seen that display and the small pieces always amaze me with their tiny cross stitches and beautiful shading. We looked at British historical costumes, furniture, jewelry, bobbin lace, and tapestries. Of course, there was the visit to the Gift Shop which has been remodeled and that made it easier to spend money! We were too early for The Pink Floyd Exhibit so that might require another trip back!

The museum is vast and because Mary and I have both been here several times we opted for just the British section. On the way to the British section we saw the immense cartoons for tapestries that Raphael had designed for the weaving process.. The museum is vast, ornate, not air-conditioned and it would require days and days to see everything! We visited an exhibit on Space that focused on refugees and how space is allocated for refugee camps. The photographs were taken using heat sensing cameras and they were fascinating to look at.

Across the street is the Natural History Museum and that was my first visit. We toured the Earth's Treasury which focused on gems and minerals - I'm always interested in looking st the patterns and colors of gems and minerals and I took a lot of pictures. Mary explored the Dinosaur section and I visited the National Wildlife Photographers' exhibit; what marvelous pictures of birds, animals, people working in zoos, sand and oceans, whales, baby lions, and patterns in nature!

We walked down a hallway filled with stuffed Dodo birds, a huge hummingbird nest display and wing and foot bones from birds.  We visited The Cocoon which looks like a giant white multi-story cocoon and we walked down a circular ramp learning about DNA in animals, insects, how scientists do research, and much more.

One of the most fascinating hallway galleries was Images of Nature. The long corridor was filled with historic illustrations for books on nature, photographs, and journals. There were lots of schoolchildren again, harried teachers and parent chaperones, and it made me realize once again the joy of retirement!

Since our hotel is across the street it made for a short walk, but you can't imagine how many steps it takes inside these cavernous museums! 

Well, our next adventure was walking up toward Hyde Park to The Royal Albert Hall, the historic round entertainment venue. We had dinner at The Elgar Room and I ate hangar steak again and had a lemon tart for dessert and Mary had fish and creme brûlée! We finished our meal just in time to walk downstairs and find our seats. Abbaphonic turned out to be a fabulous retrospective to the musical group ABBA! There were many thousands of filled seats, people dancing and clapping, and it was such a feel good type of concert. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!!

Another marvelous day in London Town!