Fun for me to say, “Great, Dad, see you at Leicester Square!”, referring to a particular London subway station. Traveling from India to the UK is a historical segué with a climatic contrast. Dad & Kathryn helped me put my luggage in storage and then we hopped on a double-decker bus for Hyde Park (nabbed seats in the very front of the top level, don’t you know). Kodak moment at one corner of Queen Victoria’s monument to Prince Albert: the corner representing the Americas. Brisk walk through the park rewarded by tea in the Orangery, a high-ceilinged room, gleaming white, bathed in soft overcast light. At the Victoria & Albert Museum, we saw some incredible tapestries and the Great Bed of Ware, which was mentioned in Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”. Enjoyed lunch in the V&A’s William Morris room, then saw ice skaters and a dinosaur skeleton at the Natural History Museum. Off to meet friends from International Space University -- reminisced about ski trips with the European Alumni Association, and caught up on career and personal happenings. Hooray for Old Speckled Hen Cask Ale. Made our way back home to Royal Tunbridge Wells, in Kent, about an hour train ride south of London.
Outside the Victoria & Albert Museum
Inside the Victoria & Albert Museum (glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly of the Seattle area)
Skaters outside the Natural History Museum
