Recalling London

Day Six - Speaker's Corner, Harrod's, and museums

Sunday morning came, and once again we eased into the day slowly, lingering over another delicious brunch of eggs, fruit, bread, and pastries. Kerah and I were amazed at what great hosts John and Tess were. Not that we expected them to be crummy hosts, mind you, but they went way above our expectations. Maybe it had something to do with John plying us with booze at every opportunity, or maybe they're just super people. Actually, I'm going to go with "both" on that one.

Once we finished breakfast and everyone had completed their morning ablutions, we set off on another day of adventures. This time our goal was to visit the famous department store Harrod's and tour a couple museums. But before we would get to those things, we stopped by Speaker's Corner.

Christian Atheist at Speakers Corner
A Christian Atheist at Speakers Corner
Speaker's Corner is located in Hyde Park, and was created in 1872 as an outlet for free expression of opinion. Anyone with something to say is free to come here and rant about it. Soapboxes, flags, and slogan-bearing placards abound, with crowds of people gathering around the more engaging speakers. Some people come to heckle, some come to gawk, and some come for a lively debate. It's an excellent demonstration of free speech, and I'd recommend it to anyone who's visiting London. My favorite speakers didn't actually speak. One was on a soapbox all by himself, wearing a sign reading "Christian Atheism." The other was a guy in the crowd wearing a sign that said, "It's Going to Get Worse." We wandered around for a while and listened to a few more speakers, but started getting cold after a bit and decided to forge ahead.

Harrods Christmas 2001 display
Some severe-looking mannequins at Harrods
Our next destination was Harrods, the world-famous department store. The air was crisp and Christmas-y, and it almost seemed that it could snow. The window displays were rather something, dripping with Warovski crystals, which shimmered and danced around rather severe-looking mannequins. We went into the Food Halls, which held all manner of goodies. We picked out some baklava and Kerah got some tea for her mum, by which point I having a full-on claustrophic moment. We did a quick fly-by of some of the crazy expensive wares on display, dawdling only to admire some groovy silk-screened purses before we found the relative calm of the Knightsbridge sidewalk.

Chihuly chandelier at the Victoria & Albert Museum
Groovy Chihuly chandelier at the V&A museum
We kept on walking to the Victoria and Albert Museum, where we were delighted to find an enormous glass chandelier by Dale Chihuly, one of Kerah's favorite artists. She and Tess stayed at the V&A for an exhibit called "Radical Fashion," while John and I hoofed on over to The Natural History Museum. There we perused both the Earth and the Life galleries. The Life galleries might have more accurately been named the Death galleries, since everything in there was either a skeleton or stuffed and mounted. Despite the lack of anything living, we had a great time looking at rocks and dead things.

Around closing time, we headed back to collect the girls at the V&A. There we learned that they had somehow separated, and spent a few hours wondering where the other was. Bad luck, that. With everyone finally together, we set off again, this time for Trader Vic's. I was keen to get a piña colada because of a line in Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London":

"I saw a werewolf drinkin' a piña colada at Trader Vic's.
His hair was perfect."

Apparently much has changed since Warren wrote that song, because Trader Vic's no longer has piña coladas on the menu. The do have really expensive drinks, though, and very surly waitresses. Ours seemed to think that we were a terrible bother. It took her about 15 minutes to take our order, and when she did she couldn't conceal her disdain. Kerah ordered a drink that was supposed to come with a little plastic parrot. The waitress curtly informed her that they were all out of parrots. Kerah asked, "Seriously?" and the waitress replied "Seriously," laced with the kind of contempt normally only seen in teenagers talking to their parents. She wouldn't substitute another silly plastic thing in its place, either. When I asked about the lack of piña coladas, she told me that if it's not on the menu she couldn't help me. Wanting to get something similar enough to fulfill my geeky werewolf crusade, I ordered a Bahia, which has rum, coconut, and pineapple. She actually laughed at me as she wrote down the order. And it wasn't in the "Isn't that cute?" way. It was in that "You are a total twat" kind of way. We finished up our drinks, and headed out in search of our next adventure. In lieu of the plastic parrot, Kerah swiped a menu, which I periodically search in vain for a piña colada. I still haven't found it.

McLaren F1
The one million dollar McLaren F1
As we wandered in the general direction of home, we happened to pass the McLaren dealership. For those who've never heard of them, McLaren is really big in the world of racing. They made a small foray into road cars with the McLaren F1. They only made about 100 of them, and there was a little sign in the window that explained that they became available from time-to-time, and they maintained this little showroom for those occasions when one was on the market. This one looked pretty sweet, and carried a pricetag of ~£650,000, or one million dollars. We gawked for a while, and took a few pictures, but soon a light rain got the best of us and we said goodbye to the lovely supercar.

I had been jonesing for some sushi, so we stopped at the Tokyo Diner for dinner. It wasn't the best sushi I've ever had, but it was quite good for the price. I was especially surprised at how affordable it was given its proximity to Leicester Square.

Properly sated, we went home for a rousing evening of cards. John taught us euchre, which has become on of my favorite games, and I gave a cribbage lesson to Kerah, Tess, and John. They had all played but needed a refresher. They caught on quite quickly, and John made us the house cocktail - "The Classique" - named after their blender. They were mighty tasty, and a pleasant time was had by all.

> Day Seven - Shopping around Oxford Street >