Duds, dinosaurs and deliciousness
We had a good start, getting up and out the door to be at the British Library when it opened (9:30am). It was amusing to see a line up going in when we arrived, but we managed to grab comfy seats with outlets. We toiled away for a few hours before heading out to enjoy the sunshine. D wanted to head back to the Monmouth Coffee shop for a wee dram of delicious espresso, so we tubed over to the Seven Dials area. We stopped in at a fancy French restaurant in Covent Garden that had gotten good reviews to make a reservation for Friday night before walking up to the coffee shop. Tasty espresso downed, we headed out towards Piccadilly Circus, as I wanted to take D to see Carnaby Street. We poked around a few shops, grabbed sandwiches at Pret A Manger before checking out the swanky Liberty department store. Its interior were very nice, lots of carved wood and a soaring lobby. It was the Apple store next, as D wanted to have a look at the new 27” iMacs in all their glory. In light of our fancy dinner, we were also on the lookout for something suitable for me to wear (I didn’t bring slacks, but I could probably cobble something presentable together…though this was more fun). We ended up in Ted Baker, a London designer that was relatively reasonably priced (on par with Club Monaco), and tried on a slew of items. I found a chic little black dress, and a girl always needs a good “little black dress”, and a nice pair of jeans. My first clothing purchases of the trip!
We then hopped on the tube and headed over to South Kensington, as D was eager to visit the dinosaurs again at the Natural History Museum. It really is nice that these museums are free. The station was literally around the corner for the museum, so we were soon staring up at its magnificent façade. This building is probably one of my favourites in London; it has such beautiful stone work. D pointed out that the gargoyles are actually things like sabretooths, giant sloths and other extinct animals (e.g. dionyccus). We made our way through the dinosaur exhibit, and it was significantly less crowded than the last time we saw it, so we were able to actually take our time and read all the information. After we’d had our fill (and bought a cute coffee mug), we went up the street to check-out Harrod’s, an old, massive department store that was reputed to have tasty food halls. It was quite the store, with an Egyptian-themed room, an oyster and caviar bar, sweets room and tasty food galore. Caught a glimpse of white truffles, going for £5000 per kg. We settled on having a few Krispy Kreme doughnuts at their in-store Krispy Kreme (go figure) to tide us over until dinner. D and I were both feeling quite beat, so we ended up heading back to the hotel to grab food nearby (Burger King and McDonald’s, respectively) and watching TV for the evening.
