London (Day 4)
This morning, I woke up in a teensy tiny room at the Rhodes. To give you a sense of how tiny, note that my husband would not fit in this room. Literally. It's exactly as wide as a twin bed, and Jeff is longer than a twin bed. Lengthwise, I think he'd just fit, though only if the bed were removed first, and only then if no one needed to open the bathroom door. So technically, he'd fit, but be extremely grumpy about it.
I don't mind, though. It's actually quite cozy and I knew what I was getting when I booked it. It's a nice place - clean, friendly owners, £60 per night and best of all, in an area I'm now quite familiar with, and two blocks away from Paddington. In other words, a steal for the location.
My first order of the day was to go for a run around Hyde Park. If you're one of the three followers of this blog, you might recall that last time I attempted this route, it took me an unexpected three hours on account of a tea detour midway through. This time, however, I managed to get through the run without any detours. However, having run by the Orangery, I decided I was in desperate need of a post-run scone, and so Zach and I started by eating breakfast there. Before going, I bought train tickets for Cardiff tomorrow, so I'm all set on that front. Yay!
After a leisurely breakfast, we went to the British Museum. This was my third time there, and I still think there may be rooms I've never set foot in. If I lived in London, I would declare one month of every year to be British Museum month, and go there every weekend until I at least saw all the rooms! (I announced this to Zach and pointed out that I would know everything by the time I finished. He seemed dubious.) This time, we rented the audio tour, which was quite good. There was a whole hour on the Elgin marbles, which was really nice. Since we only got there in the afternoon and lingered around the Egyptian and Greek rooms, we didn't finish the tour. Highlights this time for me were the astrolabe and "science equipment exhibit" in Room 1, seeing the world's oldest board game as graffiti on one of the other pieces, and an amazing blue glass vase from Roman times (the Portland Vase).
After the Museum, Zach and I went to The Victoria - a tavern near the hotel that I've tried to go to, unsuccessfully, twice before. (Both times, it was FAR too full to eat at.) The third time was the charm, though, and I had a quite lovely steak pie with a Fullers Chiswick bitter. The bitter was definitely different than any US beer; it wasn't ... carbonated (? is that the right word for the bubbles in beer?) at all. Interesting, though I'd probably try something different later.
Back in my room now, with a bathroom full of laundry (running really made the laundry situation get out of hand, prior to that I was totally on top of it). I'd take a picture, but I will maintain my vow of last trip to avoid resorting to pictures of my small clothes to gain and retain readership.
Photos from today begin here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2665455&id=637646375
I don't mind, though. It's actually quite cozy and I knew what I was getting when I booked it. It's a nice place - clean, friendly owners, £60 per night and best of all, in an area I'm now quite familiar with, and two blocks away from Paddington. In other words, a steal for the location.
My first order of the day was to go for a run around Hyde Park. If you're one of the three followers of this blog, you might recall that last time I attempted this route, it took me an unexpected three hours on account of a tea detour midway through. This time, however, I managed to get through the run without any detours. However, having run by the Orangery, I decided I was in desperate need of a post-run scone, and so Zach and I started by eating breakfast there. Before going, I bought train tickets for Cardiff tomorrow, so I'm all set on that front. Yay!
After a leisurely breakfast, we went to the British Museum. This was my third time there, and I still think there may be rooms I've never set foot in. If I lived in London, I would declare one month of every year to be British Museum month, and go there every weekend until I at least saw all the rooms! (I announced this to Zach and pointed out that I would know everything by the time I finished. He seemed dubious.) This time, we rented the audio tour, which was quite good. There was a whole hour on the Elgin marbles, which was really nice. Since we only got there in the afternoon and lingered around the Egyptian and Greek rooms, we didn't finish the tour. Highlights this time for me were the astrolabe and "science equipment exhibit" in Room 1, seeing the world's oldest board game as graffiti on one of the other pieces, and an amazing blue glass vase from Roman times (the Portland Vase).
After the Museum, Zach and I went to The Victoria - a tavern near the hotel that I've tried to go to, unsuccessfully, twice before. (Both times, it was FAR too full to eat at.) The third time was the charm, though, and I had a quite lovely steak pie with a Fullers Chiswick bitter. The bitter was definitely different than any US beer; it wasn't ... carbonated (? is that the right word for the bubbles in beer?) at all. Interesting, though I'd probably try something different later.
Back in my room now, with a bathroom full of laundry (running really made the laundry situation get out of hand, prior to that I was totally on top of it). I'd take a picture, but I will maintain my vow of last trip to avoid resorting to pictures of my small clothes to gain and retain readership.
Photos from today begin here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2665455&id=637646375