Thursday 23 Aug 2018 – London

We did the National Gallery today. It had a nice collection of impressionists – our favorites. The architecture was also a big feature for us.

When in London one must have tea, high tea. Done right, it is an elaborate affair in a “royal” setting. We booked high tea at the Café Royal Hotel in Piccadilly. It starts out with your selection of a tea from maybe 20 and a glass of champagne. The first course includes little sandwiches, the kind with the crusts cut off. Then there is a break for an aperitif – a concoction with several fruit juices. Following that are scones with clotted cream and jam and little dessert pastries. It all took over an hour. Many of the guests were Asian or Middle Eastern maybe because of the price.

Our friends, Peter and Barbara, arranged tickets for all of us to the London showing of Hamilton. We were afraid we wouldn’t understand the rap music, so we had been furiously studying the life of Hamilton and listening to the music on Amazon Prime. In the end it was a wonderful play. The acting and dancing were very dynamic and the songs packed a punch. The mostly British audience was very demonstrative and seemed to get all the jokes and jabs. My favorite characters were Arron Burr because he was the easies to understand and King George because he had the funniest lines.

Friday 24 Aug 2018 - London

We had a quiet morning working on logistic plans for the day and tomorrow when we must be at the start of our bus tour at 4:45 AM!

We had lunch at a typical English pub in Covent Gardens with Peter Brown, a British wellness colleague of Lauve’s. They had a good time reminiscing and talking about the current state of the field. Peter is a Conservative, so we got his views on why Brexit was good for the country – mainly because England has gotten soft economically and Brexit will require beneficial reforms. Lunch was great, but the main feature was beer, for at least Peter and me – lost count. It was great fun, but it did cut in to some of our time at the Victoria & Albert Museum. We dodged rain showers on our walk home across Hyde Park.

Victoria's memorial to her beloved Albert