Victoria, Albert, and Natural History

Wednesday began as a cool, rainy day, but we did not let the weather deter us. We grabbed our rain gear, hailed a taxi, and determined to visit some museums that we had never seen before. Our first stop was the Victoria and Albert Museum near Hyde and Kensington Parks. It's a museum of design, massive and very attractive from the outside.

When we entered the museum, our eyes were drawn to the ceiling and this beautiful Chihuly hanging glass sculpture:

The featured exhibit of Frida Kahlo attracted many high school students, but we ventured into the Medieval/Renaissance area of the museum. There we found some lovely sculptures and pieces from the 1500's that had been removed from old churches.

This lovely sculpture of David slaying Goliath caught our eye:

This modern towering sculpture features nothing but human legs:

Below is a "Doorway Lintel" dating from 1450-1500, from Genoa, Italy. In Genoa, the houses were often built on narrow, steep streets. This made the lintel the best place for any exterior decoration. It was often carved with images of the Annunciation, or of St. George and the Dragon, such as below. These images signaled the piety of the owner and sometimes included religious inscriptions.

There was a whole floor in the museum devoted to Ceramics. Here we learned about the evolution of ceramics, and there were thousands of examples. If you were an art student, you could spend years in this museum studying details about this subject alone.

This exhibit between floors of suspended pressed instruments caught our eye:

After a while, we moved on and walked to the Museum of Natural History next door. Many young students were exploring this museum while we were there. Here we learned about the evolution of man, illustrated by many human skulls. It was fascinating to learn about Neanderthals and other species that came before Homo Sapiens. (If you are a Creationist, this would be a difficult museum for you to process.)

This photogenic escalator was found in the museum:

They also had a very good exhibit about volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis. Both museums were fascinating! There is also a Science Museum adjacent to the other two, that we plan to visit on another day.

Since the rain stopped, we decided to walk back to our hotel from the museums. Along the way, we were pleasantly surprised to come upon Harrod's department store. Like Selfridge's, it takes up an entire city block:

We saved that shopping experience for another day.

When we reached the end of Hyde Park, we found the lovely Queen Elizabeth Gate:

We were interested in returning to our hotel so that we could partake of High Tea in place of lunch. If you have never had high tea, it is generally served in the middle of the day. You are given finger sandwiches, many small desserts, and your choice of tea, of course. It is a feast for the eyes and stomach! This lovely lemonade was served to us first on dry ice:

Here we are with our tray of delectables:

Prior to dinner, we stopped into the hotel bar to hear a jazz quartet that was performing. After being on our feet for so long, it was wonderful to sit and enjoy some music!

For dinner, we tried an Italian restaurant in the Shepherd Market that was a close walk from our hotel. It was not the best Italian meal we've ever eaten, but we appreciated not having to venture far for our meal!