Day Five

We spent the day in London and what a long day it was! Kate drove us to the train station this morning at 10:00AM and we just got home (11:45PM). We began the day at Liberty's - probably the most expensive and exclusive store in London. All the clothes, shoes, tableware, fabrics, you name it, there are designer labels. It was fun to poke around in all the various departments while Neil had a coffee and read his book at the cafe on the third floor. The cheapest scarf was $150.00Cdn. They were beautiful!
While walking in the direction of the National Gallery, we went by Hamley's, the 5 story toy store. I went immediately to the Schleich section and picked up about a dozen figurines of people, for my Playroom, that I hadn't ever seen in Canada. Neil bought a magic flying saucer.
Lunch was next on the agenda and we had a delicious pub lunch - Chicken curry sandwiches and fries.
We walked to the National Gallery after this and rented those electronic devices that tell you all about the painting and the painter at the touch of a button. We had a whirlwind tour of the Gallery because we had tickets to War Horse waiting for us at the theatre and we had to eat dinner first. Well, it seemed like a whirlwind tour but Neil assures me that we spent a good 3 hours there! It would take days to see and appreciate everything. And we didn't even make it to any of the 3 gift shops!
Neil was most impressed by the 15th century paintings with all the gold leaf and intricate details. We also saw a painting of a royal young woman from Europe who was being considered for marriage by Henry VIII. He didn't like her plain looks and rejected her as a candidate. Lucky her!
The water lilly and iris paintings by Manet were spectacular and of course I loved all of Van Gogh's paintings. Must be something about my Dutch birth.
We hoofed it over to the theatre to pick up our tickets and then had a lasagna dinner at a little restaurant called Canela in the theatre district. The play War Horse was just spectacular. It was about 3 hours long including the intermission. The stars of the show were the huge, life-size horse puppets operated by 3 men each. The story is emotionally powerful and there weren't many dry eyes in the theatre at the end of the show.
We walked to the Tube Station and when I went to get out my All Day Ticket, from my pocket, it had disappeared! Well, then I had to buy another ticket to get me home to Beckenham on the Tube and the train. That was a nasty surprise! Nevertheless, we had a wonderful day and an invigorating 20 minute walk back to Kate's from Beckenham train station.