Wednesday, July 12, 2023 

Chill morning. I have breakfast and try and fail once again to write, and then eventually we head out for another jam-packed day.  First stop is the Museum of Brands, since it’s right around the corner from our flat. It’s extremely random and specific but very cool. It’s a collection of the history of the branding of some recognizable UK products, from Cadbury’s chocolate to Fairy washing up liquid (that’s dish soap for all the Americans tuning in at home).  The collection also includes some dolls and stuffed animals from various periods of time from the Victorian era to the present. Some have very intense eyes. I crack myself up looking at them. 

The exhibit is a kind of timeline for understanding how branding changed over time, but it’s also a kind of cultural time capsule for prominent periods in both British and world history. Unfortunately, they do not have Revels, but I suppose not everyone is as obsessed with them as I am. Shame. We discover, upon leaving, that the museum also has a beautiful garden. London: where there is tucked-away beauty in the most unexpected places. 

We hop on the bus and take it to Royal Albert Hall, where we get off and walk to the Natural History Museum. It’s one museum in London I’d not been to before today, and within a minute of being around it I see why I might have avoided it in the summer before. Massive school groups are there, speaking many different languages, as are families with squirmy, dinosaur-crazed children itching to get their germy hands on so many surfaces. Thankfully it’s free to go in, otherwise I’d feel pretty bad about the forty-five minutes (an achievement, really, given the crowds) we spent there mostly just trying to find the blue whale skeleton in Hintze Hall.

We do find it, and then a huge room with the rocks and minerals collection. This one is pretty amazing. It rocks. It has all the original wooden displays from when the museum first opened. It takes a good chunk of time to make it through the rows upon rows of rocks from all over the world (hooray imperialism!), and when I do, I have a greater appreciation for all the varieties of rock. Not that I could name them.

We take a little stroll through the Vault, which houses some of the museum’s most valuable gemstones, and then after a father shoves in front of mom to take a picture of his kid next to a big topaz, we’re really done and we get the heck out of there. I feel like I’m gasping for breath after a deep sea dive when I finally get back outside. We find a bookstore and I spend a few minutes in there recovering.

Our next stop is Soho to visit Liberty, another historic and iconic bougie store. They used to carry Tilly and the Buttons sewing patterns here, but I look again today and can’t find them. Bummer. I love those patterns. But it’s fun to walk around and check out all the clothes that cost more than rent and look at the old creaky building. 

Our final leg of today’s adventure is the London Eye, the enormous ferris wheel-like structure that sits right on the Thames. It’s one extremely touristy London thing I’ve never done, and we get tickets right before closing. There are enclosed pods, and the door opens as the wheel is moving, you go in, then they close it behind you, and you’re essentially in a little glass egg room on a wheel above the city.

The weather is perfect today, and the sun is approaching the horizon as we take flight. You can see the whole of London up there, from the City to Westminster and beyond. The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben stand out, as does the Shard, St. Paul’s, and the Ministry of Defense. Sure, yeah, it was a lot of money, and the people in our pod were annoying, and it’s a stereotypical tourist thing, but who cares honestly. It was amazing, and I’m so glad we did it.

We consider going to Dishoom in Kensington for dinner because I went to the Covent Garden one the last time I was here and it was delicious, but my data isn’t working so we cobble together a route using our rudimentary knowledge of the Tube, assisted by station maps, and wind up missing two trains that had just departed and skipping one because it was filled to the brim with more international preteens on school trips. We wind up just deciding that it’s late, the premade meals at Sainsbury’s will do just fine, and we take the Circle line back to Ladbroke Grove. 

Another adventurous day. And I didn’t buy a single knickknack! Let this achievement be known. Cornwall tomorrow, the last leg of our adventure. Time for all the pasties, a hilly coast walk, and Shakespeare at the Minack.