Get In The Car

Meltdown and Lunch at the V&A

Despite exhaustion at the Museum of Natural History, I knew I needed more than fresh air. I needed lunch. Next door was the Victoria and Albert, a museum "I" liked and I was pretty sure they had a restaurant/cafe/something. By the time we found it, I was a cranky child ready to burst into tears, and dh was losing patience with me. There was a line but it was the kind of line situation where you get hot drinks here, cold drinks there, food there, and I didn't KNOW what I wanted. I kind of just despaired and told dh to get me anything...anything...because the tears were on the brink, and I could have flung myself down on the cold floor and wailed. Some level of maturity prevented this and I said "I'll find seats..." and ran away to get myself back into calm adult mode.

I was feeling myself get collected and centered when a mother and adult son and daughter appeared at the table next to ours. The tables were fairly small and certainly designed for two. Mum and son dashed off and 30ish (?) daughter was left. I quickly realized daughter was not quite 'all there' as she asked me questions and proffered her own blunt, unhappy responses to my brief comments. It was rather ironic that she had the same complaints...too many people, too noisy, too ..too. I longed for dh to return and get me out of this conversation that was not going well. If I didn't talk, she glared. If I made a remark or asked a question she didn't like, she glared and pretty much told me I should have known better.

DH arrived with tea for me and coffee for him and some hot meal. It fades in my mind. Once the table was 'covered' by dh's presence, I was able to get up and get some cold water also. I was finally back on level ground. While we ate, mum and son came back, and I realized Mum truly had her hands full with both her 'children'. Both of these adult/children had issues, and bickered back and forth repetitively about minute details of their food all the while we were there. Mum was unphased and I give her a lot of credit for raising these two for obviously a long time.

On our way out, we walked thru here and a few other galleries.

original by canmark

I did a bit of walk around on my own while dh had a slight nap in one of he galleries. I loved so many things in the shop but even then, I had reached my own limit. DH got on the bus and I took the walk home, and by evening, I was no longer out of sorts. I think this happens about once a trip and then I'm back to normal. How about you? What causes your meltdown on a trip?

Lovin' London

For once, we were now in a European city we had been in together. I was glad to see dh had had his appetite whetted from the visit in 2007. We'd hit a lot of the major sites then and now it was time to go back to what we liked and explore new places. Oh, and find good food. That was easier in some ways this time and the dollar was a lot stronger and we didn't gasp each time we had to spend money.

We got our Oyster cards out again, topped them up and arrived at our Marriott on Gloucester Road. This was close to the Gloucester Rd tube station as well as the Earl's Court one. Good spot, plus there was a Sainsbury's across the street, and a Waitrose down by the GR station. No shortage of food, except we arrived on Sunday night and walked across the street about 10 min after Sainsburys closed. Lesson learned.

Monday we decided to do museums. They weren't too far of a walk from the hotel, and they were free. I voted for V&A but dh wanted Natural History. Deciding to be gracious for a change, we went to Natural History. Don' t you love that stone?

and a gargoyle here and there

How did we manage, again, to coincide with British school holidays?? Ah yes, February in Europe!

Fortunately, they were (mostly) going to the Darwin exhibit, we weren't, so right past we went. Still, there were families and children everywhere along with dead animals in glass cases. (Well, Natural History so it was really no surprise...)

Eventually after seeing many stuffed animals, I could no longer take the decibel level and sat down and prayed to heaven for quiet. Looking UP was better. Heaven was in the ceiling

DH pointed this out to me! Click to see what startled me so much.

Even after letting dh wander about by himself for a while, I was done. Stick a fork in me done and seriously needed fresh air. But there were some lovely things to see on the way. Beautiful walls.

A fun gift shop with quiet children

Detailed floors

but it takes younger knees than mine to kneel and that tile work for one, and to even consider getting back up for two!

It was serious time for fresh air. So Adios, Museum, I'll see you another year.

09 Driving up to London

Packing up wasn't a lot of fun, but we did it without the gnashing of teeth that it could have been. We had eaten up almost all our food, and the clothes were washed and dried so we were set for our next week in London.

While we were back in the US, we had grand ideas of what to do on the day that was between our departure from Kent and our stay in London. As the week wore on, it was pretty clear that we didn't have to go very far to see a lot so we extended our week at Broome Park for one day and that was a really good move. But we had to check out by 10am and so what to see on the way to Gatwick where we'd leave the car.

Chartwell! seemed perfect for the history buff and appealed to me too. Our map reading was getting darn good and in combo with our GPS we found it pretty easily as we made our way thru toney homes and parks. Lots of signs guiding us along also. But oh... the house at Chartwell was closed for more of the winter. Somehow we missed that.

But we found ourselves among a lot of people and it turned out that there was a car rally that day. It was fun to watch them talk it thru and then all head out together.

We had brought sandwiches and the bits and pieces(that clean out the fridge bit) so we sat in the car and had 'lunch at Chartwell'! Back on the road to London I really wanted a cup of tea or something and dh had recalled a pub that was ancient.

It turned out that there was a gathering of the Bentley Car Club and I do think dh wears this car well!