london 2011: the victoria + albert, harrods, kensington gardens,+ the white horse pub

On Saturday (February 12), we headed over to the Victoria and Albert Museum, a.k.a "the V & A". It is located in South Kensington, and is the world's largest art and design museum.

You creative chickies would LOVE it. :)

In the museum's Grand Entrance, the domed ceiling and the Dale Chihuly glass chandelier will grab your attention right off the bat. :)

Here is the index, and I took a few photos to kind of give you an idea of how large and diverse their collection is.

 

 

I thought this might interest several of you. I am sorry my photo is not better. This is the oldest dated surviving embroidery sampler in the world. It was worked by a girl named Jane Bostocke in 1598. 

I was amazed at how the color saturation of the floss has been preserved this long. Look at the red!

It was absolutely astounding to me that Bob and I were able to just remove the frame from its wooden case, prop it up on the table as you see above, examine it, photograph it, and return it to its case. There weren't even any other people in the room!

Hundreds of such textiles are cataloged and housed in cases in the Textile Study Room, and you can just slide them out and look at them as you wish.

I was sorry to hear the Textile Study Room will be closing permanently on March 1. But it's making way for a new Clothworkers' Centre for Textiles and Fashion Study and Conservation, so maybe that will be even neater.

After we looked around the V & A for a couple hours, we headed along Brompton Road.

And here is Harrod's.

Our jet lag had caught up to us on Saturday morning, so we sat down for a cup of tea and some scones at Harrod's before we started walking around it, which helped quite a bit. :)

I am not usually a big fan of department stores, but you really have to see Harrod's just to marvel at its hugeness. It encompasses 7 floors and 4.5 acres. I'm not sure how many of those acres we saw, but it was fun to peek at everything. The interactive store guide here is fun to play with if you want to know what all Harrod's has.

I think the thing that stuck out to me most about Harrod's was the Pet Kingdom, which is 11,000 square feet devoted entirely to pet accoutrements. And it all cost more than I would spend on any of the humans in my life. :) Astounding.

After Harrod's, we jumped back on the Big Bus (which I really don't recommend in Knightsbridge/Kensington on a Saturday, because you could probably walk more quickly, although it's always fun to be up high on top of the bus rather than down at street level) and went over to Kensington Palace and Gardens.

Of course, when Princess Diana was alive, this was her home. It is now owned and managed by Historic Royal Palaces, who are in the process of refurbishing it. In the meantime, it is housing a funky, Alice-in-Wonderland-ish exhibit/experience called Enchanted Palace, which I wasn't interested in seeing, but which many folks seem to love.

But I was interested in seeing Kensington Gardens, which used to be the private gardens for the Palace. The Gardens cover 275 acres, and are on the west side of Hyde Park. We entered on the Bayswater side, and walked south toward the Palace. 

Here is the clock tower in the Gardens, outside the Princess Diana Memorial Playground, which, may I tell you, is a hoppin' place on a sunny Saturday morning. (I didn't take a photo of the playground itself, but it was darling and looked fun. There is a huge pirate ship in it!)

And here is the Round Pond. It was created between 1726 and 1735, and the Victorians used to sail model boats on it. 

J.M. Barrie liked Kensington Gardens, and set one of his earlier Peter Pan stories there. There is a Peter Pan statue in the Gardens, which we did not see.

And then there was the Palace itself. We came up to its back.

And here is the adjacent Orangery, which is supposed to have one of the best afternoon teas in London. There was a big line for it.

We walked around to get a better look at the front of the Palace.

It felt ... sad to me. I miss Diana.

It was late in the afternoon, and we had reservations for 6 at the White Horse Pub on Parson's Green, which some folks reckon is the best pub in London. I didn't take any photos of the White Horse, but have grabbed three photos off their website to show you below. 

I have to tell you one funny thing that happened, which is so typical of me.

I had researched dinner places before we left the States, and then made a reservation at the White Horse through its website. There were options to make the dinner reservation in the bar area itself, or in an area called The Coach House.

Well, I'm looking at the photos of the bar area online, which are below, and I think "Oh my goodness, Bob would love this bar area. I'll make the reservation there."

But, duh, the photos on the website show the pub empty.

When we get there, it is PACKED with people, because there is a huge rugby game on t.v. You can't even see what it looks like, let alone hear yourself think. So a lovely man who was, I think, a manager, shows us our table, which already has a bunch of people at it, and sees our faces, and asks, "Would you like somewhere quieter?"

And I say sheepishly, "Yes, please, if something is available."

And it turns out that there is, in fact, a table available in the attached Coach House, where I should have made the reservation to begin with.

Here is the Coach House. And in fact it looked exactly like this when we walked in, because no one else was there yet. (Six p.m. is early for dining in Europe.)

And this was one of the best meals we had during our stay. We had the Beef Wellington. Yummers. :) And our waitress was delightful.

Also, I could just see the t.v. screen out in the bar area, and am delighted to tell you that I now completely understand the game of rugby. It is exactly like hockey, without ice, sticks, or any safety equipment. 

You get the ball and move a few inches, and then a bunch of guys dogpile you. Over and over again. It's brilliant.