The Longest Day

So, yesterday was the longest. Day. Ever. I felt that we were basically in the Tube all day. Shelby and I started out being so smug about how we knew the way to the museum where we were supposed to meet the group. So we truck right on over to the National Museum. Then we wait. And wait some more. No one shows up. Turns out we were supposed to meet at the London Museum. Whoopsies. Back in the Tube. When we got there we found out that most of the exhibits were closed for construction anyway. However, we are excited to go back at the end of this month when they open a history of fashion exhibit.
(From left to right: Sarah, Lexy, Martha, Shelby)
After that we ate lunch at a little park called Postman's Park and saw this memorial set up for people who had lost their lives in heroic ways. Things like "died while saving his little brother from drowning," or "died from injuries after saving three children from a fire." It was rather touching.

Then we got back in the tube to head on over the the Banqueting House. On the way we saw the Horse Guards where all of the, well, horse guards are trained. Their costumes were beautiful, I must say.

The Banqueting House's main feature is the grand room with a ceiling full of Reuben paintings. Wow. They were my first real-life Reubens paintings and they were pretty amazing. Charles I was also executed there. They had these hilarious little listening devices that told you the history of the hall and at the very end they had this unexpected and very graphic sound of someone getting their head chopped off. It was so out of the blue that it made me laugh really hard for while. I know, Ugly American.

Here I am queen of the Banqueting Hall. Obviously.

Back in the Tube we went to make our way to Sir John Soane's Museum for the Candlelight Tour. Basically this guy collected art and artifacts and plasters of architectural features and built a house just to house everything. And let me tell you, he PACKED it in there. We couldn't take pictures, but there is not one iota of empty space. At the same time, it is very organized so it almost doesn't feel like a hoard. Almost. He had this giant Egyptian sarcophagus that was engraved in fine detail both inside and out.

Then, surprise, back in the Tube. We decided to get off at a different stop than usual because it seemed closer to our flats. We got lost but we found an amazing shoe store next to Harrods. We were so tired that we just headed back to the Tube to go to our regular stop. Then I had to write a paper. Lame.

In the end it was a good day, just a long day.
P.S. Whenever I'm on my computer I'm going to have Skype open, so if you want to you can try and catch me there.