We got up late at 8 this morning after staying up late (for us at least) last night. We ate and went out walking to St. Pancras, a church local to our hotel. Its claim to fame is that it was built as a copy of the Erechtheoin that was on the Parthenon grounds.

The maidens form columns in the most obvious copy of the Erechtheoin

One of the maidens

The plack describing St. Pancras church

We got a cab of course and went to the Victoria and Albert Museum. This museum specializes in decorative arts and objects including sculpture, furniture, etc. They have a whole room dedicated to a set of Raphael cartoons (full-size drawings on paper) that were designs for tapestries for the Sistine Chapel. There is another room dedicated to William Blake (his painting “The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun” figures prominently in the book Hannibal).

Facade of the Victoria and Albert Museum

The museum contains a square - here is a facade from inside the square, which is an outdoors cafe

There is a large Chihuly glass sculpture in the lobby

"The Miraculous Draught of the Fishes" by Raphael

"Newton" by William Blake

"Pity" by William Blake

We then walked down the main drag to Harrods, the huge (5 floor), amazing department store. We snacked and shopped a bit, and then went to Haandi, an Indian restaurant down the street from Harrods.

The card for the Haandi Restaurant (front)

The card for the Haandi Restaurant (back)

We ate quickly and got back to Harrods just in time to get some gellato and sit on the steps and snack. Then it was time to catch a cab back to the hotel and pack.

I finished The Troubles – its a bit biases towards the IRA I think but it was good to learn a little about that history.