After spending all day yesterday, the fourth of July, in London with my family going from site to site, I now feel convinced that I could be perfectly happy spending the rest of my life as a tourist. Yesterday’s itinerary took us to Westminster Abbey (always a remarkable experience) and the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum.
A lot of time and money has been spent on these attractions. The technology in the Museum, open only since 2005, is not only well done, but also fun. It was better than that at the Imperial War Museum, which we visited today, but both stops were more than worth while.
We also toured the Sherlock Holmes museum at 221B Baker Street. Authentic in period details yet inauthentic in fact (since Holmes never existed) it was still a hit with all of us. As my family looked at the wax figures from various episodes and stories, I was busy looking at the textiles, furniture and wall papers. It occurred to me, as it has in the past, that the decorating dilemmas faced by today’s McMansion owners (how to decorate above the 8 or 9 foot mark) was solved in many ways during Victoria’s reign. Paint above wallpaper and decorated draperies, for example. I couldn’t help but notice the floral details on Sherlock Holmes’ windows.
(l-r): textiles, furniture and wall papers at the Sherlock Holmes "museum"; Mustard color at Top Shop
The last part of the day was spent shopping retail. Actually, only my daughter shopped with me while Steve and Alex, who had not interest whatsoever in new color, stopped at an arcade to play video games.
Biz loved Top Shop, the only store we had time to see before closing time. Among the best things to see there was a new fashion color: Mustard. Muddier than Gold and sporting a tint of Green, it looked great alone, combined with Gray and White or combined with Gray and Burgundy.
More Shopping Tomorrow!