Last week Caitlin, Libby, Amy and I spent our first true day in London since September when we went to see the changing of the guard. We have spent a little time wandering around the city before our train left for other places, but it just is not the same.
We had three goals for the day: Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland, the Victoria & Albert Museum and a dessert lunch at the Rainforest Cafe.
We took the train into London Paddington Station in order to use our last BritRail day. The ride was uneventful until we were walking off the train and Amy realized she did not have her phone. She had been using it on the train so it was not left at the flat accidentally.
We went back to the train, found our coach and looked around the table we had been sitting at, but it was not there. We were afraid to stay on the train much longer for fear that it would start moving, so we got off to look for a booth or something where there might be a "Lost and Found."
Just then, a rail station employee carrying a sweater asked if we had lost something. Amy told him she was missing her phone and that it was blue. The man pulled it out of his pocket, but in order to give it too her she had to prove it was hers. Libby offered to call it and it was a few tense seconds waiting for the call to connect.
That was a very fortuitous end to what could have been a terrible event, especially for Amy who had to deal with her computer breaking earlier in the week. I do not know how much more bad luck she could have taken without a breakdown, one she would be completely entitled to.
We got to Hyde Park by memory and just chose a random path inside the park to follow since there were no signs telling use where exactly the Winter Wonderland was located. Then we saw a ferris wheel in the distance and used that as our destination point.
The first section of the Christmas area was a bunch of carnival rides. There were small roller coasters, fun houses, a carousel and a circular swing ride that took riders up at least 100 feet into the air. There were decorations of toy soldiers, garlands, and strings of lights. There was even an electronic mounted moose head that sang songs in German since the Winter Wonderland was supposedly modeled after the traditional Christmas markets of Germany.
It was strangely deserted since it was about 11am on a Monday and most children were at school. There were a few very young children running around with their parents. It just seemed wrong to be at a carnival without tons of children yelling and getting underfoot.
After the ride section were a bunch of small, log cabin style buildings, each about the size of a shed and decorated with green garland and lights. They sold Christmas ornaments, candles, jewelry, scarves, hats, and much more. There were also tons of food stalls, many more than I think was necessary, especially since most sold the same basic things. The most common foods were crepes, burgers, bratwurst, mulled wine, beer, waffles, and churros. A few stalls were dedicated solely to selling mountains of sweets like candy floss, truffles, fudge, and gummy snacks.
We made a full loop of the park before we decided to head out the Winter Wonderland's main entrance which was actually on the complete opposite side from where we entered. We paused to look at a map of Hyde Park to orient ourselves (the Park covers 350 acres) and take some time taking pictures of the Serpentine River and its many types of waterfowl. Some people were feeding the birds so there were bunches of them ranging from ducks to swans to pigeons waddling around on the sidewalk.
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Exiting Hyde Park, we followed Libby's defective Google maps directions down a bunch of residential streets trying to get to the Victoria & Albert Museum. We found it eventually, though there had to have been a more direct route to get there.
The Victoria & Albert Museum, founded in 1852, is huge, covering 12.5 acres and containing clothing, sculpture, ironwork, furniture, jewelry, paintings, textiles, glass, and other artifacts. I wanted to go to the museum to see its fashion exhibits. The fashion exhibit displayed styles from different eras from the 17th century up to haute couture of modern fashion. It was amazing to see how complex and detailed women's clothing was in the past.
I have done several reports involving women's undergarments, corsets in particular, so I knew what most of them were in the displays. However, there was one undergarment I had never heard of before. This was a piece of fabric stuffed with feathers or something similar, then worn around the upper arm to support large, puffed sleeves.
We spent several hours wandering the museum looking at some paintings, ironwork and jewelry. In those hours we probably only covered a very small portion of the large building. It would be amazing to be able to go on a regular basis and see each of the 145 different galleries.
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Every since Libby learned that there was a Rainforest Cafe in London, she has really wanted to go. I guess there used to be one near her house and she would go there every year for her birthday party. According to my mom, I have been to a Rainforest Cafe in California before, but I do not remember it.
Walking into the building, you are inside of a gift shop with stuffed animals, books, and other trinkets. You have to go to the back of the store and downstairs to get to the restaurant. The eating facility is decorated just like the rainforest. The ceiling is covered in fake foliage extending from fake trees. There are rocks, small ponds, and animatronic animals that move every once in a while.
We were sat at a table right next to two gorillas. About every ten minutes they would start making gorilla noises and beating their chests. The novelty of the experience wore off after the second round of movements and just became a little irritating.
The food was all really expensive (we were going there for the atmosphere, not the food) so we bought two desserts: Eaton Mess Cheesecake and a Volcano. Yes, we did have dessert for lunch.
A Volcano is a large bowl of ice cream, brownie, marshmallows, whipped cream and chocolate syrup. It is served with an actual sparkler, like the ones you get on the Forth of July. I felt it was overpriced, even though it was large, because there was barely any brownie and the strawberry ice cream used tasted like the really cheap kind that is made totally from artificial flavors.
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Photo by Libby
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We ended the day's trip to London with a stop off at Hope and Greenwood Sweet Shop. We all bought a mixture of the shop's homemade hard candies. All four of use got Cherry Bakewell flavor. Amy then got Lemon Meringue, Caitlin and Libby got Birthday Cake, and I got Ginger Beer.
The young man working there was completely adorable. He had dark hair cut short on the sides and long on the top, and black, thick-framed glasses. We had a good conversation with him about all of the flavors and his personal favorites (He likes Ginger Beer best). He ended up giving us several free samples to take with us to try the flavors (Rose and Lychee, Sunshine Festival, Sugar Plum, and Treacle Tart).
So far I have tried Rose and Lychee, Sunshine Festival, Sugar Plum. Rose and Lychee was pink and tasted like eating pure sugar tinted with rose flavoring. Sunshine Festival was a pale yellow and fizzed a little on the tongue. It was more tropical flavored like mango. Sugar plum was a purplish maroon color and tasted pretty similar to a grape tootsie pop. It had a chocolate center and everything.