It is our last day in London, and we had a leisurely day planned at the nearby Victoria & Albert, our favorite London museum.
The grand entrance features a wonderful glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly, which makes us feel right at home.
We combined the old with the new today, seeing a current exhibit of Lockwood Kipling’s (fabulous name, right?) contributions to the V&A and the work he did in India to promote the arts in the days of the British Raj. Rudyard’s father, he was passionate about supporting and promoting Indian design and handcrafts. No photos allowed, but a lovely collection to be seen.
We spent most of our time revisiting the “Britain: 1500 to 1760” exhibit, which is dazzling. There are amazing artifacts from England and the parts of the world that were being admired (pillaged?) during those years. Good stuff! My personal favorite object is the Great Bed of Ware, which was a tourist object even Shakespeare referenced.
Even the café is spectacular here, and we had the final bonus of the trip – tea with our friend Alan, just to recap our experiences and develop plans for a pending meeting in New York. More adventures to come!
The major theatrical highlight of the trip was last night’s play, Don Juan in Soho. (Sorry, Harry.) The chief reason to book was the opportunity to see David Tenant live and in action. He did not disappoint, with a performance that left us in awe. Then, double bonus points: we got to see him come out after the performance and autograph programs, including ours. Ah, David…please come to New York soon. Sigh.
So we’re off at the crack of dawn tomorrow. We’ll be back in New York all too soon, but with many wonderful images in our head, and memories that might just sustain us till our next visit. Hope that will be soon!
What? No selfie with David.
I am content to worship from a distance…