England Day 5

The weather was "brilliant" again today, as it has been for the duration of our trip so far. According to the locals it was raining and rather drab last week. This morning after a lovely English breakfast prepared by Mrs. K we trottled off to the British Museum, where we were able to see ancient artifacts from Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Rome, etc. It was quite interesting but the magnitude was a little overwhelming. After seeing our 30th mummy or so we decided to break for lunch. One thing that really impressed me about the Museum was not just the artifacts but the architecture of the building itself. The building has an amazing courtyard that was recently retrofitted with a glass dome. Hence you have the ancient grace of beautiful white marble greco-roman columns right along side modern stainless steel and glass architecture. The combination of styles and colors seemed almost futuristic in a way. In the after noon we visited St. Paul's Cathedral. We saw the graves and statues of a lot of important dead people and climbed over 300 stairs (way over) to the top of the dome. The view from the top was faaantastic both inside and outside the dome. While we were there we also were fortunate enough to hear a small chamber orchestra playing. The sights and sounds were all quite magestic.

In the evening we met with some of CQ's relatives for dinner at a local oriental restaurant called ping pong. Contrary to the title we did not play any tennis related games. There, the Q's introduced us to a new delicacy, Jasmine flower tea. It was very good and fun to watch. as the jasmine flower is heated up by the water it expands so it looks like it is blooming in your glass.

After dinner CQ and I went to see "Les Miserables" at the Queen theatre. As expected it has been one of the highlights of the trip so far. I love the story, especially the redemptive themes, and the performance did not let me down. I was very impressed with their scenery and blocking techniques. They had a rotating stage that they were able to use to simulate various effects, such as walking in place, seeing the inside and outside of buildings etc. I would highly recommend the show, to those who have not seen it.