The sun is shining and it is a cool 7 degrees as Zoe, John and I walk to the Kew Gardens tube station. We are off to the Victoria and Albert Museum.

John and I have never been to the V&A. John is expecting it to have a lot of ceramic dinner settings and fashion exhibits.

Was John ever wrong. This place is fantastic. I am totally blown away by the Cast Courts. These are galleries displaying casts of literally hundreds of art and architectural pieces. Most of these reproduction pieces are antiques in their own right because they were created in the 1800s. I don’t know where to look because there is so much to see. I have seen the originals of many pieces but there are many others that I haven’t; tomb effigies, church and cathedral pieces, Roman and Greek pieces.  All I can say is wow!

Other galleries show originals of furniture, glass, table settings, iron work, tapestries and paintings. I love the medieval displays. The jewellery exhibits are breathtaking. My favourite is Queen Victoria’s delicate tiara.

Of course I do check out the fashion exhibits. I have posted a picture above of a 1937 gown which is just as stylish and elegant today as it was when first created.

After a few hours at the museum we head out to check the window displays at Harrods and another department store called Harvey Nichols. They are very disappointing. Nothing special.

Zoe says that this is a very wealthy area. All the expensive, luxury cars at the traffic lights indicate the truth of her statement.

We leave central London and go back to Kew for dinner at the Coach & Horses, a local pub. We all choose fish and chips… after all, you can’t go to the UK without having fish and chips at least once. It’s delicious but the portion sizes are large and I can’t finish.

When we get back to  Zoe’s, we watch her favourite show; “Strictly Dancing”. It’s a lot like our “Dancing with the Stars”. Anton de Beke who played a lead roll in last nights theatre production is one of the judges on this show.

I spend the rest of the evening packing. Suffice it to say, I hate packing. Zoe goes through the Mac Cosmetic Advent Calendar she gave me and takes out and numbers all the little presents in it that are liquid. She gives John strict instructions how to put all the prezzies back in when we get home.

*****

I wake at 5am. Zoe puts some bread in the oven, we grab breakfast and she drops us off at Kew tube station…and we say goodbye (sigh).

We the the tube to Victoria, then catch a train to Gatwick Airport.

At the airport security is very interested in my Mac Cosmetic Advent Calendar and I have to open our carry on bag so that they can run it through the exray machine a few times. I think it is because the lipsticks are shaped like bullets.
They finally give the calendar the go ahead and we head to our gate.