After breakfast in our flat we grabbed our Oyster cards and found ourselves once again on the tube, this time on our way to the Hunterian Museum within the Royal College of Surgeons impressive regal buildings. I have deferred the description to Mike as I must admit that I have a negative physical reaction to hundreds of jars of preserved animal and human body parts. Mike had become aware of the Museum's existence whilst reading Zadie Smith's most recent book. Mister Hunter and his brother were both surgeons and avid collectors who acquired enormous collections which they set up in London and Glasgow. Unfortunately, the London building suffered a direct bomb attack during WW2, with a consequential major fire which destroyed vast amounts of the collection.
Adorned with yellow visitor passes, we gently cruised through two floors of glass cases stuffed full of every imaginable healthy or diseased sample of human / animal / bird tissues or organs preserved in hundreds of glass jars filled with formaldehyde, plus complete skeletons or bone samples either healthy, broken, diseased or deformed. All of this was surrounded by highly informative information panels and labelling and audio-visual screens, together with anterooms filed with ancient and modern surgical equipment, some of it frighteningly horrific (various trepanes for drilling large diameter holes in human skulls to let out "vapours", and an enormous clockwork circular saw which once wound up could not be controlled or stopped, for amputating limbs in days long before pain-killing anesthetics were available).
Leaving the museum, the rains got heavier with each block that we walked. We ducked into a cafe for lunch hoped that the skies would clear and we could join a 2:00 walking tour. That was definitely not to be. The storm had settled in to stay and the view out the window was not encouraging. Umbrellas were up, people were ducking into doorways while they waited to cross, people entering,the restaurant were shedding rain onto the floor, and once again we were very much aware of the extensive amount of Goretex options we possess, all of it perfectly dry and 4,500 miles away in Portland.
Another quick change of plans took us to Selfridges department store. Mike and I had watched two of the PBS series about Mr. Selfridge and his empire. The store is enormous and almost everything seems quite expensive but the charm of the old building has been lost to remodeling. We did find a shiny toy car with hand tooled leather seats that will reach a maximum speed of twenty miles an hour as your pampered child drives around your estate. The cost a mere £25,000 / $40,000.
Still in search of a dry environment we traveled on to Harrod's. For me the most interesting part of Harrod's is the food court. There are rooms of every gourmet treat you can imagine. Of course we cannot being anything interesting through US customs so we settled for a few pieces of chocolate and photos. Lucy, if you are reading this, it is time to raise your prices. Individual decorated cupcakes for £5 / $8, with some of their larger cakes, although lovely, probably requiring a small bank loan to purchase.
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