June 10: V&A and Shopping
After eating breakfast in the morning we took the Tube from our apartment to the nearby South Kensington station and walked from there to the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). The V&A is a huge museum that houses one of the world’s largest collections of applied arts. It has everything from paintings to sculptures to textiles to furniture. We knew we couldn’t see the whole thing in one morning so once we got our maps we planned which exhibits we wanted to see. Right in the lobby there’s a massive blue, white, and yellow glass chandelier by Dale Chihuly, the world-famous glass sculptor from Tacoma, Washington. We were able to find all the exhibits we wanted to see but frequently got lost and caught glimpses of other exhibits on the way. First we went to the Gamble Room and Morris rooms: large rooms with grand wall decorations, fireplaces and columns. Next we looked at the fashion exhibit that had fashions from all over the world and from many different time periods. The beginning of the exhibit featured cloths by the designer Missoni and the rest consisted of various international fashions. Unfortunately much of this exhibit was closed for renovation but it was interesting to see fashions such as the huge silk robes worn by men in 19th century Asia. Next we went to the exhibit of musical instruments from the last 300 years. There were many variations of pianos and harpsichords and also an oversized recorder along with different guitars and horns. We went to the modern art and design section of the V&A where they had exhibited everything from toys to magazine pages to appliances from 1900 to present. My dad would probably be interested in the display of radios. We walked through their gallery of silver and the gallery of tapestries to get to the exhibit showing sets of furniture from just about every decade from 1900 to present. Some looked nice, some ugly, and some strange such as an insulated plastic box used as a bed with breathing Tube. The last exhibit we saw was all their textiles dating back centuries and from all over the world. We had lunch at the café at the V&A. I just had a chicken wrap and my wife had a tomato, mozzarella, and greens sandwich and chili lime crisps. For dessert we had these little rich oat cakes the English call flapjacks.
From the V&A in South Kensington we took the Tube to Oxford street to do some shopping. The first place we went to was Topshop/Topman a large fashion store with reasonable prices. Topshop consisted of two floors with women’s clothing and Topman was one floor of men’s clothing. Everything looked hip with music videos playing on large TV’s throughout the store. My wife got me a sports shirt for work and got herself a brown top. This store was the first place she picked up forms for tax-free shopping.
We went across the street from Topshop/Topman to Muji, a Japanese store with its only international branches in England. It sells cloths, gadgets and various useful interesting things. My wife got me an aluminum business card case and a portable alarm clock and got herself a hand-crank paper shredder, a letter opener, and some cloths.
We then walked down to the large English record store, HMV. We went through their selection and got several CD’s that would be unavailable to get back home. Their main floor is rock/pop/rap/dance CD’s. Downstairs they have other genres such as classical, jazz, and world. Upstairs they have DVD’s and videos. They also sell books on the main floor. I also got some books including a guitar chord book. When I looked into filling out forms for tax-free shopping, I learned that they do not charge tax for buying books and the three CD’s I got didn’t generate much tax so it wasn’t worth filling out the form to get a refund. My wife’s purchase would yield a decent refund and she filled out the forms.
We left HMV and took the Tube to the Queensway station and from there walked to Khan’s to have some of London’s famous Indian food. That place was cranking and the prices were reasonable. I had chicken curry and we shared rice and Naan bread. Everything was very good and service was fast despite it being crowded there.
When we got back to our apartment we packed up everything since we would leave London the following day.
After eating breakfast in the morning we took the Tube from our apartment to the nearby South Kensington station and walked from there to the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). The V&A is a huge museum that houses one of the world’s largest collections of applied arts. It has everything from paintings to sculptures to textiles to furniture. We knew we couldn’t see the whole thing in one morning so once we got our maps we planned which exhibits we wanted to see. Right in the lobby there’s a massive blue, white, and yellow glass chandelier by Dale Chihuly, the world-famous glass sculptor from Tacoma, Washington. We were able to find all the exhibits we wanted to see but frequently got lost and caught glimpses of other exhibits on the way. First we went to the Gamble Room and Morris rooms: large rooms with grand wall decorations, fireplaces and columns. Next we looked at the fashion exhibit that had fashions from all over the world and from many different time periods. The beginning of the exhibit featured cloths by the designer Missoni and the rest consisted of various international fashions. Unfortunately much of this exhibit was closed for renovation but it was interesting to see fashions such as the huge silk robes worn by men in 19th century Asia. Next we went to the exhibit of musical instruments from the last 300 years. There were many variations of pianos and harpsichords and also an oversized recorder along with different guitars and horns. We went to the modern art and design section of the V&A where they had exhibited everything from toys to magazine pages to appliances from 1900 to present. My dad would probably be interested in the display of radios. We walked through their gallery of silver and the gallery of tapestries to get to the exhibit showing sets of furniture from just about every decade from 1900 to present. Some looked nice, some ugly, and some strange such as an insulated plastic box used as a bed with breathing Tube. The last exhibit we saw was all their textiles dating back centuries and from all over the world. We had lunch at the café at the V&A. I just had a chicken wrap and my wife had a tomato, mozzarella, and greens sandwich and chili lime crisps. For dessert we had these little rich oat cakes the English call flapjacks.
From the V&A in South Kensington we took the Tube to Oxford street to do some shopping. The first place we went to was Topshop/Topman a large fashion store with reasonable prices. Topshop consisted of two floors with women’s clothing and Topman was one floor of men’s clothing. Everything looked hip with music videos playing on large TV’s throughout the store. My wife got me a sports shirt for work and got herself a brown top. This store was the first place she picked up forms for tax-free shopping.
We went across the street from Topshop/Topman to Muji, a Japanese store with its only international branches in England. It sells cloths, gadgets and various useful interesting things. My wife got me an aluminum business card case and a portable alarm clock and got herself a hand-crank paper shredder, a letter opener, and some cloths.
We then walked down to the large English record store, HMV. We went through their selection and got several CD’s that would be unavailable to get back home. Their main floor is rock/pop/rap/dance CD’s. Downstairs they have other genres such as classical, jazz, and world. Upstairs they have DVD’s and videos. They also sell books on the main floor. I also got some books including a guitar chord book. When I looked into filling out forms for tax-free shopping, I learned that they do not charge tax for buying books and the three CD’s I got didn’t generate much tax so it wasn’t worth filling out the form to get a refund. My wife’s purchase would yield a decent refund and she filled out the forms.
We left HMV and took the Tube to the Queensway station and from there walked to Khan’s to have some of London’s famous Indian food. That place was cranking and the prices were reasonable. I had chicken curry and we shared rice and Naan bread. Everything was very good and service was fast despite it being crowded there.
When we got back to our apartment we packed up everything since we would leave London the following day.
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