Day 67 Morning At The Museum

And afternoon at the pub and evening at the theatre. That, good sirs and madams, is how I recommend you "do" London. For each of these you will be dazzled by the breadth and depth of choice. Scores of museums and galleries, scores of cask marque pubs (those certified as serving proper cask conditioned, hand pulled ales - no other pubs matter) and again scores of theatre options. The permutations will keep you amused for a very good long while.

We chose the British Museum and you should too. Free and vast and such a storehouse of humanity's greatest treasures that... well I'm going to cop out and not describe it further as I'm likely to just lapse into adjectival hyperbole. And that's boring to read. A few photos instead and a solid recommendation: you absolutely must visit some day (if you haven't already) but you also absolutely must visit when it opens in the morning. It is, as I said, vast and can swallow an astonishing number of people, but its capacity to digest them is not infinite.

The pubs as well - get there early. Many open at 11::00, but you'll still be in the museum for a bit and you would feel self conscious about showing up at a pub at opening. However, by 5:30 or so the after work crowd descends and they are a... "boisterous" lot and are very numerous. The English can be polite and restrained, but they can also be...   "boisterous". This is not necessarily a bad thing and can add to the flavour of the pub visit, but it can make some of the practicalities such as reaching the actual beer problematic. 

Theatre - not everyone's cup of tea (note the deployment of a British metaphor), but most would enjoy it. A bit pricy, so perhaps stay in the pub instead some evenings (the after work shouters eventually disperse), but well worth going at least once. We saw Billy Elliot. If the absurd and surreal thought of striking coal miners and riot police singing and dancing about Arthur Skargill and Maggie Thatcher doesn't automatically crack you up I won't try to explain why it should. Arguably the greyest, least humuous events in recent British history made colourful and hilarious - quite an achievement.

Got it? Museum, pub, theatre. And then home in the Tube.