We arrived in London on Friday mid-afternoon, landing at Heathrow airport. Man, that place is the pits. The crowds are overwhelming. We arranged for a car service to take us from the airport to our hotel and from the hotel to the ship on Wednesday. For the second year in a row our driver did not know where our hotel was. This was a big surprise since this man is a regular local, though we learned he actually resides in Southampton. So, once again, the ride from the airport to the hotel was a nightmare. After spending more than an hour inching along in bumper to bumper traffic, we drove in circles around Grosvenor Square.

We finally made it to the hotel. We were greeted at reception by a crew of clerks busily working. The hotel entry is quite lovely and has the usual traditionally attired doorman.  

On Sunday we went out for a walk to Oxford Street.

 Along the way we encountered Brown Hart Gardens, an Italian paved park, which is quite quaint and picturesque.

Oxford street, perhaps famous for Selfridge's, is incredibly bustling. It is as crowded as Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan on a busy day. There are so many people bustling about that it is difficult to walk. Add to that the fact that people don't walk to the left or even to the right for that matter. They walk anywhere and everywhere. So, I was constantly jostled as I tried to maneuver my way through. We decided to walk to the British Museum, about a mile and a half away.

We saw some great sights. First, a sidewalk sculpturer who was creating the most lifelike sand sculptures of dogs. Amazing!  

There are some interesting sights on the way, Oxford street with its different buildings, and then we veered off onto Great Russell road en route to the museum, passing the lovely Bloomsbury hotel with its flowery entryway.  

As we approached the British Museum, I was appalled to see a line of people feeding into a tent set up for monitoring the entrance, requiring anyone with a bag to submit to a search. There were literally hundreds in this line. I was ready to turn around and leave, but we decided to just get in line and tough it out. It was worth it. The museum is quite something, on the order of the Met.  

I suffer from museumitis so we did not stay too long. After a brief snack, we returned via the same route we came. We noted the "original" YMCA on Great Russell Road.  

In the evening, we went to the theater to see In the Heights, a show we had missed in New York the last two times we went there. It was at a very unusual theater, Kings Cross Theater, recently built in a railroad station. It is much like the Circle in the Square where we recently saw Fun Home. This was an amazing production, even with three of the major roles performed by understudies. Lin Manuel Miranda's work is worthy of all the awards.

Monday May 30 is a bank holiday in England, so many businesses were closed. Nonetheless we walked in the afternoon to the theater district and saw some sights along the way. An interesting walkway, called Avery Row, presented a nice view. And, I peeked into a window into a bakery kitchen with bakers at work. We also saw a scupture of FDR and Churchill conversing on a bench with a lad posing for effect.  

Another nice looking area was the Burlington Arcade, a pretty line of very interesting book stores (yes apparently thriving book businesses). The shops were all closed so Melissa could not buy anything.

There were a duet on steel drums that I stopped to record. They sounded quite good, don't you think?  

In the theater district we are at Browns, a restaurant across from the Noel Coward theater where we were going for a performance. We had fish and chips and carrot/parsnip curry soup which was delicious. For desert we had scones and tea. So we sort of had tea and dinner. 

Then we attended the performance of Mrs. Henderson, a musical with a great twist---nude men and women, mostly women. It was in the Noel Coward theater, a Victorian dungeon-like site (one must walk down many flights of stairs to reach the seats, even the stalls (what Brits call the orchestra seats). Here is the history of the theatre from the playbill (program) for the show.

  I had no idea this show involved so much nudity, even if tastefully presented.
  It was filled with great music and terrific singing.  

On Tuesday, May 31, it rained hard in the morning and we stayed in. Then we walked to Harrods. On the way we walked by the American Embassy. Across the street, on the edge of Grosvenor Square is a statue of Ronal Reagan, looking quite good. A little past the American Embassy we passed the Embassy of Monaco, appropriately a very small embassy. Then we passed by the upscale other Marriott on Grosvenor Square. From there we walked along Hyde Park, passing the statue of Achilles and a royal looking gate to somewhere that we could not find out what it was. Then we encountered some riders on horseback, looking fine on the bridle path in the park.  

Finally, we arrived at Harrods, a massive structure, even more overwhelming inside. We went to take the escalator down to the food hall in the basement and came upon the Egyptian Escaltor, which apparently installed as a memorial to Princess Diana and Dodi. This is a very impressive and lovely thing to behold.

When we entered the food hall, we were overwhelmed. From across the space I saw these triangular "things" that I could not imagine what they were. As I approached I saw it was piles of dates, many different types of dates. The variety of foodstuff available in this market is astounding. There were so many gourmet marmalades, jellies, teas, coffees, and on and on, enough to make one's head swim, which mine did. Even the elevator was gorgeous.  

We finished off the evening at dinner at a restaurant recommended by our niece, Ally Jane Grossan. When she was working for Bloomsbury press she had occasion to go to London a few times and became familiar with the restaurants. She is a foodie and she recommended Ottolenghi, one of a chain of restaurants operated by Israeli chef Ottolenghi. His food is incredibly attractive and even more tasty. We highly recommend it. After this marvelous meal we took Uber back to our hotel to pack for our departure the next morning.