It’s Tuesday! Yes, definitely, it’s Tuesday. The jet lag fog is starting to lift, though it’s still there and reminds me that it’s still there every time I can’t remember to turn RIGHT out our hotel room door and not LEFT.
After breakfast, it was finally time to figure out what we were doing for the day. We went to the Viking desk and got the attention of Ed, one of the Viking reps/local guides. He was chock full of good ideas. And he gave us a map! and actual paper map. Even in these days of almost total dependence on Google maps, a paper map still brings joy.
Of the selection of options he flung at us, we decided to go to the “V&A” (the Victoria and Albert Museum). It sounded interesting and manageable in one day.
We had a more general conversation about how to hail a black cab (as opposed to Uber) – he spent quite a bit of time trying to find the nearest “taxi rank” (a/k/a taxi stand). Amazingly enough, no one has written an app for that! What an opportunity! The taxi/uber question would be more of an issue after the show in the evening, so we were hoping to have an easy way to hail a cab after 10:00 p.m. Our (bad) uber experience in 2019 really had us leery of trying it again, even though our uber experience coming back from Buckingham Palace was fine.
Off we were to the V&A – no tickets required, free to the public, we just walked in. We talked to someone at the info desk for suggestions as to how to begin and what to see first.
Below is a selection of photos we took during the course of the day, not necessarily in the correct chronological sequence.
The ceramics and glass exhibits tended to look like somebody’s cluttered attic cabinets!
We were able to cover the entire museum in one day, including lunch. It was perfect!
The taxi situation to back to the hotel proved to be a non issue – there was a taxi rank right out front of the museum. We had a fun chat with the cab driver.
The Viking rep had recommended having dinner in the restaurant in the same building that held the theater – the Barbican (pronounced: bar-bi-kin). I made reservations for 6:00 p.m. When we arrived at the Barbican, we wandered for a bit before finding the correct restaurant on the 2nd floor. Excellent dinner! So far we’ve been doing very well food-wise.
We had tickets for “A Strange Loop”, a show that had won Best Musical on Broadway a couple of years ago. The theater turned out to be a bit of a challenge. Steps everywhere! Our seats were in the equivalent of the mezzanine or balcony. Down one short flight to the “circle” level, then down 2 more steps to our row – the front row of the circle, dead center.
There was no playbill, just a poster on the theater door listing the performers names. No QR code to scan to find out more info, so nothing about the orchestra or any other supporting personnel.
Nor was there any indication that there was no intermission. I figured this out about an hour into it. Bad news: no bathroom break! Good news: That’s ok, because there was no way I was going to be able to climb out of center row without stepping on a zillion toes.
This is a very intense show. The first 2/3 of it was excellent – though intense, it was also hilarious. At some point, the same theme kept repeating over and over, and I started wondering when it would end. Thoroughly enjoyed it, over all – very clever and original, which is something kinda rare these days on Broadway.
After the show, the bathroom issue resurfaced. Anyone who reads my blogs from year to year knows there’s always at least one bathroom issue during the course of our vacations. This time – when we asked where the bathroom was, I was directed to the nearest one that was down 3 different sets of stairs. And then, of course, back up. No one seemed to know of an accessible bathroom – not necessarily wheechair compatible, just that I could access the bathroom without flights of stairs involved.
Andy suggested we take the elevator down a flight – and behold! There was a bathroom alllll the way at the other end of the theater.
We did end up taking an uber back – the street in front of the theater was completely empty of cabs. But it worked very well – the driver chatted away about his car problems, and we were back at the hotel in 15 minutes.
Tomorrow: We board the ship.
Maryland Meshugas 