After waking up, taking a shower, and eating a delicious home-made waffle breakfast, I hopped onto the tube with Richard, Jeanette, their daughter, and her husband.  Danielle wanted to do some clothes shopping on Oxford Street with her mum and her husband wanted to explore the National Gallery.  Can you guess which group I chose to tag along with?   Richard was thrilled that I chose to come with the museum-goers.  He told Danielle's husband, "Erica's mom is a big ART person, so Erica can be our personal tour guide."  :-)

I slept on the tube most of the way into central London (tisk, tisk!) and awoke when we reached the Bank stop.  Richard led us out of the station, and I was able to show Danielle's husband the Royal Exchange building, the Lord Mayor's Mansion, and the Bank of England--all of which I'd visited only last Saturday.  I felt like quite the London expert!  Richard decided to take us to Trafalgar Square (the National Gallery) in a very roundabout way.  He figured that Danielle's husband might like to see London by foot.  It was a wonderful idea, but unfortunately, the rain decided to begin pouring about then and the wind blew so hard that my umbrella kept turning inside out--just like that scene in "Mary Poppins!"--and my hair soon looked like a rat's nest.   We braved the storm, though (I guess that's what native Londoners do!), and eventually found the most charming little food market on the banks of the Thames near "The Clink" (London's best-known jail), a big replica of Sir Francis Drake's famous ship, and a pretty little cathedral.  I was thrilled!  Although I'd walked along the Thames many times, I'd never visited this particular area of London before.

The food market was a lively place with all sorts of fruit, bread, pastry, cheese, fish, and meat stands.  One man was giving out samples of air-dried ham (uncooked!), and I decided to try a piece when I learned that my dad had given it a shot once and loved the stuff.  I have to admit that the flavor was good.  I also tried a "stinky cheese" sample, and--boy!--the flavor was sharp!  A little further into the market, Richard purchased a fresh-baked almond croissant and gave me a taste.  I don't usually like almonds, but this was absolutely delicious!  Still further on, he purchased two loaves of bread to take home to the family.  He let Danielle's husband and I choose the two loaves, and I chose Garlic Focaccia which proved to be a huge hit with the family.  The bread was light, moist, flavorful, and delicious, and the whole thing was gone within an hour of its unveiling back at the house!  :-)

After shopping at the market, the three of us continued battling the rain and walked over the Thames (on a bridge, of course!) and past St. Paul's.  Eventually, of course, we ended up at the National Gallery.  Now, I've already been to the gallery twice, but it was fun seeing things again with these two because they kept asking me questions and telling me to make up what I didn't know!   My protests that I was composer and not an art history major fell on deaf ears, though, so I fabricated all sorts of interesting information about Van Gogh, Seurat, and Monet.  Luckily, I didn't have to play the tour guide for long; we were soon able to join a real tour group and learn some fascinating things about a Reubens landscape and a portrait of Queen Charlotte.  Wow!  Knowing the history behind something makes the object so much more interesting and meaningful.  Who could've known, for instance, that the Reubens landscape was painted on twenty pieces of oddly patched-together wood which formed a single rectangle or that the artistically significant Queen Charlotte piece was done by a 20-year-old without any formal training?

We soon received a phone call from Danielle and her mom ("We're done!") and met up with the two of them in Leicester Square.  Apparently, the Saltzmans have a tradition:  Every time they go as a family to London, they always stop at the Haagen Daas (sp?) Restaurant afterwards.  This time, I got to come along too, and I could not believe the prices!  It was a sit-down affair, but the only thing the restaurant serves is gourmet ice-cream.  I ordered a Cookie Crunch (layers of Cookies n' Cream ice-cream, hot fudge, and fresh chocolate chip cookie), and although it was positively divine, I couldn't believe that they were charging 6.25 pounds for a single serving.  I pulled out my money when the bill came, but Richard and Jeanette wouldn't hear of me paying for myself.  I fought hard, but they insisted that if I kept pressing the matter, they would feel very offended.  So that was that.

We all rode home on the tube with all that rich, chocolate-y goodness still on our tongues.  After that, Richard and Jeanette ran to Tesco and Costco to grab a few things, and the rest of us ate left-over Indian take-out for dinner.  They'd ordered the take-out fresh the night before, but I'd been gone, so I had to experience it the day after.  It was still very good, though.

Then, finally, the younger girls and I popped "An Ideal Husband" (written by Oscar Wilde--the author of "The Importance of Being Earnest") into the VHS player.  I didn't like the movie as much as "The Importance. . .", but Wilde's scripts are always clever and witty, and watching "An Ideal Husband" was the perfect way to end a hectic day.