Saturday, October 22 - London

We were delighted to run into Trish Rosenberg last night while having dinner at the hotel.  She joined us today for our roam around the Bloomsbury area of London.

Destination: The British Museum where the featured special show is "Grayson Perry: The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman" that just opened on October 6.  Grayson Perry is a British artist who won the Turner Prize in 2003.  To quote from a brochure "Perry curates an installation of his new works alongside objects made by unknown men and women throughout history from the British Museum's collection."  I must say it was one of the most delightful and well curated exhibitions I've seen in a long time.  His works are imaginative, fanciful, rustic while contemporary.  He makes works in a wide range of media (ceramics, cast iron sculpture, etc).  The show is a mixture of his own works and those he selected from the museum's vast treasures - interesting and beautiful artifacts of material culture from around the world - that reflect his ideas of sexuality, pilgrimages, and spirituality.  The show is wonderful and we plan to recommend it everyone.

After Grayson Perry and not wanting to depart the British Museum without taking in more of its antique treasures, we went downstairs to the Mesopotamian rooms to take a tour through remnants of ancient cities that have (fortunately) become part of the BM collection.  I got to pause for a few moments in front of the Rosetta Stone; one of my favorite objects anywhere in the world.

I remembered that somewhere near the Museum was a wonderful "craft" shop.  Took us a bit but we tracked down the name of it:  Contemporary Applied Arts on Percy Street, just a few blocks away.  We spent probably two hours there going through all the locked drawers of jewelry and textiles and having a wonderful time.

Retuned to the hotel to wash up before heading out to dinner at 7:30 at Nopi. Cliff and Cathy recommended this restaurant.  It reminded me of a tapas restaurant because you order many small dishes and share. We had plates such as sea bream, grilled octopus, bronzini, roast beef, rabbit pastillo with chocolate, curried cauliflower, financiers and chocolate hazelnut tort for dessert.  The plates may have been small but our stomachs were not when he headed off for home!

Navigating the menu at Nopi.