Triumphant Return . . . Sort of

Well I enjoyed Scotland, but missed London and was glad to return last Sunday. The best and worst part of Scotland was taking a ghost tour around the city's most famous graveyard on Friday the 13th. Of course, we did not realize that it was Friday the 13th until we were already on the tour. It was a little scary but mostly fun and interesting. In fact, a ton of Harry Potter references in the cemetary and Edingurgh in general because that is where JKR wrote the first few books and where she lives. Heriots school in Edinburgh was said to be a school for witches and wizards in the 16th century, and Heriots and Hogwarts are not too far from each other. Also, Goblet of Fire features a cemetary very prominently, hmmm. Anyway, the worst part was that it rained on the tour and during our walk home so that we got soaked and I got a cold. Boo, hiss! Anyway, I am on the mend and trying to see as much as possible during my last few weeks here in London. Monday I spent an hour at the National Portrait Gallery and only made it through the first floor! However, I got to see all the portraits that really mattered to me, namely Shakespeare and Jane Austen. In fact, the NPG houses the only life-drawn portrait of Jane Austen! There were a ton of great portraits of lesser known authors, royalty etc. They also had the famous Gilbert portrait of George Washington. Then Tuesday I packed in the Charles Dickens House Museum, the Sir John Soanes Museum, and a stroll in Hyde Park. The Sir John Soanes Museum exceeded all expectations. Soanes was an architect who purchased No. 12,13,14 on Lincoln's Inn Fields (a street) tore them down and rebuilt them according to his own designs. He was also a ravenous art collector. The house itself is incredible! There are mirrors everywhere reflecting all different aspects of the rooms as well as sort of riotous windows that are yellow and red and even purple. So when the sun shines in, as it did on Tuesday you can see the entire room change color. Going back to the mirrors, I should clarify that they aren't all normal looking-glass sort of mirrors, but some are small circular ones placed in ceiling or outlining something. Then there was a sort of courtyard inside the house covered, literally every inch, with Greek and Roman sculpture. Busts, full length statues, small pieces of buildings, columns etc. In the middle of this courtyard you can look down and see the sarcophogas of Seti I of Egypt. Another room was decorated in the regency style with a gorgeous circular skylight and a painted design on the ceiling. Another room had rotating walls that were filled with pictures and etchings he had collected. Then downstairs you could see the heiroglyphics on the sarcophogas! So unbelieveable. The basement was a little eerie, but playfully so. There were some skulls in one room, along with gothic statues and on one windowsill a grinning Chinese dragon cast in black stone that, for me at least, resembled a lap dog. It was so cute! I was tempted to take it home with me, but I think if I had tried security ninjas would have jumped out and tackled me. One final touch to the basement was that when you walked back up the stairs to the main house there was a small window through which you saw a complete human skeleton, literally, hanging in a closet. I laughed out loud, it was so funny and disturbing at the same time. Upstairs the sitting room was bright yellow with red and white windows. It sounds really disgusting, but for whatever reason it worked for this house, in an old-fashioned sort of way. There were also some beautiful views of the park across the street from the upstairs windows. But, the best part about the Sir John Soanes Museum was that all the gorgeousness and creepiness was absolutely FREE! Sir John intended his house to be an example for architecture students and art lovers to be able to come and view his collection. Hence the mishmash of Greek/Roman/Egyptian/Gothic/Chinese dragons. It was the kind of house where you could visit it a hundred times and see something different every time. Walking through rooms multiple times I definitley saw different things. Probably my favorite museum of the trip thus far. Although, the Jane Austen house could definitely trump that. We'll see if I get there or not!