By Victorian Standards

Wanderings on a cold, windy, London day will lead you to popping into the pub at a rather early hour-just to warm up and begin to feel your toes again. I started my day at the British Museum-in which I skirted the largest Egyptian exhibit in the world and passed straight through a large collection of Roman metal work, to get to my real destination: the room of clocks! A whole assemblage of old-OLD pocket watches, cuckoo clocks, pendulums and grinding gold gears a plenty! My favorite was a golden ship worked with the tiniest details of sail rigging and miniature men, along the bottom were scalloped waves and sea monsters astride fanciful foam- all this just to tell you that it's tea time! I couldn't tell you how old it is, or who made it, or really anything about the rest of the Museum exhibits because I am a famously bad gallery goer. When looking at paintings, I have a hard time not fixating on the choice of frame, a glass shrine of Aztec beads will only make me think that Versace was doing something very similar last year. I never look at the little title plates and dates and could care less. I wish I had never taken art history so when I saw a Picasso sketch I could think, "oh! I wonder what this man did to support himself while he tried to make a living selling beautiful charcoal drawings. Did he work at Jiffy Lube?" If you didn't know that the Mona Lisa was famous, wouldn't it just be nice to look at it and say, hmm. Wonder how long that less-than-average looking girl had to sit for that before he was finished".

But I believe I was discussing pubs.

I was blown in, by a strong gust of wind, to the Princess Louise. A FANTASTIC spot! Cheap pints and the best part is it is divided into all these little brightly mirrored and adorned nooks with fire places, gorgeous tile work, amazing rich wood and a ceiling to die for. A very well kept Victorian era masterpiece that is better(some would say) than some Victorian works you could see in a gallery. And good luck getting a pint in one of those.