V-Day Plans? Elementary, My Dear Watson!

So, today is Valentine's Day.  I generally truly enjoy Valentine's Day... though I did once spend one snowed in watching Titanic by myself.  It wasn't my fault-- there was a blizzard. 

This year is the first time, though, that I have had a lover, and have not been with him on the day.  Danny is still back in New York, and I am here in London.  We are planning to have a dinner date via webcam later tonight, but the rest of the day, I needed to occupy myself doing something else.  For the first time, I've been a little bit homesick.  I guess it could be because I hit the month point.

To occupy myself, I came up with a brilliant idea.  I would visit the museum of another of my favourite childhood heroes.  This time, though, it was not Rupert.  It was Sherlock Holmes.  As a kid, I was very into the stories about him.  I watched so many Masterpiece Theatre specials, read almost every one of the short stories, and often fell asleep to them on tape, which, in retrospect, is really creepy and morbid for an eight year old. 

I remember that the first time I got excited about Sherlock Holmes was when I was staying over at my Grammy and Grampop's house.  We were watching PBS, and a Sherlock film was on.  They let me stay up until ten to watch it.  I was probably seven, so this was a huge deal to me.  From then on, I was hooked.

The museum, though labeled 221b Baker St, that most famous of adresses, is actually 222b Baker St.  221 was destroyed a good deal of time ago.  However, 222b is pretty much the exact same layout as its nextdoor neighbor would have been. 

The museum spanned four floors, and had different rooms.  In the first room, an actor portraying Watson was there to greet us and give us and introduction.  He also posed for pictures.  I quickly realized that I had stumbled into a serious tourist trap.  It was crowded, a small amount of museum, and allowed flash photography.  It didn't matter.  I loved it.  Honestly, the moment I start talking, since I have a Northeast American accent, people expect very little of me intellectually, and assume that I will be incredibly tacky.  So, what the hell.  I took lots of pictures.  One floor even had wax dummies acting out some famous scenes from Sherlock stories.  I had a blast.

 

  

  

  

  

 

  

  

Isn't that last one totally freaky?  No worries.  She won't come and find you in your sleep, because she's made of wax.

The gift shop for the Sherlock Holmes Museum was equally touristy... and gratifying.  Everything that could possibly be made about Sherlock and Watson was in that store. I loved looking through the plethora of books, puzzles, figurines and toys.  Especially the toys, because they were utterly hilarious.  Have a look.

I actually really wanted one of the mini Sherlock bears, but it was 18 pounds... which is just kind of ridiculous.  

On the way back, I walked through Regent's Park.  I knew that it was close by, but had never bothered to walk through it before.  Lovely.  It was lovely.  The first thing I saw as I walked into the park was a large group of herons.  Now, I know that I have been taking a wickedly disproportional amount of photos of birds.  There have been a lot.  But, this country has a lot of birds that I don't see very often, and they tend to be easier to take pictures of than other animals.  I did promise myself that I would photograph a badger before I left this country, but that might go unfulfilled.  We shall see.  The rest of the park was gorgeous too.  Bright colored flowers were in bloom, fountains were flowing.  It was just a pleasant walk.