The most fabulous things happened on our third day in London—we got to view the artifacts of a genius filmmaker and we saw the immensely talented Cynthia Erivo in person in her one-woman show.

My travel crew—daughter Liz, SIL Peter, and granddaughter Adeline—like to take it easy in the morning on vacation, and I completely agree with them.  Their lives are extremely busy, and vacation should be a time when one can take things at one’s leisure.

Peter had to go to a work meeting, so we met him in the early afternoon after enjoying a big lunch at Layalina, a Lebanese restaurant on Beauchamp Street. Lebanese food is everywhere in London, and it is delicious. Similar to Greek food, Lebanese cuisine features pita and fresh vegetables, but Lebanese is a bit spicier and uses more legumes like lentils and chickpeas. We had an expansive mezze platter, including hummus, baba ghanoush, dolma, labneh, and fried cauliflower with copious amounts of pita. Trust me, if you like Greek food, you’ll love Lebanese.

Peter rejoined us and we traveled to the Design Museum to see the Wes Anderson exhibit. Wes Anderson is the writer-director whose distinctive style is in a category of its most enjoyable own. His films include The Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom, and The Darjeeling Limited.  He has also created two animated stop-action films: Fantastic Mr. Fox and Isle of Dogs. Fantastic Mr. Fox is voiced by George Clooney, Meryl Streep, and Bill Murray, among others.  It ranks 65th on The New York Times Readers’ Best Movies of the 21st Century but is arguably our favorite movie ever. Five stars.

The exhibit was delightful. Each movie had its own space, complete with screens playing scenes on a loop, costumes and props, and commentary by the actors. Of course, for us the best part was the display of all the characters from Fantastic Mr. Fox and their treehouse. The amount of infinitesimal detail that goes into every Anderson film leaves one gob smacked. We were there for over an hour and could easily have stayed longer.

But we had tickets to a West End show that thankfully hadn’t gotten switched up, unlike our Romeo and Juliet switcheroo. We took the tube to Leicester Square to see Cynthia Erivo in Dracula, her one-woman show. She plays all 23 characters, live and in video, changing costumes, accents and roles in what can only be described as a tour de force. A team of 14 camera operators and tech staff help her accomplish this, and they join her for the curtain call. The show runs for nearly two hours with no intermission, and it is a testament to Erivo’s endurance, focus, and talent that she can do this seven or eight times a week. Absolutely magical.

Our last full day in London was a big hit with all, and we looked forward to our train journey westward on the morrow. On to our next adventure!