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So, to start off the day, I made my way down to Harrod's.

I had heard their food court was epic, so I figured it'd be a good stop for lunch.  Once inside, I found that it looked less like a food court, and more like a multiroom market with counters where you could sit down and order a meal.  I sat down at one of these counter/restaurants and ordered their "chicken special," which was a chicken sandwich with avocado and caramelized onions on ciabatta bread.  The sandwich was decent, albeit very expensive -- 18 British pounds, or the equivalent of over 31 U.S. dollars.  When they said food in London is expensive, they sure weren't joking.

Before heading out of Harrod's, I went to their cheese section and picked up a wedge of cotswold, my all-time favorite cheese.  I figured that since cotswold is British cheddar with chives, I may as well try it in Britain.  While I didn't actually eat the wedge till later, for presentation's sake I'll write my assessment here: it was good, but actually remarkably similar to the cotswold I get at Whole Foods.  The best cotswold I've ever had was from V. Sattui winery in Napa, so I was a little surprised to find that cotswold from its native country didn't quite match up. 

Moving on, I made my way over to County Hall, home of the Saatchi Gallery.  Or was it?  I walked around the hall for a good twenty minutes, trying to figure out where the gallery was.  Every map and guidebook I had read said that the Saatchi was there.  But it wasn't!  An [unfriendly] employee at a nearby tour shop told me that the gallery had moved to Sloane Square in Chelsea -- Ishaan's neighborhood!  Since I was closer to the Imperial War Museum than to Chelsea, I decided to switch my itinerary around and check out the museum first. 

After a bit of a walk, I arrived at the museum:


The first couple floors featured technology from and exhibits addressing each of the major wars from the twentieth century. 

Is it just me, or is the World War I trench exhibit sort of creepy?

Also from World War I: some interesting British wartime posters.   

After checking out the World War II exhibit, I headed upstairs to the Holocaust section, to which the museum devotes two entire floors.  A moving experience, it was not quite on par with the Holocaust museum in D.C, but certainly a worthwhile way to spend an hour.

Having completed my visit to the Imperial War Museum, it was time to head back across town to Chelsea and resume my search for the elusive Saatchi Gallery.  I arrived at Sloane Square at 5 PM -- and proceeded to spend the next half hour asking people about the gallery's whereabouts.  Not one person had the slightest clue as to its location -- several people had never even heard its name -- until finally a friendly employee at the Royal Court Theatre volunteered to Google it for me.  He spent no less than fifteen minutes Googling (turned out he didn't know how to spell "Saatchi") before finding out that the gallery is closed until 2007 (a fact prominently displayed on the front page of the Saatchi Gallery's website, which I found after about five seconds of Googling once I arrived back in the States).  Unfortunately, the search for Saatchi had been in vain -- a disappointing development for sure, but a good reason for a repeat visit to London someday.

I met up with Ishaan after he got off work, and we decided to check out one of London's star culinary attractions: Wagamama.  Zagat rates it the #1 most-popular restaurant in London, and to my great enjoyment, it did not disappoint.  Wagamama has made its name as a sort of high-class, health-minded fast food ramen stop; while this may seem full of contradictions, there certainly was no ambiguity about the quality of the food.  I tried the chili chicken ramen (delicious) and gyoza (incredible) and wrapped up the meal with the coconut reika (coconut ice cream topped with passionfruit sauce).  After a somewhat unfulfilling day, a great meal like this was just what I needed to get back on track.  I headed home and figured out the game plan for Tuesday.

Map of London