London is a hard place to leave, so rather than bother with that, I went to a Doctor Who museum instead.
I read about this small museum on a blog after deciding I couldn't leave England with seeing something Doctor Who related. After a six mile ride to West Ham, I went inside. All I saw was a gift shop, no signs for a museum anywhere.
"Is there a museum here?"I asked the girl behind the counter. She wore a Doctor Who t-shirt and looked like a fellow Whovian nerd. I wondered if she felt she had the best job in the world. She handed me a key to the TARDIS, the big blue police box in the corner. It was larger on the inside, of course, as it was the entrance to the small museum. If you don't watch Doctor Who, a lot of this may be confusing.
Doctor Who fans will recognize all of these costumes and props, and since non-who-fans won't care, I won't bother explaining what all of this it is. Although I really did want to see something Doctor Who related, deep down I knew I was also just delaying my ride out of London.
There are a many reasons why. I'm sure K9 would know some of them with his encyclopedic knowledge of all things, but his immense computer intelligence surely wouldn't be able to understand every reason. They aren't all logical or rational.
Some of the delay was weather related. The temperature has dropped considerably, as to be expected in December. It's hard to get moving on a bike when it's raining and cold. Some of the delay was from not knowing exactly what I should do next.
Amsterdam was the plan, but it's even colder and just as rainy right now. So I delayed the decision even longer by going to the Maritime Museum and booked another hostel. This ship in a bottle is just outside the entrance. It's another great free museum in London, so I just had to see it, right?
There is just so much to see in in this city, I didn't want to leave regretting not seeing something, like Prince Frederick's gilded barge built in 1731-1732. Although, I could have left the city without seeing it, so why was I still in London?
After leaving the museum, I stopped my bike to gawk at the famous Cutty Sark. It was one of the last and fastest of the British tea clippers, and very well preserved. I didn't know it sat here, so stood opened-mouthed like a child staring at his favorite character in costume at Disney World. My budget wouldn't allow for climbing aboard, so I circled it twice on my bike looking at it from the outside. Although prone to sea sickness, I desperately want to go on a sea voyage.
I rode into the giant lift that lowers pedestrians into Greenwich Foot Tunnel to ride back to the hostel. I'd give myself another day to figure out my next move.
