London and the British Museum

We decided to spend another Saturday in London. We drove down, parked and took the tube into town. We spent the whole of the day at the British Museum.

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture situated in London, England. Its collections, which number more than 7 million objects,[3] are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginning to the present.[a] (from wikipedia)

It was really beautiful. It is very overwhelming to think and see the number of different cultures and histories represented in one place. There is some controversy around returning items to their home country and I see some validity to their claims. However, it is too great a gift to have so many treasures in one place, for so many to glimpse and appreciate others histories and cultures. So, I think it would be a tragedy to let anything leave despite the capture or stealing of the items 100 or 200 years ago.

S liked the jewelry, X loved the swords and VW liked the knives and intricately carved metal. I liked reading the history behind things and then realizing I know about that person or event or wishing I did know about it. Some things that struck me were several items from Emperor Jahangir, of 17th century India/ Mughal Empire, builder of the Taj Mahal (written about in the The Twentieth Wife.)


The Rosetta Stone:

The Rosetta Stone is an Ancient Egyptian artifact which was instrumental in advancing modern understanding of hieroglyphic writing. …carved text made up of three translations of a single passage: two in Egyptian language scripts (hieroglyphic and Demotic) and one in classical Greek. It was created in 196 BC, discovered by the French in 1799 …during Napoleon Bonaparte's campaign in Egypt.

We also really liked the mummies. I also like the miniature carvings.

The museum is free, which is amazing. However, I understood how it could be free when we paid $45 for bad sandwiches at lunch.

We ate dinner at a little Italian restaurant off the Covent Garden Tube stop. It was mostly an underground winding tunnel of bricks. It was a fine meal, however X’s glass broke while he was drinking. It scared me half to death. We walked around a bit. X loved an out door musician playing Chinese music. He danced and danced.

Have a great Thanksgiving.