Day 3 (Thurs) The British Museum

On Thursday I went to the British Museum. In the tube station on the way there, I heard a somewhat garbled announcement.  Something to do with planes at Heathrow being delayed by volcanic activity.  I assumed that I had heard wrong, and resolved to check the internet when I got back to A and E's place that night.

Now to the British Museum.  The building itself is magnificent, both inside and out.  The reading room in the centre is supposed to be well worth seeing, but unfortunately it is only open as part of special exhibitions these days.

The first thing I saw once I entered the exhibition spaces was the Rosetta Stone.  It was in a large glass case, which made it hard to photograph, but I could clearly see the different blocks of text in different languages, including the section in hieroglyphs.  My reaction can basically be summed up as:  Wow!

The next port of call in the museum was the Elgin Marbles.  These are carved marble plaques taken from the Parthenon in Greece. There is a bit of controversy about them now, as the Greeks want them back, but at the time Lord Elgin removed them it seems clear that they were subject to a fair bit of vandalism.  The photos here are a very small sample of what is on display at the museum.

As well as the plaques, there were some pieces of statues from the Parthenon.  Most of the statues had notes under them saying things like: , or similar.

After having a good look at the Elgin marbles, I wandered around the Egyptian section of the museum.  Lots and lots of stuff!

Then came the Assyrian section, with lots of statues and carvings taken from tombs.

There was far too much to see properly in one day, or even in one month, but I did a very quick walk through of the remainder of the museum.  Another standout item was the Easter Island Statue.

I staggered out of the Museum near closing time, feeling utterly exhausted, but still amazed by the things I had seen.  I headed back to E and A's place, and checked the internet, where I discovered that the garbled announcement about planes and volcanic activity was due to a volcano in Iceland sending up vast clouds of ash, which had caused a shut down of British airspace (and a fair bit of European airspace!).  Apparently I had arrived in England just in time!

That evening E and A took me to a local wine bar.  Very nice, and very civilized.  An excellent end to another great day.