The British Museum

Lunching at Eat before our British Museum visit.

Saturday, Sep 10 – London

Returning late from Paris on Friday night we had no illusions that breakfast may not be in reach on Saturday – which is how things played out.  Unsurprisingly, we decided to walk over to the British Museum.  En route we made a stop at Eat to grab some lunch and also dodge the brief rain that seemed to be a constant throughout our trip and likely London life in general.

Main entrance to the British Museum.

Arriving at the British Museum we were refreshingly reminded that national museums in Britain charge no admission fee.  Jackpot. We also downloaded the Rick Steeve’s podcast for touring the museum.  We loved Rick’s podcasts, save the terrible jokes, on previous trips in Europe.

Entering the museum from the rear we encountered the first of many stairs.  We had debated the baby carrier versus the stroller as we knew the museum would be busy but still opted for the stroller for convenience. The museum does have an elevator but it's small and extremely slow -- particularly since many able-bodied people seem to take it instead of the very manageable stairs.

Rosetta Stone

The Steeve's podcast directed us first to the Rosetta Stone.  One benefit of the Steeve's podcast is that he guides you through massive tourist sites within a reasonable amount of time.  The rosetta stone provided the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs by offering the same text in three languages.  This is the first of many objects that foreign nations are demanding to be returned.

Shortly later we encountered some more stairs, 4 very lengthy flights, which were just a few too many to carry Owen+stroller up so we decided to take turns viewing the Egyptian burial (very cool) section.  While Julie was upstairs Owen and I continued to visit the Egyptian section.  I found the artifacts interesting while Owen found them, a bit scary.

Next we hit up the Assyrian galleries which were equally interesting.

Owen decided he wanted a closer look at the reliefs -- aka he was losing his mind -- but didn't mind not having the audio tour.

Viewing the Assyrian reliefs.

Lastly we hit up the Greek galleries -- the contents of which are subject to much controversy with the Greek government fighting to get the Parthenon artifacts returned.

Strange folks them Greeks

After the museum we hit up Roti Chai for dinner. Owen was kind enough to stay asleep until the food reached our table then decided no one should eat if he wasn't.  Taking turns to walk around bouncing him we each ate our spicy Indian dishes in record speed then walked back to the hotel only a few blocks away.

Everyone's happy eating; pre-mind-losing.

All in all a good day -- definitely recommend the British Museum.