The British Museum

Tom and I just got back from 6.5 hours at the British Museum. It was everything we could hope for and more. Suffice it to say that whatever people have to say about Britain pillaging and looting countries for artifacts they sure have taken very good care of them. The first thing we saw were the mummies because Tom wisely knew that I would want to spend time there and so we started upstairs. After Tom noticed that I was taking a picture of every mummy in the place he, again wisely, took away the camera. And I'm sure at that point you will notice a marked improvement in the pictures. We saw the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon sculptures (the controversial part), the mummies, the Oxus Treasure, the Royal Game of Ur, the Lewis Chessmen and some samurai armour (see how quickly I'm becoming British)? We saw an Easter Island statue, a crystal skull which is apparently a fake but magnificently beautiful nonetheless -- huge, magnificent statues from Egypt -- that always reminds me of Amelia Peabody in the Mummy Case -- the Nereid Monument, the Gold dinar of Offa which they do not know why it was made but the Arabic on the coin was copied by someone who didn't know the language as the name Offa is upside down on the coin. But that is just a sample of things we saw -- but perhaps someone could explain to me why London is all up and bustling in the middle of the night. It's light and appears to be day but we're so tired it has to be night. Although we are SOOOOOO glad we came here a day early. Besides the 6.5 hours to spend at the British Museum anyway. So tonight (in an hour) we begin our tour with a welcome dinner. We had breakfast this morning with Len and Lisa (our friends we met on line through ABD) and after shouting across the restaurant we decided to just move our tables together. I don't think the restaurant staff appreciated it but hey -- we did it anyway. So onward and upward. I will try and blog again after the dinner. Oh speaking of food reminded me that we ate lunch at the museum cafe -- man it was good -- I had Thai red curry and Tom had squid pasta -- both extremely good. But don't worry about my diet -- I have walked miles and miles since I got here. At least it feels that way already. So I will post again later. Hopefully.