Pictures; Russell Square Tube Station, Part of the Parthenon, Nancy's favorite clock
Photos: The Portland Vase, the Rosetta Stone, the British Museum
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Happy Anniversary to Us -- Neil didn’t remember, but in this defense he doesn’t put the dates on the blogs, so he hadn’t a clue as to what day it was. It’s hard to keep days straight when all you do is have fun.
Today we hopped on the two decker bus #24 that stops right in front of our hotel, touched our little Oyster cards to the machine, and rode away. We rode down this morning. The #24 is a main line bus which took us to Victoria Station, Trafalger Square and up to Tottenham Court where we got off. We then whipped out our trusty map and found our way to the British Museum.
The streets in this city show the development of the city. They seldom go in a square grid, or I think if they do, it is purely accidental. The street names change frequently as well, so map reading is prized skill.
The British Museum is this wonderfully magnificent old structure that houses objects representing the history of the world. This place is so big we bought a guide to find our way…..eventually we found a free map. We started our tour looking for a particular vase, called the Portland Vase….the first glass carved vase; however, on the way we checked out the early Egyptian artifacts, mainly large statues that were from BC. I found a statue of a bronze cat that was gorgeous…later found it in the gift shop, full size, for more money than I have. Ah, the Rosetta Stone, that little piece of carved rock that helped unlock the languages of the ancient civilizations. There is a lot of look, but don’t touch in the museum, so I, of course, took pictures. We continued our walk through the Egyptians until we got to the staircase to get to the second floor…six long flights of steps to get to the second floor….not only do they have unusual money, but they count floors of buildings strangely as well. Ground level floor is zero, one floor above is 1, etc.
We went through the Greek and Roman Life exhibits and found the Portland Vase---very beautiful. There were so many beautiful vases, water urns, jewelry that it was mind boggling. Actually it is amazing that the civilizations had so many things that were so refined. From the Greeks and Romans we went through the European exhibits….again seeing dishes, pottery, jewelry that are a beauty to behold. We went through the clocks and watches and loved seeing the development of the clock. I loved the clock that worked on a marble rolling back and forth like a maze. The alarm clock came into being much earlier than I ever knew. From there we went back to Europe. Then we went downstairs to see things from China and a special exhibit on Jade. Finally, we went to the Parthenon exhibit….wow, parts of the real Parthenon.
We did wonder if some of the countries whose antiquities are displayed didn’t want them back. We spend most of the day in this museum and could have spent more time.
We then wandered the few blocks to Russell Square. We took a few pictures in the Russell Square Garden and went off to find the tube stop. It was wonderful….a group of Asian visitors asked if we could point them to the tube station. We did. We went to the tube station, but the sign we wanted was down in the tube. I convinced one of the station guards to let us down into the tube to take pictures and come back out…..down, down, down we went in the elevator and then down some steps to reach the train platform, take our picture and get back out. No charge. Then we went in search of the Russell Square Tube key chains that we wanted. Unfortunately, the franchise privileges lapsed several years ago, and they are no longer made…..Sad
Consulting our map off we went in search of Foley’s, a very big bookstore….. Found it. Fun store, but we bought no books because we didn’t want to carry them.
We ended our day at the Prince Albert Pub and The Carvery Restaurant for a somewhat special anniversary dinner--even had some wine with the meal. The Restaurant was decorated in the finest Victorian décor. One of the great things was the bell that would call the members of Parliament back when they needed to vote. They had a great fish and chips dinner.
Stopped at Sainbury’s (a grocery store) for water and biscuits for breakfast.
Steps: 13,814
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