Saturday, May 30
Today was supposed to be a Free Day. Basically that meant we didn't plan precisely, but had lots of discussion about what we all wanted to do.
We left the flat a little after 9:00. It was very blissful to get a little more sleep. All of us headed to the British Museum, which was a must-see on my London list.
Most of the group just popped in for a bit to get a quick overview then went shopping and exploring, but Lindsay and I settled in for the day.
There is no way to explain the British Museum. Although we thought we had all day there, I still felt a little panicky because even if we just skimmed (that term is used loosely) through the displays, there was still hardly any way to get through everything.
We started out in the Egyptian wing, but didn't spend a lot of time there. I was delighted to get to see the Rosetta Stone.
We soon got into the displays on Assyria, Greeks in Italy, Ancient Cyprus, the Etruscan world, and the Roman Empire.
I was intrigued by the fine Roman/Italian jewelry. One crown had a tiny, tiny flowers, probably half a centimeter, on it in perfect detail. We also saw some tiny, perfect little gold flies on some Egyptian jewelry that charmed me as well.
One intriguing display was water pumps and water systems built by the Romans in Italy. There was, for example, a double action water pump on display.
Eventually we made it into the money rooms. Now, as I've mentioned before, I'm not particularly mercenary, but money history does intrigue me.
One fun fact I learned was about the criminal, Alvos dos Reis, of Portugal, who comissioned bills to be printed using a faked contract. This meant that the bills were printed with the original plates, making them impossible to differentiate from the originals.
I also found it interesting that although it was illegal to deface coins in the UK, Pears' Soap Company found a workaround for advertisement purposes. They imported a large number of French coins, had their advertisement imprinted over it, then distributed them. They were about the same size and weight as a penny, so were easy to get accepted into the general circulation.
We then entered the clock gallery. That was a super neat place to explore, but by then it was around lunch and I was getting quite hungry. We had just passed a clock made in 1589, known as the Monumental Carillon Clock, when it struck 12:00. We went back to look at it a bit. A figure representing Death strikes the hours. Angels pass before a figure of the Madonna on a lower level while music plays, apparently something written by Martin Luther.
Another interesting item was an automaton from 1584 in the shape of a ship. I have read aout them in different books, but never really seen one in real life. I thought this was a really neat piece.
Apparently it was used to announce banquets. Music would play, a procession would "march" around a little platform, The ship would roll down the table on little hidden wheels, then the cannons would fire, announcing the beginning of the feast. I'm so impressed with the creativity it took for people to come up with and figure out the mechanics of how to make these things work.
After stopping by the Islamic displays to get a glimpse of some astrolabes, we grabbed lunch at a little Cafe in the museum. It was so fun to sit around there and see all the different people from different cultures enjoying the day. I'm always amazed at how nice people really try to be to each other. I saw one English-speaking couple try to help an Asian couple who knew very little English make room at the table so they could sit together for lunch.
The next unique moment was our stop at the toilets. The toilets themselves weren't so interesting, but the line stretching around the ccorner, out the door, down the hall, nearly to the foot of the stairs was impressive. Of course the men's toilet didn't have a line at all.
After lunch we went to the Reading Room. It is no longer in use, of course, but it would be my dream place to sit and study.
We then popped into the North American and Mexican display, then went over to the Enlightenment Rooms where we lingered for quite a long while. There were all kinds of things in there, from snow goggles to boomerangs, to fossils. There was a father in there with two little children who was absolutely doing a stunning job with keeping them engaged with the displays. I admired how he was connecting with them and keeping enthusiasm in his voice for everything they commented on and saw. Quite unlike some children who you could tell were absolutely finished with the museum.
We finally left and headed to the Parthenon display. We were checking out some of the stunning statues when the Security workers suddenly started telling everyone to get out, They directed us to an emergency exit and ushered down a flight of stairs, through an underground garage type of situation, then back out into the sunlight. Absolutely everyone had been emptied out of the museum, including all the cafe workers.
This evening I looked it up on Google and it claimed that a suspicious device had been found in a visitor bathroom and the museum had been receiving threatening comunication at the same time.
Since we were on our own and the museum experience had shut down two hours earlier than we anticipated, we decided to head for 221B Baker Street and the Sherlock Holmes Museum.
We popped in at the gift shop and then stopped at another little souvenir shop, then headed over to a little park to meet the others. For supper we went to a pizza place.
A couple people headed over to a coffee shop, then went down to the tube to head home.
Apparently we are an unbalanced lot. Three of our number have had struggles with falling down. Without giving names, one tripped on the steps of a building, one sprawled in the road in front of a lot of oncoming bikers, who quickly and gallantly came to her aid, and another fell into the laps of two men on the tube who looked incredibly unimpressed, but caused the rest of the group quite a bit of laughter.
We made it back to the flat sooner than we have other evenings and had a great time hanging out and talking about all sorts of subjects. No elaboration on that; you would've just had to have been here.
Goodnight from across the pond!
P.S.
It was 82 degrees and 40% humidity inside the museum. We were finished with heat and stairs.
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