We took the bus on this rainy morning to the British Museum. I’d been looking forward to it a lot; many years ago i went there and remembered the rooms filled with egyptian sarcophagi, and a really cool clock. there were many other wonderful things, too, but i really remember row after row of sarcophaguses, and i think i remember the clock because i took a picture of it. i was there before the museum was updated, and it was a little bit old and musty, but i don’t remember lots of crowds, and i remember back then of wanting to go back someday.
this was the someday, and the museum has been remodeled for a very long time, and EVERYBODY IN THE WORLD WAS THERE.
maybe not every single person, but almost.
here’s the beautiful central courtyard, which was airy and bright and beautiful.
here’s the back of the rosetta stone…kevin didn’t take many pictures while we were at the museum, mostly because he was kind of freaking out a little. not really freaking out, because kevin doesn’t freak out, but he was having a lot of anxiety because of the crush of people.
here’s something very old.
and this is the crowd around the rosetta stone. yeah, how can you enjoy and appreciate it, or even see it, when there are so many people?
the museum is fresh and bright now, but because there were so many swarms around the sarcophagi, we couldn’t stay in those rooms. we battled our way to other places, and because the museum is so vast, there were places where you could actually see things. i videotaped a lot of it, and kevin took…just the one picture. i think this is a shoulder decoration, or it’s part of a purse. i know i videotaped it, and i identify it correctly.
we did find the room with all the wonderful clocks, and i have lots of video footage of them.
the rain stopped and the sun came out, plus kevin wanted to leave the minute we got there, so we left the museum after a few hours. i guess i would recommend going there, but it would be nice to be there when you could actually see things…maybe the crowds thins right before it closes?
because it was such a pretty day, we walked over to Sir John Soane’s Museum. it’s the house where sir john lived, and he collected many fantastic things, and i read about it in rick steves’ guidebook and it sounded worth seeing. the funny thing is that i told dad about it, and he’d been there on his one trip to london! so i guess we think alike.
after that museum, we walked past a cute little park and i videotaped a bunch of cute little dogs who were romping around.
we walked some more, and then took the bus back to the neighborhood of our b&b. we were going to take the train in a little while, but we stopped at the fancy little cake shop on the corner for some tea and a scrumptious cupcake. well, that’s what i had – kevin had some kind of scone and coffee. they also gave us little piece of “fudge,” which isn’t fudge at all in england, it’s candy, but delicious in spite of its non-chocolateness.
the shop was called Peggy Porschen’s Cakes. A lovely and refreshing last stop in london.
at around five we took the train to the little town of Maidstone, to stay with our friend Carol and her husband, our new friend Alan.
the train ride was uneventful, a little bit crowded, but eventually most of the people left so we got to sit down and relax. carol and alan were going to pick us up at the train station, which is the last video i shot that day.
it was a small train station, and we went outside in the street to wait. we waited…and waited. no carol and alan. hmm, that was odd, because i’d called them from the train.
finally, somebody from another train asked us if we were ok, which i thought was nice of them. and then we thought, could there be another entrance? i walked back into the station, and there was a guy leaning against his red car with the trunk open, patiently waiting. ALAN! i yelled, and of course it was alan. all worked out very well, and they whisked us down the road to their cute house.
we met bob, their beautiful irish setter. they have a big garden in the back, with fruit trees and a garden and lots of pretty flowers. their back gate abuts a park, which is really nice.
it was great to be there with friends, as opposed to being in our unfriendly b&b in the big city. carol made chili for dinner, which seemed funny to me. i’d never thought of english people eating chili, because it seems like a very american thing to me, but clearly i must be wrong about that. it was nice to have a home cooked meal, and then we sat around and talked. we went to bed early, because there were many, many things in store for friday.
here’s the thursday video, with lot of footage of the british museum.
ok then,
mrs. hughes.