British Museum

Continuing our touristy travels, Blake and I headed out on an adventure towards the AA and the British Museum yesterday. We found a great art store close by and bough sketchbooks and pen sets (on sale!). Spending too much money is really easy, especially when things are overpriced but look innocently inexpensive. The school feels much smaller than I expected and smelled strongly of char from the lasercutter, but it was really nice to see it and the people before I "have" to be there tomorrow. However, the museum was fantastic, and I feel a bit more comfortable maneuvering through the labyrinth that is London.


The rough route B + I walked from the ISH to the store, AA, and museum.


The BBC tower is really the only visible landmark, and in the usual haze it looks much like an alien seed pod that has sprouted in the city center


"what are you looking at dearie? The roof?" "oh, i just like how the tree comes up behind the building" She need not know that I mostly like her in this photo


I think Blake dreams about quirky English flashing details


The Foster space is much better in person, and it was very exciting to see!


The museum is full of really breathtaking stuff, like THE Rosetta Stone. We were all huddled around the glass trying to read the inscriptions (Which we just learned were in the 3 languages of Egypt: heiroglyphs, the traditional script we always associate with Egypt; Demotic, the spoken language of Egypt at the time; and Greek, the language of the government.)


English school girls eagerly watching a beheading.


They were hosting a great Assyrian collection. This guy should have been pointing the Way Out.


The Elgin Marbles collection was astounding. The Brits have managed to get their hands on some of the absolute gems of the ancient world and refuse to give them back.


Case in point being the temple recreation of Elgin Marbles, with the perfectly intact friezes.


There were vast rooms of antique clocks and pocketwatches. It was very British, and felt like a room from the Department of Mysteries (from Harry Potter)- a golden glow and soft ticking of clocks that never, ever stop.


Blake fancies himself as a decendant one of these blokes- the ancient gaelic warriors - or one of the celtic guys that painted themselves blue and defeated the Roman army.