London Day 2

I slept for 10 hours! That is unbelievable for me and put me squarely in the right time zone mentally and physically. Miracle! After a quick breakfast here at the hotel I was heading to the tube for my first appointment at the British Museum. There is literally a tube station every couple of blocks and this is how they are marked.

Here is the main entrance to the museum. Like many museums in London it is free. Best to make a reservation online as it will save you what could be significant time. You will still need to go through security which moved pretty fast today, but no need to stand in a line to get a ticket and in some cases you might not get in at all.

The entrance takes you into the Great Court. This space is the largest covered square in Europe - bigger than a football field! In the center is the round reading room where people like Oscar Wilde, Rudyard Kipling, T.S. Eliot and Mark Twain used as a study hall.

To see everything in the museum would take weeks, so luckily I had my Rick Steves London book with me and he does a highlights tour. First stop THE actual Rosetta Stone😱 The hieroglyphic black slab dating from 196 BCE was found in the Egyptian dessert in 1799 and solved the code of Egyptian writing.

To say they have a lot of mummies is a huge understatement. I thought I would post a picture of some beautifully painted wooden coffins instead of the actual mummies.

They also mummified animals - in particular cats. A very popular pet at the time because they were considered incarnations of the cat-headed goddess Bastet. Someone tell Taylor Swift!

I also visited the large area from Ancient Greece. A vast amount of pottery that were absolutely in pristine condition. Many of these jars were used for wine and some were very large. No photos, sorry. I was on a mission to get to the Parthenon Galleries and there was an abundance of school children on what appeared to be an assignment finding specific jugs and checking them off a sheet so hard to get close to the cases.

While the Parthenon is still in Athens much of the decorative elements are in this museum. This as you might imagine has become somewhat controversial. In 2009 the Greek government built a state-of-the-art museum in Athens to house these precious treasures, which until then they didn’t have the resources to do. So the British authorities say they rescued and preserved these important artifacts and want to keep them in London. I’m not going to voice an opinion but they have made some progress in reaching an agreement but I’m not sure what it is. So in the meantime it was pretty cool to see.

These important figures were originally nestled nicely in the triangular pediment above the columns at the main entrance. Even without most of the heads I was amazed at how clearly their poses speak volumes of emotion.

Ok enough about that museum. I headed a short distance over to make a fairly quick stop at the British Library and was very glad I did. It is one of the great libraries in the world and has more than 150 million items.

When you enter the courtyard you will see a large statue of a naked Sir Issac Newton bending forward with a compass to measure the universe. This statue symbolizes the library’s purpose: to gather all knowledge and promote humanities’s endless search for truth. A noble goal in my opinion.

The main area I wanted to see was the Treasures of the British Library. It had been closed for a number of weeks recently for renovation so not all of it is back open. But I did get to see some really special things. Have you heard of the Magna Carta? Written in 1215 it was the basis for England’s constitutional system of government. And this is it!

Here is a display of original music and writings from the Beatles.

And lastly original writing from Jane Austin along with her reading glasses. Pretty cool. If you are ever in New York City I can’t recommend enough visiting the main public library in Bryant Park. Their Treasures Room alone is worth a visit to NYC.

Now time to jump on the tube and head over to the Kensington area for a walking tour with a guide from London Walks. I did a tour with Paris Walks last time I was in Paris in 2023 and it was one of the highlights of my trip. This tour got a 5 star review from hundreds of people so I thought why not? It was really wonderful. A great guide David who has done the tour for decades and was a fountain of good insight.

Kensington is an affluent area of London and actually has a street called Billionaire’s Row. You aren’t allowed to take pictures of it but places sell in the multi multi millions. And very close by is Kensington Palace. This is just one tiny bit of the palace - it has 537 rooms - kind of an odd number in my opinion. David had a drawing of the palace - similar to what we would call a floor plan and showed us where some of the royals lived like Princess Diana, Princess Margaret, Will and Kate, Harry and Megan etc. It was pretty interesting I thought.

Eddie Redmayne - a quite popular and successful actor lives right here in number 24.

David was a great guide but he ran a bit over our two hour time slot. When he finished the tour it was two hours and 45 minutes and he offered to take us into a church for another 15 minutes but no one took him up on it. I was starving! No mention of lunch because I didn’t have any so we all thanked him profusely and headed on our way. A number of people had theater tickets so needed to eat and get to their curtain.

I decided to head to Harrod’s as I know they have a ton of restaurants so kill two birds with one stone. No trip to London complete without a visit. I decided Italian sounded good and was pleased to enjoy a delicious meal in a beautiful room with live music.

Pasta with spicy shrimp and a mocktail of Papaya juice, lime and some other delicious flavors. I sat at the bar and got to watch the chef make it.

After eating I walked around a bit. It’s very high end so nothing in my budget but there was a special event for the Jelly Cats which I think is the new Labubu’s. You needed a ticket to enter and purchase merchandise but I just saw they have opened up on Michigan Ave in Chicago so no problem. I will just make a mad dash there when I get home so I have the latest ridiculous trend😂 It’s all in good fun so I say enjoy it. I was totally blown away by the escalators though and think they belong in a museum. This set is an Egyptian masterpiece.

That’s my day! I walked back to the hotel past my neighbors at Buckingham Palace. Good night Charles and Camilla. Another action packed day on my agenda so I need to get to sleep. Looks like even the guards get to sleep😊