Egypt and the British Museum

I know what you're thinking...that when one contemplates the likely treasures awaiting inside the uncomprehendingly vast British Museum, thoughts do not immediately evoke images of stone pillars and hieroglyphics from over 3,000 years ago. But that's what makes the British Museum so spectacular. After a few hours, I had only made it through Egypt and peeked into Assyria - there is just so much to see in a wonderful, I-can't-believe-this-is-actually-here kind of way. The museum itself, sitting demurely in the middle of a tight city block, can best be described as a small Buckingham Palace. It's huge and palatial and stately and cordoned off by black wrought-iron gates with the Queen's emblem on it. Once inside, you're swept away by the Great Court - larger than a football field, many stories high, this great enclosed, yet open space with a sky-lit ceiling is breathtaking. Although the historical treasures are through big open archways, it feels like you could spend forever, just walking around the big hall. First stop, past the doorway is none other than the Rosetta Stone. There is nothing quite so perfect in its timeless stature and simplicity to bring you to a halt and ground you in the knowledge of its ancient heritage and yours as well. It's really a bit mind-blowing to walk around the room and to feel connected to worlds ago - in a very different way than standing before paintings. Here, one stands before artifacts, pieces of granite carved with an ancient language, tombs uncovered in pyramids, and statues of Pharaohs that lived and ruled in biblical times. Mind-blowing. But the very 'coolest' thing to be found yesterday, was in a small side-room. In an incredibly huge glass case, there was a relatively small hand-carved treasure, a pair of swimming reindeer (one male and one female), carved intricately and ornately into a Mammoth tusk, dating back - 13,000 years ago to just after the last Ice Age. Unbelievable. It takes more than a few moments for the incredibility of that to sink in when you stand and look at it.

I will return another day and many more days, just to see it all. But yesterday's journey into ancient Egypt was priceless. And I enjoyed the Museum Tavern across the street to have a lemonade (which is not American lemonade, more like Sprite). Walked down to Covent Garden, over to Leicester Square, and then to Piccadilly Circus. Stopped for a while in a travel book and map store in Covent Garden and played with the arrangement of various globes and then a quick moment into Waterstone's on Piccadilly to visit the books, before stopping at Costa (coffee shop) for a drink and a read of the Evening Standard - like any regular Brit would do, prior to catching the tube back to Balham.

A few pictures from the museum...