London Day 4 (last)

 

Saturday

4/20

British Museum (850-10am out-of-hours tour ) (printed) Me Ancient Greek World; husband Life and Death in Ancient Egypt   ? Wellcome Collection/Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology Lunch at Ship Tavern The Courthauld Gallery  Dinner: ??Dammika’s Peninsula (12-10pm)   -It was a bit tough getting out of the apartment at 815 to arrive at the British Museum before our 850am tour but we did it! Were actually about 10 minutes early, lol. -The welcome was a bit disorganized in that each of us had to find our tour and get a lanyard by asking the person with the clipboard, which did not have any identifiers. I was OK for Ancient Greek World but husband's group left before checking everyone in which was a bit of a problem since security wouldn’t let anyone in the gates without a lanyard and one could only get the lanyard from the group leader with the clipboard. Ugh. It got sorted. -My group was small but everyone was attentive (one man, with his young daughter, had all the answers). My guide spoke very softly. The museum was empty save for these tours and some employees. Pretty cool! We spent some time at a krater which was used to mix wine slush and water to make wine. We stopped at a couple of other vessels, statues, then on to the Parthenon marbles. I was amazed that this famous marble frieze was actually hidden under the roof on the inside top of the temple, behind columns. Maybe that’s why it is well preserved. We also saw two humongous  statues that were part of another temple that can’t be recreated because it’s so huge. Our tour ran over by 30 minutes and by then the museum was filling up. -Husband  met me in the courtyard café after I pushed myself through the hordes around the Rosetta Stone. He took me to see some of the things he saw on his Life and Death in Egypt tour. He’s a good guide! He led us to a room that had a replica Rosetta Stone and as I touched it (allowed), a lady was all “don’t touch it” lol. There was a good explanation on how the stone was decrypted. This room also had George V (?) book collection. Very cool. -I did a little shopping while husband went to see some of the other Egyptian displays. The museum was now quite crowded. I’m so glad we went on the tour! And that they had portable camp like seats to rest my tired feet (shout out to the lovely lady from CA who now lives in London who refuses to use them and her friend who loved my hair). -As we were hungry, we decided to head over to the Ship Tavern for lunch. We got there, via tube, right around 1230, found a place to sit and husband got our beers. The staff were very efficient and we shared the huge platter of fish and chips  and a salad. Very good. -It was our last day in London and we wanted to get Fortnum and Mason tea for brother-in-law so routed ourselves there. It’s such a pretty store. We went to every floor. We had drinks at the bar at the top. Bought towels and the tea. Wandered and oohed and ahhed. -One the way into F&M, we noticed that the Royal Academy across the street had some type of (free) exhibit on so we popped over there. It was called Entangled Pasts 1768-Now: Art, Colonialism, and Change. The exhibit was very well done and quite popular. It was thought provoking and maddening. And saddening. We left as they began to close it down and went back to Fortnum and Mason as husband had seen a Wine Bar on the first floor. -Very cute bar. Our server was very new but trying. We got flights of wine (3 pretty hefty pours, all delicious) and a cheese board and a small salad. Fun, tasty break. We laughed that we spent all day at F&M! -We routed ourselves by foot back to the apartment but encountered a few closures because of the London Marathon to be held the next day. No biggie. We walked by Buckingham Palace on our way. -Packed up our stuff then went to the Albert for dinner. All good.

London