The British Museum

British Museum

We spent all day at the British Museum, mostly looking at mummies and other antiquities that were stolen from other countries.  This idea had never bothered me before, but it does now, especially after the Hobby Lobby scandal.  The museum had renovations done since I was last here (in the 1980's). The inner courtyard was enclosed with what is basically a glass dome. See photo below. There's a new building in the middle which houses the massive gift shop which sits on top of the bathrooms which are down a long spiral stairway in the basement.  These are the only toilets in the museum, so plan accordingly.   The British Museum is the oldest public museum in the world, but the Victoria and Albert Museum has the world's oldest cafe in a museum.  More about that later.

Here's a lovely woman who I met while queueing for the toilets.  She comes here (to the museum, not just the toilets) every year on holiday and because holidays are special, she comes in fancy dress!  Don't you just love her to pieces?

​If you are a woman, you already know this, but I'll say it anyway.  This is one of those places that still has gendered toilets so there aren't nearly enough toilets for women. The other problem is, the whole thing was badly designed in terms of traffic flow.  The only way in (down and around the long spiral staircase) is also the only way out.  The same is true once you get inside the women's toilets.  You have to queue down a  hallway of sinks on either side which means that the women coming out of the toilets can't get to the sinks because you are all standing in front of them, waiting to get into the toilets. And remember, these are the ONLY toilets in the ENTIRE MUSEUM.

The highlights for me were the Rosetta Stone, the Sutton Hoo artifacts, and of course, the mummies.  There are no paintings in the British Museum, those are in the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery (two different museums which I only realized after reading an essay by Neil Gaiman in which he said he didn't realize it either and  he's from there).  We did the Egyptian galleries first, then the Asian galleries, We bought lunch for $7 from a cart inside the museum, then took it outside to eat in the fresh air.  It was a baguette with meat and cheese, a bag of crisps, and a bottle of water.  The museum lacks proper Texas air-conditioning and there were entirely too many people all crowded in there, so we needed to de-stress outside for awhile. After lunch, ​ we went to the European galleries for Sutton Hoo, and then the Asian Galleries and finally the Classical Galleries.

Egyptian Gallery

Sutton Hoo Gallery

Classical Gallery

Mesopotamian gallery

Asian Gallery

The Map

It was a half a mile walk to the British Museum from our hotel.  On the way we discovered our favorite tea shop, Drury, which was right across the street from our hotel.  On the way home from the museum, we stopped in for tea for the first time and then went back every chance we could.

Drury