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Just me talking about costume-y kind of stuff
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.
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 GallerySutton Hoo GalleryClassical GalleryMesopotamian galleryAsian GalleryThe 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.
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September 2024
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