Like it or not, today was Culture Day. Off to London from Acton Town on the Picadilly Line, off at Holborn, and a walk to the British Museum. With a short stop at 'The Museum Tavern' for lunch. No, really, pub food is very good in England. The beer and cider Jan and I had was just to wash it down. We don't have a drinking problem. Honestly.
Then across Great Russell street to the Museum, through the iron gates and up the stairs in the footsteps of Marx and Lennin. Then we stood in awe. Spectacular is an often-used word in this town, but it certainly applies here. We were so overwhelmed that we booked a guided museum tour. Our tour guide, aptly dressed in tweed and smelling of pipe smoke, took us on a 90 minute walk of the 'highlights'. We were a small group, seven of us, so we got lots of questions asked and answered. Saw mostly the ancient Greek and Assyrian antiquities, then the Egyptian exhibits, and finally 'a proper English Gentleman's Library and Collection' and last some recently discovered ruins from the North of England. A sidebar - I asked him afterward about his background, expecting a PhD in 'egyptology' or 'antiquities'. Nope, an MA in 'Guiding'. I didn't even know that was a field of study.
Say it fast and it doesn't sound like much. But the details included The Rosetta Stone and a slug of Egyptian mummys (about 30 as I recall), and more statues and low-relief carvings than I knew existed. I'm really sorry I slept through the history classes now. I always wanted to have a body like a greek god. Didn't you? They are the icon of the perfect form, male or female. But now I'm glad I look like a god-damned greek rather than a greek god. I think the man with the chisel had it too sharp when he formed the 'male details', and that our cat is better endowed than the exhibits we saw. One other thing, the next-to-last image today is of Kate Moss. It is solid gold and a new display at the British Museum. Our tweedy guide said that the museum likes to demonstrate equality by displaying modern exhibits too, so we have the 'queen of the catwalk' in a yoga pose that he wasn't sure was anatomically possible.
Back on the tube (the Northern Line runing south), a transfer at Embankment Station to the westbound District Line and on to Victoria Station. These details are here to impress you, we've only been here a week and we are already accomplished tube-rats. Though, to be honest, we scamper about with a surface map in one hand and the tube map in the other and puzzled looks on our faces. But we are getting better.
Got off at Victoria Station in the middle of the maddest rush hour you can imagine. People and cars everwhere, horns honking, sirens wailing, and everybody indulging in the national sport which is jaywalking. And the crowds. New York crowds seem orderly by comparison, everyone seeming to know where they are going. Here, London streets define helter-skelter.
Our destination was the Apollo Victoria Theater, right across from the train station. Met Tara and Leanne at The Iron Duke, what else, another pub. Had a couple of pints each, a great dinner of nachos and crisps (bags of potato chips to us colonials), then off to see the 7:30 performance of the musical play 'Wicked'. The performance was wonderful, the sound and lights and special effects (the Wizard of Oz, and the flying monkeys, and a dragon) were excellent, and we and the girls had a great time. A true highlight of the trip. The last image is an intermission shot of the stage.
Then the tube home. The girls led the way, so I can't remember any part of it except getting off at Acton Town.
