London Notes
We found ourselves in need of a complete getaway so we took a little 10 day break in London and Oxford, England. We had a marvellous time traveling light (one carry-on bag each), knowing no one, and spending most of our time just walking and exploring. It's amazing how refreshing it can be to exhaust yourself exploring an unfamiliar environment.
We'll be posting some of the 1200 or so photos we took as we get them sorted and prepared for the web. Some things we couldn't photograph: monks chanting Matins in a seven-hundred year old church, or the sound of an all-male choir during Evensong at Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford, for example, but there was so much else that we should have something of interest to show you.
The British Museum was, of course, our first stop. A thousand photographs would not do justice to the museum and its 6 to 12 million artifacts (depending on whether or not you count individual shards etc.), so these few will have to do.
Like many major institutions in Britain, the British Museum does not charge an entry fee. Its purpose is to provide an educational resource for everyone.
The look of intense interest and wonder on the little boy's face reflected in the glass case of the Rosetta Stone (above, right) clearly shows that museums don't have to turned into children's play centres to capture the interest of their younger visitors.
A small sample of the controversial Elgin Marbles. It should be noted that Lord Elgin, with legal permission from the government of the time, provided them to the British Government for less than the cost of bringing them to England where they may be viewed at no cost. Contrary to popular belief, the modern Greek government seeking their return does not wish to restore them to their original position (an impossibility) but to house them in a museum near the Acropolis and to charge for viewing them.
This video will give a better idea of what we saw (and tell you a bit more about the sculptures):
http://www.britishmuseum.org/channel/object_stories/video_parthenon_sculptures.aspx
Two of the museum's 5.5 million annual visitors.