On to the British Museum!

Hello!

After this morning’s 1-3 am blogging session, we were actually able to go back to sleep (Yeah!) – another 3½ hours, until 7:30 am.  Up then, showered, (have to get that travel schmutz washed off!) and down to a lovely breakfast.  Traditional British – scrambled eggs, bacon, mushrooms and tomato, along with glasses of very tart grapefruit juice.  Excellent!  Then, back upstairs to get coats and head out for the British Museum.  And boy, when the weather report said it was going to be colder today, but sunny, they really hit the nail on the head!  BRRRRR…. (and of course we’re heading to Turkey, where it will REALLY be winter!  WHAT was I thinking?)

We hopped on the C3 bus to Earl’s Court, where we got on the Piccadilly Line to Russell Square.  Up and out, across Russell Square and to the BM. 

British Museum!

They have built a temporary facility in the main entrance court to handle security, and it works very well, thereby leaving the museum’s main entry way clear for visitors. 

We got there about 10:10, just after opening, and after checking our coats we headed first to the Rosetta Stone. 

Great Court; restaurant on top!

Anatolian Lion!!

Rosetta Stone!

After that, we headed into the Near East collection to revisit some old friends.  We spent several wonderful hours wandering from room to room.  Finally headed to the Court Restaurant for some lunch.  The Court is on the third floor of the magnificent Great Court.  We have eaten there before, and it has always been great.  The only problem we had is that it was REALLY cold in there, as the courtyard is in a direct line to the front door, and with people coming and going all the time … BRRRR!  However, back to lunch.

Artifact from Mesopotamia!

Yet another lion!

Assyrian carvings

We both ordered the same salad – aubergine (roasted egg plant) with arugula, feta cheese, roasted peppers pomegranate seeds, and pine nuts.  It was excellent, and served with some wonderful country bread and butter.  Robert washed his salad down with two pots of English Breakfast Tea; I had a lovely glass of French red wine.  For dessert, I had the aubergine (?!) and chocolate cake with strawberries and crème fraiche (delicious!) and Robert had their warm apple tarte with vanilla ice cream (which I got!).  All in all, an excellent lunch … I could only have wished for my jacket!

Aubergine and feta salad

My aubergine & chocolate cake

R's warm apple tarte with vanilla ice cream

From the BM we headed to Holborn tube station, where we caught the Central line to Bond Street and the Jubilee Line to Westminster Station.  As it was such a nice sunny afternoon, we thought we would get some good photos of some of the most popular London sights for the blog!  So … here are some sights!  It being a clear day, we thought a ride on the London Eye would be appropriate but, as we got near, we noticed it wasn’t moving!  And, sure enough: Closed of Annual Maintenance.  Oh, well!

From here, as it was approaching 3:30 pm (and believe it or not, the sun was already getting lower in the sky for nightfall!!), we decided that we would head back to the hotel, possibly for naps, before figuring out what we might want to do for dinner.  As we wanted to take buses, after a little bit of investigation, we were able to get on an 11 bus heading through Chelsea to Fulham.  The 11 wound past Westminster Abbey and past Victoria Station and through Chelsea on King’s Road.  As we had been keeping track of where the C3 went, we were able to find the connecting C3 stop in just a couple of blocks.  And, while the schedule said that the bus came every 6 – 10 minutes, I think we waited over 15 minutes to finally get the C3 back to the hotel (stopping at the Tesco Express first, though, to get my very favorite chocolate bar in the entire world – a Yorkie bar!)  Back in the room somewhere around 4:15 pm.

Before I settled down for a nice hour’s nap, I got our e-tickets on-line for the 8 am Gatwick Express train from Victoria Station.  Robert woke me up, and then settled down for his own nap!  I think at some point we should probably coordinate this.  I’ll wake him up soon, so that he can proofread this entry as well as download the photos.  Then, we will post for the day! 

Tomorrow:  Off to Gatwick to catch our plane to Istanbul, Turkey!

Small Hittite artifact - Teshub, the Storm God

London Eye

London Eye on right; Millennium Bridge

Another view of Big Ben

Cenotaph; monument to WWI

Big Ben and Houses of Parliament

More later, and lots and lots of love!

m

xxx

Oh!  A comment.  As a tennis fan, I was figuring that of course we could watch the Australian Open on the BBC.  However, this year, for the first time, the BBC, supposedly due to budget cuts, is NOT televising any of the Australian Open – and we don’t get Eurosport at the hotel.  So NO Australian Open tennis!  BUMMER, especially considering the, Scot Andy Murray, is the #1 rated men’s tennis player!!