Museums & Bus Tour!

Last post before classes start. I'll cover the museums I've been to since arriving and the bus tour that I had this morning.

For those of you who tried to guess which museums I had been to, if you had guessed the British Museum (the Rosetta Stone pic) and the Imperial War Museum (bi-plane picture), you were correct. I also went to the British Library, but they do not allow photos, so I have none to post from there.

There is just one word to describe the British Museum: massive. As the Rick Steves guide to London puts it: "Simply put, this is the greatest chronicle of civilization...anywhere." This is so true. From the Rosetta Stone to the Elgin Marbles, the halls of the British Museum held a lot of items. I was impressed by the scale of all of it, but felt it was somewhat anti-climatic. Later that night I got into a discussion with another student (who is an archaeology major) about whether or not the Elgin Marbles should be returned to Greece. By later that night I mean over a drink at a bar a bunch of us went to.

The British Library didn't have much. The Magna Carta had its own room, but most of the space was dedicated to displaying the highlights of their collection. Not much interpretation tying everything together. A few highlights were a Gutenberg Bible and an original draft copy of Handel's Messiah.

The Imperial War Museum covers just the twentieth century wars that Britain has been involved in. While a lot of war museums tend to glorify war, this one does not. In fact, the area separating the halls covering the two World Wars is entitled "The Cost of War." You go through this before entering either hall. An interesting fact that I took away is that since 1945, there has only been a single year where no British soldier has died somewhere in the world. A highlight of the World War I exhibit was a recreated trench with realistic lighting and sound (no mud though) to give you a feel of what it was like in the trenches.

This morning I went on a bus tour of Central London, and by that I mean most of the city. I won't name every sight we went by because you name the historic or tourist sight, we probably passed by it. The only one we did not see was Buckingham Palace because the road leading up to it is closed on Sundays. We did make two stops for photos. One was to get pictures of Tower Bridge and the HMS Belfast and the other was to get pictures of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. For those of you who do not know, Big Ben is not the clock tower, it is the bell housed inside the clock tower. The tower is simply just the "Clock Tower."

Classes begin tomorrow and river boat cruise tomorrow night.