London- Wednesday, July 24, 2013

     This was our day to do things that were not included on the London Pass.  It was a day of legends and long lines in London.

    After hotel breakfast, we took the Tube to the British Museum.  Like the Smithsonians in Washington, the British Museum is a free museum that is filled with wonders that are almost too numerous to appreciate.   Most of these came from the ancient world.  Scott and Julie listened to the Rick Steves audio tour to take us to the highlights, while the girls looked around.  Anna liked the Egyptian and Greek things because she had learned about them relatively recently in school.  She said that her social studies teacher had told her that the Rosetta Stone was a small thing.  When Anna saw it in person she said she was surprised by how large it was.  Based on the crowd of people that were around it trying to take a picture, it might have been the most famous single object in the museum. 

Emma had to be taken quickly through the Egyptian mummies and didn't like that part at all.  Scott and Julie expected to like the Egyptian and Greek items on display, but they were both surprised at how interesting the Assyrian things were.  Their monumental size and Rick Steves's interpretation made them very interesting.  Scott was most interested in seeing the Elgin marbles, the marble statues that came from the Parthenon in Athens.  He had written a paper in college about the statues from its pediment.  By the time we were done at the museum, it was time for a quick lunch at the Burger King we spotted by the Tube station. 

     Our next stop was the most famous address in London (with the possible exception of 10 Downing Street): 221B Baker Street.  According to Arthur Conan Doyle, this was the flat that was occupied by a consulting detective named Sherlock Holmes and his assistant, Dr. John Watson.  They lived on the 2nd floor of the building, and many of the stories begin in the front room, which Holmes used as an office and parlor.  This museum was one of the first things that we put on the list of things to do when we started planning a trip to England.  Unfortunately, this building was never designed to be a major tourist attraction, and only a small number of people can fit into the flat at a time.  As a result, there was a long and slow moving line of people waiting to get in.  (They should really sell timed tickets.  It would make it easier for visitors like us, and keep this queue from annoying the other local businesses, as it obviously did). The wait tired us out, but luckily we were on the shady side of the street.  While we waited in the queue, we took turns going to the London Beatles Store, which was right next to us, and the Sherlock Holmes gift shop, which was on the first floor of the building.  Once inside, the museum is set up as it probably would have appeared when Holmes and Watson would have lived here.  Visitors are able to browse around at the many personal objects on display.  The exhibits are probably best appreciated by someone who is very familiar with the stories.  Holmes appears to have been more sentimental then he is usually shown because he saved souvenirs from many of his cases.  Julie probably recognized more of them than any of us, but even she hadn't read the original stories in quite a while.  Julie said that she liked the mock-up of their room that we saw at Reichenbach Falls, Switzerland, better than this one.  Scott was shocked.  "How can that be a better 221B Baker Street?  This IS 221B Baker Street!"  The exhibits continue on the next two floors.  Emma was not pleased to see that the highest floor contained wax figures representing various scenes from the stories.  They creeped her out.

      As we were taking the Tube to our next site, we saw that we were going to be passing through King's Cross Station again, and we decided to stop for the photo op at Platform 9 3/4.  There, with a running start, Harry Potter and the other students going to Hogwarts, would push their luggage carts right through the brick wall, to get to the magical train that would take them to school.   We knew that a half a cart had been pushed to a wall to let people get pictures there.  What we didn't count on was another long, slow line of people waiting to do that.  There is a Harry Potter store right around the corner from the platform, and employees from the store take professional pictures that they try to sell you after you take a free one of your own.  By the time we went through the line, Emma didn't want her picture anymore, but both Julie and Anna posed at the platform with Griffindor scarves.

     We continued on the subway line, out to near where the West Ham United Football Club plays.  They've got quite a good sized stadium there.  Our goal was to find the Who Store, which specializes in  merchandise and collectibles from Doctor Who.  Because of the lines at Baker Street and King's Cross, we were running far later than we expected to, and we had only minutes to get to the store before its 5:30 closing time.  We made it, and Julie ended up buying a t-shirt that says, "Keep Calm and Don't Blink."  The staff there was quite friendly, and we were able to get pictures of the Dalek and one of the two TARDISes that they have, but didn't get to see the small museum they have in the back. No worries.  We'll see more of the Doctor when we get to Cardiff.

     We had a bit of an bathroom emergency and we decided to take the most direct subway line back to the hotel.   Julie and the girls tried jumping on the first one that they saw, but Scott was trying to read the map to make sure they were going the right way.  The doors of the car shut then, clunking Emma's head as they did, and Scott was left on the platform, watching the car pull away.  Scott took the car to the next station where the girls were waiting, and all was well, but it was a bit of an unsettling moment.

     After being unsuccessful at trying to order a Domino's Pizza, we had dinner at Subway.  When we arrived in London from France, we were looking forward to ordering food from people who spoke the same first language as we did, but in fact, almost all of the food service workers we've dealt with in London have had thick accents from other places.  We've heard Russian and all sorts of non-British accents, and some have been so thick that there's even more confusion than there was in France.

    After dinner we strolled through Jubilee Gardens, which was rededicated last fall for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.  It's right next to our hotel, and runs along the Thames.  It gave us a nice view of the Houses of Parliament lit up at night, and we hadn't seen that yet.  The Eye, many of the trees and the bridges had blue lights on them, which we assume were blue because of the birth of the prince (whom we learned is now named George).   We visited a book store that was still open before returning back along the Thames to our hotel.

    It's our last night in London.  Based on the list we originally made of things we wanted to see or visit, we could easily spend another day here, but the rest of Britain is waiting for us. We've enjoyed the many legendary sights, but on the other hand, we're anxious to get out of the big city.   We've kept our days full of things to do, but we're are getting exhausted from the pace.  We've gotten pretty good at riding the Tube, but we're anxious to get our own car.