We Made It to London!

 

Up this morning about 5, and not much dragging of the feet this morning, as we wanted to get into London to get to the two museums we wanted to see!  One note, first, though, about the pillows here at our lovely house. First, the bed is situated in the loft…and it’s a VERY low loft!  Even I have to be careful of my head getting into and out of bed … but what was a complete and total surprise were the pillows – or, I should say, what passes for pillows!  They’re more like flat logs, actually!  I’ve never seen anything like them!  They’re about 3” high, don’t really move at all, and have no “give” whatsoever!  And as I tend to be a “burrower”, it’s really rather awkward!  There’s nothing to burrow into!  Now I know how the Egyptians must have felt – they had funny little wooden neck braces that have been identified as “pillows” – I mean seriously – what’s with that??  Should have brought my old neck cushion from the airplane, but I don’t even bother with it anymore – although I might have, had I know what I’d find here!  There are a couple of throw pillows on the couches downstairs, and I think I’ll take one or two of them upstairs with me tonight to see if I have a more comfortable time of it tonight!  Just thinking ahead!

 

At any rate, we were out of the house about 7:30 and heading for a London Underground station called Blackhorse Station from which we hoped to take the underground to the British Museum.  Their website indicated that they had parking “available” … well, I have no idea when the last time their website was updated, but after driving over an hour and 20 minutes into the outskirts of London, we arrived at the station – only to find that the parking lot was NOT where it was supposed to be, and that there was absolutely NOparking whatsoever anywhere in the area!  Turns out, the area has been totally rebuilt and re-gentrified – it’s actually quite lovely; built around a natural wetlands area – there are canals with longboats on them, as well as some lovely high-rise apartment blocks – with private parking, I might add.  All the local streets around the underground station are now designated as “permit parking only” and the parking lots that are available for parking are all – every one of them, from the shopping centers to the public parking in the center of town areas - now designated as “Maximum Stay 3 Hours – No return within 4 Hours”  Well, that sure took care of us!  I was pretty sure that we couldn’t park, get to London and do two museums and get back to the car all in under three hours.  I mean, we’re good, but not that good!

 

I was pretty discouraged by that point but Robert, ever the resourceful, suggested that we back out of London a bit, and, as the strikes don’t start until tomorrow, find a place that had a train station and a parking lot and try it again!  He suggested Harlow, so, we headed there.  Harlow was about half an hour back up the road toward Cambridge, and, they had a parking garage.  It took us a few minutes to figure out how to get into the parking garage – the signage was truly non-existent, but we finally managed to get inside, and then work out way to the second floor, and there – unbelievably, were open parking spaces!  Incredible!  From there, we made our way into the train station and bought two return tickets to London – didn’t care the train station; didn’t even ask!  From there, it was up and over to platform 2 and something like 12 minutes later, we were on the train to London’s Liverpool Station.  And 31 minutes after that, we were exiting the train at Liverpool!

On the platform at Harlow Town

And here comes our train!

Looking out the train at London!

And even more London!

Off at Liverpool Station

And into a London Taxi Cab

Front of the British Museum!

And Queen Puabi's Crown!

 

From the Royal Cemetary at Ur

From Ur

More of Puabi at Ur

I love my blue glazed lions!

The Nabonidas Stele

Silver from Anatolia

My favorite Hittite God, Teshub, the Storm God!

Always wondered what was in the purse...

Loved this gate behind the BM!

Now in the Petrie; beautiful cartouche!

Note the old style cases!

Loved the colors!

From Amarna

Flinders Petrie himself!

Me and my fizzy raspberry lemonade!

View of the Bull Pub

R's fish and chips

My steak and ale pie and mashed potatoes

Unlike some other times leaving London train stations, this time, we walked out and right into a London taxi cab and in another minute or two we were on our way to the British Museum.  And, of course, like other times, the traffic was awful!  The weather was also pretty bad!  It was really cold today – in the 50’s and blowing a gale!  Robert has taken to wearing his light weight jacket, but I am still huddling in my heavy coat.  I figure I won’t thaw out until I’ve been home in Tucson for a week!  Friends keep promising me 95 degrees, and I sincerely hope they’re right!!!

 

We were dropped off in front of the BM (the nickname for the British Museum) and there was truly quite a line!  Fortunately for us, it moved fairly quickly.  They have a huge security screening facility set up outside the BM, which is nice, as that leaves the museum’s entrance just as it has always been.  R wondered why so many people.  I had told him that this was the school kids’ half-term break, but I guess he’d forgotten – I don’t know if all English school children are off this week, but there were certainly many kids going to the museum today!

It only took about 10 minutes to clear the security queue, and then we were inside. 

 

As we hadn’t had any breakfast, and it was getting close to lunchtime, I was starving, and food was my first requirement.  Fortunately, the Central Court of the museum has sandwiches and things available, so we headed there first.  We were able to get a sandwich to split (ham and cheese baguette) and a Coke with caffeine and even found places to sit.  That was enough to tide us over!

 

From the Central Court, we headed to the 3^rd floor and visited the Mesopotamian Rooms, beginning with Wooley’s excavations at the Royal Graves of Ur.  This was a joint dig with University of Pennsylvania.  We have seen the pieces owned by the Penn Museum, and it was enjoyable seeing the dig from the English/BM perspective.  They also had some lovely pieces from Anatolia … I do love my Hittites!  From the 3^rd floor, we made our way down to the Assyrian area, went once around the Rosetta stone, and were able to revisit some of our special friends from the past.  A good several hours spent in the BM is always enjoyable, even when there are lots and lots of people – which today, there certainly were!  [By the way.  It seems that the BM have re-named the Elgin Marbles; they are now the Parthenon Marbles.]

 

From the BM, we decided to head to the Flinders Petrie Museum, which is a new museum for us.  In fact, it is within easy walking distance of the BM – and we’d never even heard of it until I started doing research for our Egyptian trip we took in January!  Flinders Petrie came from a very prominent English family – in fact, one of his relatives, his grandfather, I think – was the first person to circumnavigate Australia!  This Flinders Petrie became an archaeologist – or rather an Egyptologist, as his entire life was devoted digging in Egypt.  He was a very prolific field man – he loved to dig, much more than teach or really do anything else!  And he spent much time in pioneering a systematic methodology of digging and in the preservation of artefacts.  There are many interesting stories about him – like his digging naked, as it was so hot in some of the tombs he was investigating, or my own personal favorite – he didn’t really care much about what he ate, and he had a collection of “tinned” food – he’d just throw a can up against a wall, and if it didn’t explode, that meant it was OK to eat!  Yum!  Doesn’t that sound like a good way to test to see if something is still good to eat?  Miraculously, he found a female archaeologist to marry and apparently they had a perfectly lovely time digging – and eating – together all over Egypt!  Amarna was one of his particular sites, and there were some very interesting things in his museum today!

 

The Petrie Museum is located on the campus of University College, London, which basically backs up on to the BM.  The walk took about 15 minutes (most of the time spent clearing the BM, honestly!) but suddenly we were on quiet streets in the middle of London. It’s a lovely area, and there was the museum!  It’s located within one of the science buildings – but it desperately needs to be in its own home!  The collection has something like 80,000 items, but only around 8,000 can be exhibited at any one time because the space is so small and cramped!  It honestly reminded both of us of the very old (and now totally remodeled) Torino Egyptian Museum– now a world-class remodeled and redesigned museum.  The cases in the Petrie are made of wood and glass with padlocks, and everything is basically jammed together, and most of the labels are typewritten but some are handwritten!  It’s awful except for the fact that some of the items are absolutely superb!  There weren’t a lot of people at the museum – but more than I would have thought.  It’s a shame they can’t get a new building – but when I think about Flinders Petrie and the kind of man he was, I get the feeling that he’d probably laugh and laugh and say, what’s the point of worrying about the display?  Just look at the material!!  That’s what really matters!!  And he’d be right, of course!!  

 

After a really good look at the collection, we were about museum-ed out for the day!  So, out the door and a block over to a street with taxis on it!  R was able to find one immediately, and we decided just to head back to Liverpool railway station.  It took about 15 minutes to get there, but once we did, we were able to find a train heading our way immediately – in fact, it was at the platform, waiting for us!  So, plunging head first, on we went!  Unlike our to-London train, this one made more stops heading north, but Harlow Town was definitely on the list, so that worked for us!  Plenty of seats, so very comfortable.  It took about 35 minutes and we were back in Harlow, and heading back to the car!

 

We were definitely looking for a place for dinner, and decided to get back toward Wicken before eating; thought we’d see what was available in Newmarket.  We had heard that Newmarket was a racing town and boy, that’s putting it mildly!  Everything, it seems, had to do with horses, and racing, and stables, and horseshoes – in fact, on High Street, it seems like they even had horse shoes and info on the various famous horses wearing them over the years set into the sidewalk, like the movie stars in Hollywood!  Who knew?!

 

We had read some recommendations about The Bull, a pub in Newmarket, and were not only able to find it, but could also find parking within a reasonable distance – with a reasonable prospect of being able to find our way back to the car, which is also important!!  As we were still about 5 miles from Wicken, I had some excellent fizzy raspberry lemonade, but R had his first half-pint of bitter.  For dinner, R had their fish and chips with garden (non-mushy)  peas, and I had their steak and ale pie with mashed potatoes and regular (non-mushy) peas.  Both excellent – and as I pointed out, definitely what was needed on a cold, blustery day!

 

From The Bull, we stopped at Tesco to pick up a few supplies and then back to our cottage at Wicken.  First things being first, I ran a load of t-shirts in the wash, and they’re now hanging up on the drying rack.  Now to blog, and then to pictures.  Whew … it has definitely been a long day!  But, we did do the two museums we wanted to see!  Tomorrow there will be the first of three upcoming rail strikes – tomorrow, and then Friday and Saturday.  I don’t know how commuters will manage, and of course, they’re planned around some sporting activities – something big at Wembley, I think, on Saturday, involving thousands and thousands of people.  Oh well!  Our plan for tomorrow is to make our way to Oxford and at least one museum!  Then we’ll have to see!!

 

Much love,

m

xxx