We hopped on the Tube and went up to the British Museum …

If you ever go to England you can’t miss the British Museum … there is way too many once-in-a-lifetime things to see there …

Plus, it’s free.

and you can take photos….

the best of all worlds.

(yea, we didn’t have too many photos together, so I took advantage of the mirror in the bathroom)

on a side note: how cute is my friend Miranda???

You walk through the doors and into The Great Court … with this gorgeous glass ceiling … The big round room in the center of the Great Court is the Reading Room… we didn’t get to go in (I think there was a special display in there) … but read about it here and check out those images …. oh my word … I wish!

P.S. Is England/UK going to have to re-do ALL their infrastructure when Queen Elizabeth dies? The mailboxes, the reading room in the British Library, etc …

Ladies and Gentleman … the Rosetta Stone …

If you know what it is – I feel SOO lucky to have seen it at least once in my life. … and now I want to do all sorts of personal research in that area
If you don’t know what it is – read here

Basically – the discovery of the Rosetta Stone (in 1799) finally allowed archaeologists/etc be able to translate ancient Egyptian heiroglyphics.

Also ridiculously amazing …

All the ancient Greek statues/friezes/artifacts/etc …

The Nereid Monument from Xanthos (c. 390-380 BC) – below

this is a reconstruction of a temple-shaped tomb … this gives you an idea of where all the pieces go in the whole …

(not gonna lie, I kind of LOVE my photos of this part of the exhibit)

Pediment sculptures:

[from the Rick Steves London guidebook]
“These statues were originally nestled nicely in the triangular pediment above the columns at the Parthenon’s main (east) entrance.”

look at the amazing detail … the folds in the clothing … the way it ‘hangs’ off the body … all carved out of a single piece of marble…

below are more pieces (friezes, etc) taken from the Parthenon

After a substantial walk around the Museum (I’ve only showed you a fraction of the fraction of the museum that we saw) … we headed back into the street just as the sun was setting …

On the look out for dinner before our night walking tour around The City …