Today’s exploring is in two parts, and was a 26,000 step day. The first part (here) involved a lot of walking in Westminster. It was a beautiful day (that required water bottle refills and more than one ice cream). I started at parliament for more iconic landmarks including a rather large clock tower and Westminster Abbey.
I then walked into St James Park, and followed the marching band music to discover I had lucked onto the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace (….Christopher Robin went down with Alice….because one can’t say changing the guard at Buckingham Palace without adding the next part). Lots and lots of tourists and walking tour groups (in every language).
Next stop was the British Museum to see all the stolen things, but this required a walk. Passed a rather famous square with a (in)famous dude standing on a big pillar, and then onwards through West End – taking photos of venues, but I did not see any shows this trip.
Eventually I made it to the British Museum (which I initially went past and had an accidental wander around streets full of university halls …nice quiet streets for a change, since it is summer break). The British Museum was (i) hot (no air con?), (ii) full of tourists and many, many tour groups and (iii) a bit of a maze that is hard to escape from. There was some pretty cool stolen stuff though. I focussed on ancient Egypt and Rome/Greece (with accidental visits to some other actual English history when I tried to find shortcuts….hot tip: there aren’t any). The Parthenon sculptures are amazing (these are the 2,450 yo ones that should be decorating the walls and frieze of the Parthenon in Athens – but a dude called Elgin pinched them in the 19th century). Also – mummies and sarcophagi, coffins and sculptures ancient Egypt. so old.
I also stopped by the Reading Room (where lots of famous people wrote things e.g. Karl Marx), and then gave in and escaped out into fresh air.
