Lost, Museums, and Bunny Pals

Wednesday, 4:44pm (16.44), Lynton Hotel, London

I've had a couple more wonderful days of walking, touring, and getting lost. Getting lost is really a lovely thing to do on a trip (better in London than, say, New Orleans or Los Angeles, though). Monday, we took a bus tour which went around many of the sights of this old city. I did not wear a jacket...well, it was warm when I left the hotel. Anyway, it wasn't TOO bad, and I wasn't the only person around with short sleeves, but it was a bit chilly.

After the bus tour, we got lost several times, but that's all in good fun. With the A-Z, and all the streets and tube stops being so well marked, it's almost impossible to get very lost. But it is so interesting to walk down streets and through parks, squares, past ancient churches and brand-new shops. London is a great place to walk.

Yesterday, we got lost yet again...this time in some very posh...er...I mean 'swanky' parts of town. Chelsea, Sloane Square...we saw Harrod's, in addition to hundreds of places which sell expensive clothing and housewares. I'd have loved to linger, but I developed a really bad blister on my right Achilles' heel area...owtch! Blisters aside, this has been a perfect holiday...or ... ummm ... vacation, as we'd say in the states.


Thursday, 8:00pm (20.00), Lynton Hotel, London

Yesterday, Dimmie and I went to the Natural History Museum. Unbelievable...Fossils, dinosaur reconstructions, and a real, live tyrannosaurus rex. Well, it looked pretty real to me, anyway. It was some of the best animatronics I've ever seet. There were also the obligatory taxidermied animals--superb specimens which were a total delight to the biology nerd (not that I know any biology nerds or anything!).

After that, the tube and a long walk took us to the British Museum. Every place is walking distance to my dear friend Dimmie...I believe if the Atlantic were paved (and there were abundant cafes on the way), she'd just walk over to visit me!

Okay...I'd heard about the British Museum...a lot about it...but nothing, and I mean NOTHING can possibly prepare you for it. It's unbelievable. One of the first things you can see is the Rosetta Stone...the genuine, bona-fide, ROSETTA- FREAKING- STONE!!!! In the flesh...or in the stone, more correctly, I guess.

They also have Greek and Roman artifacts galore and a couple of tons of amazing old stuff from Egypt, Assyria, and Sumer. They had more cuneiform that an....than a....well, let's just say that they had a LOT of cuneiform. We only took in a small portion of the museum and yet it was absolutely amazing.

I had my geek hat on pretty much all the way throught the museums--I was finding gods, goddesses, and heroes from numerous cultures...I should have brought a notebook to write them all down for Mythical Beings. Among the Mesopotamian stuff, I saw some carvings dedicated to my favourite Sumerian king...yeah, I have a favourite Sumerian king.... WAIT! Where are you going? No...hear me out....My favourite Sumerian king is the great Ashurbanipal (685 - 627 BCE) ... but mostly because his name sounds quite a bit like "As your bunny pal"... and if that's not a great reason to love an ancient middle eastern potentate, I don't know what is... (and that may be the most Kellum paragraph ever written, in my opinion!)