London 3 - The British Museum & the Banqueting Hall

On our final day for this trip, we set out to explore the British Museum.  Entrance is free, but it's off our usual beaten path so we've never been there before.  The museum has a bit of controversy surrounding it, because there are many objects in the museum that the countries they came from want back.  Most notably, the Elgin Marbles. 

 On the Underground leaving from Edgeware road.  The platform there is exposed, hence the rain.

Ha, Tottenham!  Cool.  Not a Hotspur in sight though.  :)  

We picked the perfect day to be inside!  I was very pleased to learn the museum had a coat check - so nice.  

The girls in the Japanese room, waiting for our tour guide.  Unfortunately, the tour was canceled. We explored on our own instead.  

Ew, a real Egyptian mummy.  

 Sarcophagus 

So, the main attraction for me was the Rosetta Stone.  The REAL, ACTUAL Rosetta Stone!  

 It does exist!  :) 

 Wow, you can see two of the different languages.  Neat. 

 So cool. 

Nigerian plaques that once decorated the royal palace, as can be seen in the piece below - it shows the tiles lining the door frame.  

 This was a trip.  It's somewhat explained below - the dog has two heads, and people hammered nails into it to place a curse on someone who had wronged them.  Kind of like voodoo, but in the Congo. 

I thought this was really beautiful.  And it may remind you of tribal facial scarring - it's supposed to.  The pattern would mimic the pattern the potter had on their skin, therefore identifying it as their work.   

Wildlife scene made from reclaimed guns and ammo cartridges, in Mozambique.   

Easter Island statue 

Apparently I told Cambria to open her eyes bigger on this day, lol.  The horse and everything behind is from the Acropolis in Athens.

    

So, on the Acropolis now, the Carytids are all replacements.  We saw the others in Athens at the Acropolis Museum, so now we've seen them all.  Of course, the replicas made a much bigger impression, since they stand on the actual Erechtheum temple now.  

 Still, it's neat to see the real thing.

The museum itself is very interesting architecturally.  

On the balcony overlooking the main floor.

We saw a ton of stuff at the museum, but you can visit the website and see a lot of it yourselves. :) 

So we took the tube back over to Embankment, and counted ourselves lucky that the waffle stop in the station was open!  Woo hoo!  

Belgian waffles with chocolate sauce, strawberries and whipped cream.  Yuuuuummm.  

OK, so we passed by this building, the other side of where we were the night before, and realized this is actually Scotland Yard.  Ha, whoops. 

We were on our way to the Banqueting Hall.  It's one of the buildings in our annual pass to the Historic Royal Palaces, so we thought we'd check it out. 

Charles I was beheaded RIGHT HERE, above the current entrance to the Banqueting Hall.  Wow.  

 The ceiling in the Hall was painted by Peter Paul Rubens in the 1630s.

Pretty amazing.  

James I commissioned the ceiling paintings, and the scenes reinforce the absolute sovereignty of the King.

The throne, where the king would receive requests.  

Going back to the tube, we saw this view across the water.  Wish I had my tripod, but you get the idea. 

Cambria's big eyes again!  At Yo! Sushi in Paddington Station before catching our train back to Oxford.  

And that concludes this trip to London.  :)