Trips

Mon., 6/6/16 – London
         This morning we met Jane who will be our program director for our pre-trip extension in London, after which we headed off to the Tower tube, looking at a piece of the old Londinium wall (Roman) and a statue of Trajan.  We rode the tube, using our Oyster cards, from Tower Hill to Kings Cross station and walked two blocks to the British Library.  It is a new building (2002) and we went in to see one of the four original copies of the Magna Carta signed on 6/15/1215.  What a treasure that exhibit room turned out to be!  Next to the Magna Carta is the original Papal Bull annulling the Magna Carta on 8/24/1215, and then the revised Magna Carta, in 1216, with many of the English (and other) laws that still exist.
        The room also had original manuscripts, etc. of Music, Literature, Historical Documents, Science, Printing, Sacred Texts, and Maps of land and heavenly bodies.  I can’t pick any one document as any more outstanding than everything else in the room.  One wall of the main hall contains slideout panels of about every stamp ever printed in the world!  Of course, there were many floors of stacks with both old and new books.   The library was a wonderful find. (No photos inside, of course.)

Statue of Trajan at the Old Roman Wall	The Tube
On the Tube
Newton outside the British Library	British Library
Cute bench inside the British Library	It is almost comfortable!
	We walked down toward the British Museum, stopping for lunch in the London University section of the city on Jane’s suggestion.  We ate burgers and salads at the Gourmet Burger Kitchen - very good.         Thus refreshed, we headed into the British Museum, mainly to see the so-called Elgin Marbles (technically know as the Parthenon Marbles or Sculptures) which Lord Elgin reputedly stole from the Parthenon in Athens.  On the way in we looked at the Rosetta Stone, from Egypt.  The stone was carved in three languages with hieroglyphs at the top, Demotic (the language of educated ancient Egyptians) in the middle, and ancient Greek on the bottom.  All three say the same thing, which is a March 27, 196 BCE decree.  The stone led to the translation of Egyptian Hieroglyphics.
Typical Mews	British Museum
British Museum lobby	Rosetta Stone
Rosetta Stone	Rosetta Stone - Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs
Rosetta Stone - Demotic script	Rosetta Stone - Ancient Greek script
We spent quite a bit of time with the marble carvings from the Parthenon - the Elgin Marbles (technically known as the Parthenon Marbles or Sculptures) .  After seeing the New Acropolis Museum in Athens, we still think it is a shame they are not all displayed together and in Athens.  The museum trustees try hard to justify their not giving them back to Greece.  Several plaques included the statement, “Since its (whatever sculpture, frieze, or column) removal at the beginning of the 19th c., it has escaped further weathering and is now the best preserved (whatever).”  They say a similar thing about many of the Egyptian and Middle Eastern artifacts.  They even have pamphlets trying to justify keeping artifacts taken from other countries without permission. The Brits (Lord Elgin) stole all of the good stuff from there.  Britain says, “we can’t put the artifacts back where they came from” but Greece say, “now we have a modern, temperature and humidity controlled, fireproof building in which to display the entire piece.”
Parthenon Sculptures (Elgin Marbles)	Parthenon Sculptures (Elgin Marbles)
Parthenon Sculptures (Elgin Marbles)	Parthenon Sculptures (Elgin Marbles)
From the Erectheion on the Acropolis	Another section of the museum had statues from the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos.  We saw the ruins when we were in Bodrum, Turkey.
Mausoleum of Halikarnassos	From the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos
From the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos	Other exhibits we viewed
Cuneiform writing	A Lyre
Lyres	Lion from the Ishtar Gate
	The Lewis Chessmen
The Lewis Chessmen	Another interesting sign

        It was a long and extremely interesting day. A return to the two museums is certainly in order on another trip. You just can't take it all in at one viewing!

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