Day 12 - Wednesday 8 September - London

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So our morning began at 12:45am when the roadworkers outside decided to start jack-hammering.

Seriously.. WTF???

That would never happen in Australia - there are laws about such things!!

Anyways.  It stopped after about ten minutes, but it took me ages to get back to sleep cause I was anxious about it starting up again.

Breakfast much the same.

First stop of the day was the British Museum.  I knew in advance that you could easily spend a week in that place.  And I wasn't wrong.  We had a couple of "must sees" - the Rosetta Stone, the Mildenhall Treasure, the Lewis Chessmen, the Elgin Parthenon marble, the Sutton Hoos burial stuff.  And in two hours we easily saw those. But there was the hints at so much more.  You could easily spend a hour in each small room.  If we lived in London it'd be cool to pop in for an hour or two on weekends and just explore the place.  We barely scratched the surface of what was there.  

The British Museum
The British Museum

The grand foyer of the British Museum
The grand of the British Museum

Statue of Amenophis III
Statue of Amenophis III

My first view of Egyptian heiroglyphics
My first view of Egyptian heiroglyphics

Red granite head from a colossal figure of a king, about 1390 BC
Red granite head from a colossal figure of a king, about 1390 BC

Quartzite figure of baboon, about 1400 BC
Quartzite figure of baboon, about 1400 BC

Winged human-headed lion, Assyrian
Winged human-headed lion, Assyrian

I loved the amazingly detailed stonework of the Assyrian pieces
I loved the amazingly detailed stonework of the Assyrian pieces

The Rosetta Stone
The Rosetta Stone

Ramesses II
Ramesses II

Gayer-Anderson Cat
Gayer-Anderson Cat

Elgin's Marbles
Elgin's Marbles

Statues from the Parthenon
Statues from the Parthenon

Hoa Hakananai'a Easter Island Statue
Hoa Hakananai'a Easter Island Statue

The Lewis Chessmen, as seen in Harry Potter :)
The Lewis Chessmen, as seen in Harry Potter :)

Spoons of the Mildenhall Treasure.  Roald Dahl put me onto the Mildenhall Treasure, I've been wanting to see it ever since!
Spoons of the Mildenhall Treasure. Roald Dahl put me onto the Mildenhall Treasure,
I've been wanting to see it ever since!


Flanged bowls
Flanged bowls

The Mildenhall Great Dish
The Mildenhall Great Dish

Fluted bowl
Fluted bowl

The Sutton Hoo helmet
The Sutton Hoo helmet

Roman Glass
Roman Glass

Ancient weapons
Ancient weapons

Pottery
Pottery

The Lindow Man
The Lindow Man

Mold Gold Cape
Mold Gold Cape

Early image of Christ from Hinton St Mary
Early image of Christ from Hinton St Mary

Hadrian
Hadrian

Enlightenment room
"Enlightenment" room

So at 12:15 we headed back to the station to meet Shazzy for lunch.  Went to Pu's Brasserie - Thai - and had some very nice curries.  Lunch was over all too quickly.

Then we headed into town to have a wander past Downing St and onto the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum.  Fascinating stuff!  A couple of odd highlights for me - that Churchill was a pretty talented artist!  And that Neville Chamberlain looks exactly like Barty Crouch in Goblet of Fire.  Freaky!  (actually a website I read suggested Barty Crouch looks like Hitler - which is also true! Gah! :) )

If this is a woman she totally took a lot of steroids!  

On Horse Guards Avenue
If this is a woman she totally took a lot of steroids! On Horse Guards Avenue

A horse guard
A horse guard

Horse guards entrance
Horse guards entrance

Entrance to Downing Street
Entrance to Downing Street

Arches on King Charles Street
Arches on King Charles Street

Bomb suspended near the entrance - an original german 250kg bomb.
Bomb suspended near the entrance - an original german 250kg bomb.

Meeting room
Meeting room

Art of Winston Churchill
Art of Winston Churchill

Door to 10 Downing Street
Door to 10 Downing Street

Prime Minister's dining room
Prime Minister's dining room

Chiefs of Staff conference room
Chiefs of Staff conference room

Graffitti of Hitler
Graffitti of Hitler

Communications room
Communications room

Winston Churchill's bedroom
Winston Churchill's bedroom

Winston Churchill's bedroom
Winston Churchill's bedroom

When we were going through Westminster station on the way back I was thinking hey this could be the station from Order of the Phoenix - and sure enough it was!  But I don't have any photos dammit!!  Will have to go back ;)

Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey

Clock tower closeup
Clock tower closeup

Then we headed back to the hotel to pick up our washing to take to the laundromat.  It was a pretty sad place - half the equipment was "out of order" - including the detergent machine which was somewhat annoying.  Fortunately Earl's Court has enough mini-mart type places that we could buy some.  We even donated some to some kiwis in the same predicament as us.  

While we were waiting for washing and drying we went next door to the "New Asia" Indian restaurant for dinner.  Because Indian has to be done when you're in London :)  It was pretty good.  Also had a couple of pints. 

When I was transferring our washing to the dryer I noticed a couple of things that weren't ours.  I thought they must have gotten stuck in the corner of the washer and missed.  But as we pulled the stuff out of the dryer we found more things.  Another couple that had come in at the same time as us said those things were theirs.  They also had had to switch between the small and the big washers.  I'm guessing she threw a handful of stuff into our washer by mistake.  So we gave them back most of their stuff, but we missed a couple of socks.  So they will have to be thrown out as they don't even match - doh!!

So now it's 10pm and I haven't downloaded my photos yet... maybe tomorrow..!

Geotagging - Day 12
Geotagging - Day 12


Photos on the Canon: 389
Photos on the Sony: 14
Photos on the Blackberry: 2
Videos on the Video: 3
Steps walked: 11707
Pounds Spent: 104.48

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