Today we navigated through the streets of London via the public bus system! We had to stop and ask people several questions, but it worked out well for us. Again, the people are very helpful and the busses and trains all have handicap accessible ramps. The only system that we cannot access because of Reed's disability is the tube (subway).
From our first stop, we made our way to the British Museum, a few blocks away. At the museum, Reed especially wanted to see the Rosetta Stone, and I wanted to see the Egyptian display. So, essentially, that's all we saw at the museum. I'm sure there are many other exhibits, but we skipped them for time's sake.
The Rosetta stone is a decree issued and written in stone on behalf of King Ptolemy V in 196 BC. It's discovery in 1799 by a French soldier in Napoleon's army was very important because the decree is written 3 times in 3 different languages: Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Demotic script and Ancient Greek. The Stone provided the key to translating Egyptian Hieroglyphs enabling scholars to translate this never before known language. The British gained possession of the Stone when they defeated Napoleon's army in Egypt. Then the Stone was transported to Britain and has been on display at the British Museum since 1802.
The Rosetta stone is a decree issued and written in stone on behalf of King Ptolemy V in 196 BC. It's discovery in 1799 by a French soldier in Napoleon's army was very important because the decree is written 3 times in 3 different languages: Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Demotic script and Ancient Greek. The Stone provided the key to translating Egyptian Hieroglyphs enabling scholars to translate this never before known language. The British gained possession of the Stone when they defeated Napoleon's army in Egypt. Then the Stone was transported to Britain and has been on display at the British Museum since 1802.
The Egyptian display has several statues, large and small. There are sarcophagi, stele (stone tablets with written and illustrated messages. There was one husband, wife and child statue - their version of a family portrait. Statues of cats, falcons, and a very large bust of Ramses II brought back from Thebes. | We also went to a special mummy display. During the late 1800's there were a lot of European archeologists going to Egypt to look for the treasures of Egypt buried for thousands of years. Besides the treasures, they also found mummies. Egypt has the perfect hot, dry climate to preserve mummies, so there were many found intact. The only problem was - the English wanted to see what was inside, and when the mummies were unwrapped, they disintegrated. So someone at the British Museum had the forethought to not unwrap 8 mummies but just display them in their linen wrappings. They were kept intact and still are - but now with our modern technology, we can see what's inside with CT scans and x-rays. So this fantastic display looks inside these 8 mummies and can tell us quite a bit about them. One mummy was dated from 3500 BC, the most recent mummy was dated from 700 AD, so, I found it very interesting to study this display. |
After we finished at the museum, we took a bus to St. Paul's Cathedral, the church where Prince Charles and Princess Diana were married. This is a huge cathedral with a capitol-like dome. It was begun being built in 1675 and finished 36 years later. It was the first Anglican cathedral to be built in England after England's break with the Roman Catholic church. It's design and it's mammoth size was meant to rival the cathedral in Vatican City without looking too catholic. Inside there is a dome within a dome - there is an inside dome in which you can climb 257 steps and walk around the base of the inner dome. Here it is called the whispering gallery because you can whisper from that level (30 meters up) and be heard on the floor of the cathedral. Then you can climb another 119 steps to the base of the outer dome and walk outside to sweeping views of the city. I climbed the first 2 levels, a total of 376 steps. By this time my legs were quivering like jelly! I decided to go down instead of up to the next level (another 154 steps) because I didn't think I could walk down without my legs giving out. The top level is a very small outside dome 85 meters above the cathedral floor. Reed wanted me to go to the very top - but I was chicken and couldn't trust my legs! After the cathedral, we got a sandwich then caught a bus back to the train station where we road the train back to our B&B. We crossed over the modern London Bridge as put of the bus ride and the train station we went to was located at the base of the Shard, that unusually shaped tall glass building. |
Well, I must quit writing and pack because tomorrow we take the Eurostar to Paris! Talk to you soon.
Well, I have to quit writing and pack because tomorrow we take the Eurostar to Paris! Be talking to you tomorrow.