So, of course we’re behind on the things we want to post about, as usual.  I thought I’d at least mention the British Museum.

The exterior of the British Museum

Unlike the castles, churches, and monuments, which have pretty scary admission fees, the British Museum is free and proud of it.  And it’s awfully nice that it is free, since we can drop in for an hour or two to see one exhibit if we have to be downtown.  It also turns out that there’s an amazing game store just down the street, where we picked up <i>Accused</i>, the game we mentioned in our Spiel game convention review back in the archives of this blog.

The courtyard was roofed over in the year 2000, I think.  The central column is now galleries, but once it held a British Library reading room where Marx studied.  I’ll have to double-check that, but I think that’s right.

The courtyard of the British Museum

The first time we visited was our first weekend here, and that was a mistake.  School was still out, tourists were still visiting, and the famous exhibits were MOBBED.  We waited about 20 minutes and couldn’t get close enough to see the Rosetta Stone.  So we went upstairs and looked at the galleries on currency and Japan instead, which was pretty amazing too.

We went back for a couple of hours this weekend, and we were able to see some of the famous exhibits.  The Rosetta Stone is pretty amazing.  It makes you want to try your hand on translation yourself, except for the part where I don’t know the Greek either.  The carved hieroglyphics are beautiful.

It was still pretty crowded at the stone.  What you don’t see in the picture are the four rows of gawkers who kindly stepped aside to let us take it.  It was

The Rosetta Stone

really a rude touristy thing to do, but I’m glad we did it anyway.

Then we walked through the gallery on Assyria and got a dose of cuneiform writing.

I was surprised to realize that they do allow pictures.  Most museums we’ve been to don’t, so I just assumed this one wouldn’t either.  So it’s a nice surprise that we can share a few.

Cuneiform writing from Assyria

A demonstration of Pacific Islander dance in the courtyard