London Long Review Part 3

Ally went off on her own while the rest of us went to British Museum. A thoroughly impressive building with a mindboggling amount of stolen stuff. I was reminded of my day in the Egyptian Museum and just the sheer number of items in that building. By the end of the day there I was barely even taking in what I was seeing simply because I had seen so much. That didn't happen in the British Museum, but it easily could have. Instead we spent about 30 minutes looking at mainly the Elgin Marbles (which used to be on the Parthenon) and seeing a couple other items from Greece and the Rosetta Stone.

It was really cool to see the Rosetta Stone. I think that was my favorite part because I had seen a copy in Egypt and read about it and just to see the very thing that helped us understand hieroglyphics and because it was just so old was very awe-inspiring. Thinking of what would have been if it had not been discovered or understood: for example, my trip to Egypt would have meant a lot less to me if I didn't understand the history and significance of the ancient Egyptian artifacts and locations.

After this, Tess and I rushed off to meet Ally at the London Eye to ride it. When we got there, Ally wasn't, so we decided not to go on. Instead I took a picture of it.

Then (quite tired by now) we met Ally at Covent Gardens, which was nice collection of outdoor shops and restaurants with street performers (your standard robots and jugglers and musicians, etc). We ate dinner at little Italian restaurant where we were tucked into a table in the basement. Felt a little like the Cask of Amontialldo. 

Finally, at the end of the day we caught the Subway back to Paddington, took the train home and fell promptly asleep.

London was...a lot. I really enjoyed my trip, but we did a lot of walking and, in retrospect, not enough resting. We were a little too ambitious in the number of things we wanted to see which meant we didn't get to see any of them in really good detail. But I do think I got a good feel for London as bustling, busy city that the visitor needs to adjust to; it doesn't work the other way around. And depite the problems I sometimes have with big cities: anxiety about crowds, feeling lost, stressed, etc., I think I did okay with London because I knew where we were going, and how we were getting there.

It illuminates, I think, the type and amount of control I feel that I need to be comfortable and fully functional. I really would like to go back and see the Globe and more of the British museum. Maybe soon. But it'll have to be after Venice!