I’ve made it this far! My flight was 3 hours late leaving Washington due to some problems with the plane’s landing gear. I’m glad they took the time to fix that before we left. We arrived London, just about noon yesterday, and it was a couple hours until I got to the hotel and checked in. I turned around pretty quickly and went back out to the British Museum and spent the rest of the afternoon wandering there and in the neighborhoods around the museum and Holburn.
The British Museum has one of the best collections of Sumerian, Persian and Akkadian stuff anywhere in the world. They’re on par with the Louvre and maybe exceed the Met in depth if not in variety. Anyway, I wandered around with my mouth gaping open as I looked at the statues, the gold, and even decorated bronze straps that used to wrap the gate of the city of Nimrud. I know that doesn’t mean a lot to anyone, but this was all stuff I studied and saw in books, but yesterday it was real. Amazing.
This afternoon I’m back on the plane, but until then I’m going to wander over by Buckingham Palace and just see where I go from there.