I only had a few days in London and I had spent much of that time running around Soho trying to confirm that my software was working properly. My train to Lancaster wasn't leaving until the early afternoon, which meant I had some extra time in my last morning in London.
So I decided to visit the British Museum. For 50 minutes.
The British Museum is one of the greatest stores of historic artifacts in the world. it has 8 million objects in its collections, including many all-time world famous ones. It's also free to get in. While this can make it busier at peak times, it makes visiting a different experience. Instead of trying to milk the maximum value out of one ticket, spending hours and hours getting through all the galleries, you can just pop in every so often – especially if you're flexible and know when best to avoid crowds.
In my previous visit to London, back in 2013, we were staying just a few blocks away from the British Museum, and I would make it part of my daily morning routine to drop in and spend 15-30 minutes looking around. Over that time I got to know the exhibits that I liked the most, and today I figured I had just enough time to quickly catch up with these old friends.
I got to the gate and security lineup at 10:19.
I made it to the main entrance by 10:22. I realized I was back in the land of giant classical columns. We don't have many of this kind of scale in Halifax.
Most other columns in the world have been ruined for me after visiting the Pantheon in Rome. I'm no longer impressed unless your columns are 60 ton 12-meter tall single carved pieces of Egyptian granite. These here were merely assembled as stacks. Oh well. Thankfully there is a lot else to make up for that.
10:25. First things first: I said hi to The Rosetta Stone. It's near the entrance and often mobbed, so it's sometimes hard to see properly. I actually went away for a bit and came back to get a proper photo:
I've always been surprised by how small The Rosetta Stone is, and how minuscule the lettering is on it. I didn't feel like I had been away from it that long, actually, as I had seen it in situ virtually in Assassin's Creed: Origins:
10:30 Next up was the famous Elgin Marbles, the sculptures from ancient Athens' Parthenon. There has been much debate over the centuries about whether these belong back in Greece or not, but for me at least they're easier to visit in London.
I was also familiar with the ancient versions of these, once again from Assassin's Creed: this time it was the follow-up "Odyssey" which features a real-scale model of the entire Acropolis as it might have been during the time of Pericles, though for some reason they used different designs for the pediment statuary and other decorations than the real ones. Maybe there was a rights issue?
Feeling a bit boxed in by the increasingly dense crowds, I headed upstairs to the Japan galleries. After all the crowds and bustle of the main spaces, the Japan gallery is pleasantly empty, and the items on display are elegant and often peaceful. The reason I was there was very elegant, but not very peaceful: a 16th century katana:
I had first started appreciating museum katanas after seeing a particularly well-displayed one at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. In a hall filled with clunky and sometimes gaudily ornate European weapons and armour, the isolated katana blade of smooth lightly patterned and gently curved steel was like a breath of fresh air. The one at the British Museum isn't quite as beautifully displayed, but it is still refreshing (even if the scabbard was a bit much).
It was now 10:56. I had a bit more time to find some other favourites on my way back down.
I greeted Sekhmet (another piece I recognized from Assassin's Creed Origins) on the way through the reading room. 11:05!
I said hi to some emperors: two Hadrians and a Nero at 11:09am:
Finally I found my last old friend for this visit: the Lewis Chessmen.
The Lewis Chessmen of course make an appearance in yet another Assassin's Creed game: Valhalla. I'm realizing that what I like about these games is related to what I like about the British Museum. Although there's a lot less stabbing at the British Museum.
It was now nearly 11:15 and while I would have loved to check out more of the museum, and maybe make some new favourite discoveries, I had to check out of my hotel and catch my train soon. I hope to be more thorough next time, but at least I caught up with some old friends.