LONDON! British Museum: Middle Section

Hope y'all had a happy Fourth of July! We had fun at our house and yes, I took pictures. But in my last post, I said I would continue with the British Museum and I wouldn't want to make myself a liar. So, on to the Middle Section of the museum. This was where they had Assyrian artifacts as well as those from Ancient Greece and there weren't many things in this section that the book wanted to take a look at. (And Middle Section is my name for it so don't go to the museum and ask for the "Middle Section" or they'll just look at you funny.)

What has five legs and flies?

An Assyrian Guard! These statues stood guard outside a palace more than 800 years before Christ as born. They have five legs so they look proper when viewed from the front of from the side. And they are really, really big.

We skipped over the entire Assyrian section because we are lazy Americans (and because we had about an hour to see the Greek statues). For those of you that are sensitive about nudity, you might not want to look too closely at the Greek Statues, mmm-kay?

The Goddess Aphrodite. She is not featured in the book and I, frankly, am a little offended by that.

This lovely statue is known as the Garden Lady. She was found in the garden of a former ambassador. There's nothing known about her origins or her real name. I think the story just adds to her melancholy feel. Don't you just want to give her a big hug and maybe split a chocolate bar with her?

In our quest to get through the museum, we came upon a special collection that was not mentioned in the book (probably a limited engagement). I had to put the brakes on our rushing because these were Mayan artifacts. My father happens to love the Mayan culture and I do, too. So I got a few pictures.

This is a representation of a bloodletting ceremony. Now, the names escape me at the moment but the guy holding the big sword? He's a ruler. His wife just had a baby boy, giving him a male heir, and he recently defeated his enemy in battle. The guy crouching down? He is the enemy, one from a royal family. So the guy who is having a very good day, must sacrifice the guy not having a good day - or let out his blood - as a tribute to the gods.

A tablet with their ancient writing. I didn't get the information on this one because the rest of my party was waiting at the door, anxious to see the next section. Geesh...

LONDON! Day 9: British Museum, Egyptian Display

Okay, it seems like this day will never end and that's because we went to so many different places and I was constantly taking pictures and well, frankly, you asked for it.

We arrived at the British Museum with just 2 1/2 hours before it closed. We also were introduced to Carole, who, like Roz, is just a wonderfully lovely person and we felt like we really were family, never mind all those twice-removed's and second what-nots.

Our fantastic guide book gave us a Who's Who of the British Museum, the really cool and very high profile things that we simply HAD to see or tear our hair out in regret for the rest of our lives. So, with such an immense building and with so little time, we started out. I'm not going to cover everything because, seriously, I have way too many pictures.

#1 The Rosetta Stone. This was the piece in the puzzle that allowed translation of the enigmatic Egyptian hieroglyphs. The stone is actually a decree from the Pharaoh. It is the same thing written in three different languages: top portion is hieroglyph as the traditional text, then come Demotic as the basic language of the Egyptian people, followed by Greek as the Egyptians government used it. The code was broken. Now the amazing pictures could be deciphered.

These are some hieroglyphs from the side of a sarcophagus. See how hard that would be to translate?




#2 Upper Half of Ramesses II. You might remember this guy from the part he played in Moses' story. He was the one that heard "Let my people go" and then had to do just that.




#3 Egyptian gods as animal. This is Tawaret, the protectress over childbirth. I read a lot about her in the book The Red Tent.




#4 Mummies. You could spend the entire day in these four rooms and still not see everything. Here are a couple more pictures.

#8 The Goddess Sekhmet. These figures were slightly larger than life and held a personal meaning for Roz so I took lots of pictures.

#9 Fragment from the Sphinx' Beard. I didn't know what this was at first and was wondering why it was so important as to be mentioned in the book...oh, yeah! You can see the Man reflected in the glass, reading to me why this is cool.

#10 False Doors to tomb of Ptahshepses. In Egyptian tombs you will find doors that lead to nowhere. They are there to not only confuse would-be thieves but also symbolically.

Continued on the next post...

FHE: Honesty

Taking another break from the London pictures. I have four folders full of pictures. Haven't even finished the second folder yet! Let me know when you get sick of seeing these...

Family Home Evening tonight involved the Crazy Grandparents. In fact, I was so busy getting dinner ready (which was rather yummy) that I delegated the duty of teaching the lesson to Grandma. I pointed her in the direction of my Sunbeams/FHE binder and then continued basting with honey.

Opening Song: Popcorn Popping (da Boo was in charge and both kids wanted to sing this one first).

Opening Prayer: Grandpa (although we had a hard time hearing him over the Boy's cries).

Lesson: Grandma asked da Boo to look at the window on a particular wall in the living room (one the doesn't have a window). Then she asked if da Boo liked my purple shoes (they're black). Finally, Grandma asked about Grandpa's dirty socks (not dirty, they're black). Just when da Boo was convinced Grandma was off her rocker, Grandma talked about how she wasn't tell the truth. She said the Heavenly Father wants us to be honest in everything we do (even the small stuff). Being honest isn't so hard. Grandma even had a game to show us how we can be honest. She had a small, green dog button so she taught the kids how to play Button, Button, Who's Got the Button? It took some practice before da Boo and the Boy were able to pass the dog button without being too obvious. And the game was off! I was picked to be "it" first but it got a little awkward when I ended up with the button! So we tried again. Da Boo got a turn being "it" and thought this was such a fun game. We all showed how we could be honest with each other by telling the truth when asked if we had the button.

Closing Song: B-I-N-G-O (the Boy got a little carried away with this one).

Closing Prayer: the Man.

Treat: The Boy had treat and he is my little chocoholic buddy so for treat we divided up a chocolate bar I brought back from London. It was called "Maya Gold." Label said it was dark chocolate with orange and spices. We could smell the orange and cinnamon but had a hard time placing the other spices. Finally, I peeked at the label. It also had nutmeg. It was tasty as only dark chocolate can be.

Then I had to tickle-chase the kids upstairs to get ready for bed...

LONDON! Day 9: St Paul's Cathedral

St Paul's Cathedral dominates the landscape in it's part of London. I don't know if these pictures accurately convey the immensity of the place!



I took this picture of the main dome when we were a block away from the cathedral.



We opted not to pay the 10 pound fee to tour the cathedral and instead, wandered around the free parts, took pictures of the outside and hoped the rain would clear up (which it did, but only for a few minutes at a time and then it was sprinkling again).

Interesting fact: Prince Charles and Princess Diana were married at St Paul's instead of the traditional Westminster Abbey. Also, St Paul's is built on the site of a Roman temple to the Goddess Diana. Coincidence? I think not!

After waiting for the bus, we headed to the British Museum, where we would meet up with another of my so-distant-possibly-not-related relatives!

And I posted a couple of cakes I've made since I got back. They're over at The Cake Cow.

LONDON! Day 9: On The Street

Here are a few random pictures from our adventure out on the streets of London.

Gotta have the obligatory picture on the double-decker bus! Just before the bus arrived, it started to rain! London Survival Tip #5: Unless you don't mind taking your shower outside, bring an umbrella with you at all times! I had a small one that folded up nicely and fit in my purse. Unfortunately, it was so small that we each got half wet.

While taking a picture of the River Thames from the London Bridge, we noticed these jets in the air! They are bright red and are the English equivalent to the Blue Angels (except they're red, of course).

We were just about to leave the bridge when the jets let out streams of colored smoke! Then the cannons began to fire. It was a 21-cannon salute. To whom? Why, the queen of course! This weekend the country was celebrating her Highness' birthday (which totally messed up some of our plans but I'll get to that later).

On our way to another cathedral, Roz took us to this fascinating site. Apparently, in 1953, a company was digging down to lay the supports and foundations for a new bank when they made an interesting discovery: an ancient temple built to worship the god Mithras. The god Mithras was a favorite of the Roman soldiers and even makes an appearance in the King Arthur legends. The company went through the expense of raising the temple up to street level so that is might cause wonder in all who came across it. Pretty cool, eh? When was the last time you went digging in your backyard and found an ancient Roman temple? So odd to see such an incredibly old place set in the heart of a bustling city.