06.09.2011 – 06.09.2011  19 °C

Had a bit of a sleep in today as I really only had the plan to see the British museum and then to see the Mousetrap that evening!

The British museum is open of the premier museums in the world and houses many relics from all ages from all countries. Again I felt a slight let down at the museum… One of the big problems with my trip is that I’ve seen most of the top museums in the world within a fairly short space of time so seeing more friezes or more Egyptian relics is kind of a bit ho hum… I don’t want this to take away from the incredible artefacts that can be found in the museum, I guess what I’m saying is that they aren’t quite as exciting as they were when I saw similar ones a couple of months ago.

The number one reason to come to the British museum is to see the Rosetta stone. This stone was the key that unlocked the Egyptian Hieroglyphics and is so famous because after finding this stone (which incidentally was found by Napoleon—which I did not realise!) Egyptologists could finally translate the hieroglyphics into a modern day language. I guess in itself the stone is nothing special to look at but the excitement it must have caused Egyptologists back in the late 1800s would have been something special. From the stone I wandered haphazardly through the Egyptian collection ogling the statues of Ramses II before heading up the stairs to the mummy collection.

The mummy collection in the museum is the largest in the world and it is pretty incredible to think that inside many of the linen wraps still in the museum are actual bodies from thousands of years ago!! There is also a body from thousands of years ago that was discovered just in the desert and has preserved all the time til now. When you look at the outer casings and the inner head dresses etc. from the mummies it does give you some sort of clue as to how advanced the Egyptian civilisation was… most of the mummies come from at least 500 years before Christ…

The other highlight for me was the Britannic section of the museum. This section contains artefacts from the bronze and Iron Age and really highlights Britain’s early history. I particularly liked the Celtic collection that has a Bronze Age Germanic helmet that was found inside a burial mound up in Yorkshire. This section also has a prehistoric Briton that was found buried in a peat bog fully preserved. It is thought that this man was probably a sacrifice to some pagan god as he was well dressed, had a crushed in skull and was found with many other artefacts (jars and jugs etc.) that were probably also sacrifices. It’s amazing to see how well a peat bog preserves people!

After going through the pre- middle ages of Britain I decided that I had seen enough of the British Museum (it is one of those museums that even if you were there all day you wouldn’t even see a quarter of all of the exhibits!) and decided to catch the tube to Harrods to have a bit of retail therapy. I found Harrods quite confusing! I haven’t ever seen a department store that is so poorly laid out… it is a complete rabbit warren, in fact I got lost a couple of times and had to ask for directions!

But taking aside the size of Harrods and the unusual layout of the shop, I do believe that you probably could buy almost anything in the store! I spent quite a bit of time just wandering around the glittering jewellery sections and was very surprised to see many different types of jewellery on display… what I mean is that there were the usual diamond jewels- earrings, necklaces etc. but there was also jewellery that was clearly for Indian or Pakistani customers.. (more than 24 carat gold with interesting designs etc.) Coupled with this was jewellery I took as middle eastern as it had quite a distinctive Moorish influence. I purchased two pairs of woollen socks and some shampoo… nothing exciting but a couple of things that were needed!

Rounded out the day by attending the Mousetrap! The Mousetrap is the longest running show in the West End and has been shown continuously for 59 years! It is Agatha Christie’s most acclaimed play and therefore is a twisted ‘who-dunnit’ with the ending a little surprising (although I did guess it right at intermission)… The theatre where the show plays is this really small, intimate old theatre that feels really homey and was very comfortable. Unfortunately no photos were allowed so I couldn’t capture a picky of the theatre.

Great night out following a great day!