This morning we set out to view the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. Westminster Abbey was on the way, and it would have been interesting to see the inside, our previous stop a couple days before it was closed, but the idea of going on a tour was quickly put to rest when we saw the lines. There were literally busloads of people there. It was nuts! It is quite beautiful from the outside though. I did get a couple of close-ups of the south doors. Besides, any of us that watched any of the royal wedding a few weeks ago got to see quite a bit of the inside, so we called it good and moved on.
Onward to Buckingham Palace. We didn’t actually make it for the ‘changing’ part of the ceremony but did get to see some of the other. There were lots and lots of folks there so we just took a very casual approach and still got a couple of decent photos.The gates are incredibly ornate and beautiful. The flower beds surrounding the Queen Victoria monument were under post-wedding renovation so not much color there.
We decided to spend the afternoon at the British Museum. This was another incredible place, a sort of National Geographic encyclopedia walk about. I don’t think we’d seen these sorts of ancient artifacts since the King Tut exhibit 30 years ago. Everything was just magnificent. There were several highlights. First was the Rosetta Stone. I had no idea there was such significance to the name. The stone contains one ancient text in three languages on a piece of black basalt (written 196 BC) which measures about 4 feet tall by 2 feet plus wide. It was found in 1799 by one of Napoleons explorations in Egypt. These hieroglyphics were deciphered in 1822 bringing to life these people. The deciphering tools gained confirm the historical accuracy of biblical references of the same peoples. Just incredible!
The other exhibits were numerous large (and smaller) sculptures, many Assyrian and mummies and sarcophagus. The quality and sheer number and variety was mind boggling.
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