London Days 5 and 6

I couldn’t post yesterday—lack of sleep finally caught up to me—so hopefully I can remember everything to summarize our last two days in London! If these days had a theme, it would be “museums”: we have been to the National History Museum, the British Museum, the National Gallery, and the Winston Churchill Museum and Prime Minister’s War Rooms. A lot of time on my feet, reading plaques :) and I have to confess that I am not usually a great lover of museums. I’ve always been a little embarrassed by that—somehow, I think it makes me less intelligent or mature—but I’m still working on it and improving!) Thankfully, each museum possessed several real gems that kept even this amateur entertained.

First was the Natural History Museum with an enormous amount of fossils and replicas or stuffed skins of animals. I was disappointed that we couldn’t get in to see the dinosaur exhibit (the lines were too long, with too many screaming children) but we did enjoy a large collection of reptile fossils and bones of extinct mammals. (Andy took the photo below of me with an extinct sloth; he said he is titling it “two sloths,” in honor of all of his failed efforts to wake me up in the morning!)

While this is neither insightful nor specific, I think my strongest reaction to the exhibits was, “Wow. Elephants are really, really big.” :) The architecture of the building was, once again, really, really beautiful. Here is a picture of the boys on the main steps in the museum.

Next was the British Museum, full of a ridiculous number of artifacts. I realized that Britain is in the unique position of having been the imperial power right at the point when the Western world became interested in studying and preserving history. They were able to collect (or, perhaps more accurately, steal) artifacts from all around the world. I should be fair and note that a lot of the stuff in there is also donated or on loan, but some of the greatest exhibits—a frieze from the Parthenon, mummies and sculptures from Egypt, jewels from Asia—were “imported” by British imperialists. At the same point, I enjoyed getting to see the Rosetta Stone and marveling at all that has been learned through that seizure. Is it wrong to enjoy that experience and knowledge, even when the means by which it was achieved could be called despicable? Or is it in some way redemptive to really delight in the opportunity to view these treasures? Or should they be given back? Or is that just the way the world worked then, even though we see it as wrong now? Interesting dilemma. My favorite exhibit, though, was of the artifacts from the Sutton Hoo burial ground. We learned about this particular discovery in my early English literature class, because it relates to Beowulf (every English major’s favorite book!) Beowulf describes the king being buried with his ship, but until the discovery at Sutton Hoo less than a century ago, there was no evidence that such a practice existed. Then, some little old British lady called the British Museum and asked them to investigate some interesting mounds in her backyard, one of which turned out to be an Anglo-Saxon king’s burial ground, complete with his ship and treasures. I love when I can make connections with things I learn in the classroom; I would write my professor to inform her, but she was this terrifying British woman who I’m sure has seen the exhibit herself, so I’ll just be personally satisfied at having seen it.

Today we started out at the National Gallery and bunches of famous paintings. Once again, my lack of art history knowledge/appreciation put me at a serious disadvantage. But I enjoyed reading the plaques and I did recognize several paintings by Van Gogh and Monet. And I also realized that a lot of Dutch people have painted! (That’s for you Beth.) :) I also picked out a few paintings that I really loved—mostly ones that seem to emit light. I love light. One thing I have appreciated here is that most of the museums—including the National Gallery—are free of charge to the public. They’re run totally on donations. I like feeling like great art—or artifacts, or history—are not just available to the elite but are part of the public possession. Maybe that provides some answer to my dilemma about the British Museum? Below is a picture of Trafalgar Square with the museum in the background. I thought it was really pretty at nightfall with the fountains.

Finally, we had a brief jog (almost literally) through the Winston Churchill Museum and the Cabinet War Rooms. I wish, in retrospect, that we had left more time for this because it was probably my favorite of all the museums. I don’t think of myself, normally, as much of a history person, but I do really appreciate history particularly when I can understand it as a story. And good museums, like this one, really help me to experience history as a story—complete with all the journals, photographs, and speeches as the details that enrich the basic outline of dates and names. Churchill in particular provides plenty of enjoyable details with all of his pithy quotes, which were displayed all over the wall. Two of my favorites: “We are all worms, but I do believe that I am a glow worm” and, from his grade school report card, “Winston is exceedingly naughty, and is not to be trusted with anything at all!” :) Just goes to show you should never judge a child’s abilities too quickly, particularly based on behavior.

In between the museums we’ve managed to squeeze in two great meals—lunch at a lovely Indian restaurant (finally!) and our last dinner here at a very traditional British pub, complete with Fish and Chips, Pimm’s and Lemonade, and a dodgy bartender. (Don’t worry—I don’t really think that’s “traditionally British,” but it certainly added to the experience!) We also got last-minute tickets last night to Shadowlands, the play about C.S. Lewis and his marriage to Joy Gresham. It was a beautiful, heartbreaking, and shockingly honest description of grief and suffering; I’ll probably write more about it later, but I’m honestly still trying to process it now. I do want to read his book he wrote about the experience, though.

Tonight, Mom and Dad are out seeing King Lear, which my dad has been looking forward to since before we came! They actually couldn’t get tickets until this morning, when they got a pair of tickets as the result of a cancellation—2 of the last 4 tickets available! It was even more exciting to realize that Sir Ian McEllan is playing Lear. My dad rested at the hotel all day in the hopes that he wouldn’t be in too much pain through the show tonight (last night was really awful—ironic to watch my dad’s face screw up in pain while watching a play about the problem of pain). I hope to hear a glowing report when they make it back. The boys and I are hanging out at the hotel, drinking Diet Coke with Citrus Twist (gotta use it up!) and watching Good Will Hunting on TV and getting excited about coming back to Boston tomorrow! Just several Tube rides, airport lines, and in-flight movies before I am home. It has been a wonderful family vacation—there hasn’t yet been a day when I wished it would be any shorter, I have enjoyed the time with everyone in my family, but I am ready to go home now. Gonna go pack now and pray for safe travel tomorrow! Here’s one last picture of me and Big Ben (and an umbrella—gotta love the London weather!)