London - Part 2

13:22 Alyson 1 Comments

Our trip to London continued. With only 48 hours in London, we got more done than I thought we would (enough for 2 posts!) Sure, it was summer so we had sunlight in our favor, but we must have been hurrying around the city at super speed to get things in, even though it didn't feel like it. Maybe it was the efficient public transportation or maybe we were feeling energetic, but we made the most of our time in London.  Of course in London, there's always something to see, so we have more on our to-do list for the next trip.

On our second day in the city, we decided to first check out the Tower of London which we had only passed by the day before. Luckily, we got there right as the rain started, so it gave us an excuse to stay inside the tower longer.  You definitely don't need a reason though - there is plenty to keep you busy for at least a half day, probably even the whole day. In 2.5 hours, we got a tour from the Yeomen Warders, who oversee the tower, saw the Crown jewels (including a 300 carat diamond) and visited the armory. After that, we saw the queue for the tower with the exhibition on torture devices and decided to skip the line and make a break for it while it was sunny.

The Bloody Tower. And see, it can be sunny in London!

Supersistion is that the tower will fall if there aren't at least 6 ravens onsite. So, they cheated a bit and have 8 with their wings clipped. We saw them enjoying a nice rabbit meal. Better than my fingers.

Our next stop was the British Museum. I love this museum because a) its free (but you should still make a donation) and b) there are so many neat things there! Things that everyone knows about and should take the time to see.

The Great Court

First was the Enlightenment Room, which is like a library of my dreams. They also have a desk here where they bring out certain artifacts during the day which people can look at more closely and even touch! We got to touch an old flint knife, some dolphin teeth that were used for bartering in the S. Pacific and some cloth that was on a mummy! Yes, for real.

The shelves house everything from books to pottery to before mentioned dolphin teeth.

Next we paid a visit to this guy: the moai of Easter Island. There's somewhere around 900 of these little men out there, including still on Easter Island. They are meant to honor ancestors who were deity.

It's hard to see these guys without thinking of that Ben Stiller museum movie, right?

From there, we moved down the hallway to the Egyptian artifact and the Rosetta Stone. You know that stone that helped them to decipher hieroglyphics? It was actually found being used as a stone inside a building, where it had been repurposed.

From the picture, it looks like an ordinary rock in a glass case.

Final stop was the Greek artifacts and ruin. It was the perfect way to end for us because there is a lot of things relating to modern day Turkey here, like some figures from what is now Bodrum's wonder of the ancient world (The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus) and the reconstructed Nereid Monument which is in modern day Antalya. It still amazes me the influence and importance Turkey has - yet another reason for everyone to come see the original sites here in Turkey.

This was found in what is now called the Lycian Way in Turkey

We wrapped up the night at a pub with a bit of football watching (it was the Eurocup finals of course) and then off on our red eye flight back to Istanbul. Which was immediately followed up a nap. Words to the wise: red eye flights that are only 3 hours long only seem like a good idea.