London, The British Museum and A Double Decker Bus!
Whether it was due to poor planning or simply that we spent too much time at other amazing places along the way, we sadly ended up having only a half-day in London. We had to narrow our “wish-list” down significantly and settled on going to the British Museum and riding a double-decker bus.
We got to the museum right at opening and went straight to see the Rosetta Stone. The discovery of this ancient artifact held the key to the deciphering of the previously untranslated hieroglyphic language. The only other exhibit in the museum that we had to see was the Mildenhall Treasure. This is a connection we have to all of the Roald Dahl books we’ve read. He wrote a short non-fiction story about the discovery of this treasure in Mildenhall, England in the 1940s. While plowing a field, a farmer found over 30 pieces of elaborate Roman silver dinnerware dating back to the 4th century. England has laws that require people to turn in such finds as “Treasure Trove”. While the finder will receive compensation for the full value, it is considered property of the country. We’ve read the story about this treasure a couple times and wanted to see it for ourselves. The kids, although museum-ed out, were still intrigued to make the connection with our reading.
Again, pressed for time and having seen our main attraction we breezed through the remainder of the museum then bee-lined outside to walk the streets of London. My brother lived and worked here a long time ago and we wanted to locate the Mexican restaurant where he tended bar. We found it – Chiquitos – and decided to get a quick bite before moving on. It was a fun stop to see where he had spent so much time. Also, it was located in Leicester Square, quite the hopping area with street musicians and lots of hustle and bustle.
-Jonathan
