London Calling

While in London, Anne and Mark were able to see at least some of the sights there.  The goal, as always when visiting a new city, is to experience a good mix of touristy activities and "local flavor."  But, given the short period of time they spent in London and the hundreds of thousands of people who seemed to be opposing their efforts to even move around in the city, this was a tall order for Anne and Mark.  Rest assured they did their best.

While avoiding the protesters, Anne and Mark did manage to get around the city at least a little bit and see a few major landmarks including Westminster Abbey, which is already undergoing preparations for the wedding of his royal highness Prince What'sHisName (the stumbling guy from the King's Speech) and Kate SomethingOrOther (by the way, what happens to her last name when she becomes queen someday?  Does her last name legally become "of England"?), which are to be held there at the end of April, and the Globe Theatre (a reproduction of Shakespeare's theatre, re-built because the original was burned in a large fire).

Westminster Abbey

The Globe Theatre as viewed aboard a boat on the River Thames.

Anne and Mark attempted to see certain other landmarks.  One of the most mysterious was marked on their map as, simply, "The Monument."  This was intriguing and - significantly - on their way, so Anne and Mark attempted to see what monument was so significant that it really did not require a specific name.  Unfortunately, despite Mark's legendary map interpretation skills, Anne and Mark were unable to locate it.

According to this, we should be able to see it from here....

One famous feature of London is its Underground, or subway system.  It is remarkably easy to use, especially when considering how old it is.  According to one of the announcement that played while Anne and Mark rode on 'the Tube,' the oldest parts of it date back to the 1860s or 1870s (actually, the announcement could have said "1970s" - the whole announcement sounded a bit like Charlie Brown's teacher).

Tube stop at Baker Street - This is a real place that was home to the fictional British detective Sherlock Holmes.

One of the favorite activities of Anne and Mark is to take public transportation to a location in a new city and then wander around from there, seeing what they can see.  They attempted that technique in London - but ended up smack in the middle of a huge protest.  That's part of the experience, though, and Anne and Mark were able to navigate their way out of the crowd and eventually to the British Museum.  On their way there, they ran across a few interesting items worthy of mention.  First, they saw the London Film Museum.

This museum was a bit of a disappointment.  Once inside, Anne and Mark noticed that the museum consisted entirely of the James Bond films being played on a continuous loop with a short interlude of Benny Hill clips played in between each feature, and a display of movie posters and VHS tapes relating to the Austin Powers series of movies.  Anne and Mark question the legitimacy of the entire set up.

Speaking of questionable legitimacy -> Henry VIII.  London, of course, is home to the Church of England, which split from the Roman Catholic Church under Henry VIII so that he could divorce Queen Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn (things did not work out so well for Anne, either, though as shortly thereafter, she lost her head on Tower Green - If you have trouble remembering the fates of Henry's 6 wives, remember: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived).  

As a result of Henry's creation of a new church and the pope's predictably negative reaction to it, Catholicism became a tough sell in England for the next several hundred years.  They have Roman Catholic churches there now, but it remains a tough sell.  But let us give credit where credit is due, at least the Catholics there are making an effort - and they know what they need to do to put some Catholics in the pews.

Ok, padre, you have one minute to save my soul.... and.... GO!

Eventually, Anne and Mark made it to the British Museum.  According to its own description of itself, the British Museum contains the greatest record of civilization in the world.  (Apparently, the record of civilization they have acquired took all the space, and they had no room for their collection of modesty)

The first exhibit at the British Museum, as at the Vatican Museum, was of artifacts recovered from Egypt.  Despite having never visited Egypt, for the second time Anne and Mark were overwhelmed with Egyptian antiquities.

Apparently, the only place where Anne and Mark can NOT view Egyptian antiquities: Egypt.

So, when the British Museum made the claim stated above, Anne and Mark were initially skeptical.  Best record of civilization in the word?  That is quite a claim.  But the skepticism of Anne was short lived as this museum delivered on its promises.  After viewing the Egyptian statues, Anne and Mark had the chance to view the Rosetta Stone.

The Rosetta Stone is a large stone that contains carvings in three languages: Greek, Demotic and Egyptian hieroglyphs.  Prior to its discovery, the hieroglyphs, especially, were not well understood.  However, when the archeologists who conducted research on the stone concluded that the stone contained the same message in multiple languages, they were able to better decode the unknown language.  The term 'Rosetta Stone' has since become synonymous with the key to decoding something.

Priceless Greek pottery artifact - normal reaction is "Wow!"  After an hour in the British Museum - reaction to same item is "Eh.... what's next?"

The British Museum contains room after room of priceless artifacts from multiple historical periods and geographical regions.  It is one of the most impressive collections of historical artifacts that Anne and Mark have ever wandered through.  But this museum is not limited to displays of items with historical significance, it also displays artistic works.  Immediately prior to leaving the museum, they made their final stop at the art section of the museum.

The art section of the British Museum has temporary exhibits, except for a larger than life size drawing by Michelangelo.  That stays put.  The temporary exhibit that Anne and Mark walked through was focused on 19th and 20th century drawings.  One of the most interesting pieces was the book pictured above.  It is actually a guest book for a peace conference that had a very impressive guest list, including a young artist named Pablo Picasso.  Apparently, if you are Pablo Picasso, you do not just write your name in the guest book, you do two priceless works of art on adjoining pages.  On the one hand, this is fantastic and generous and outstanding.  But on the other hand, I feel a little sympathy for whoever had to sign the guest book on the next page: "Bill Smith, Terre Haute, IN - Nice conference, guys.  Thanks."  

Page 22-23 - Pable Picasso.  Page 24 - Bill Smith from Terre Haute.  Poor Bill.

In any event, the British Museum is one of those places where there is actually too much significant information to process it all.  In order to truly appreciate it, Anne and Mark will have to visit several more times.

Later that evening, Anne and Mark got a little more culture, as they journeyed to the West End theatre district and took in a show.  It was a very impressive production of The Lion King.

The plot was exactly the same as the Disney film of the same name, but as that film is a cartoon, there were some significant differences in visuals and staging.  The characters were portrayed by actors with elaborate costumes designed to create the visual effect of watching an animal move rather than a person portraying an animal.  There were several occasions when the visual effect was overwhelming - which is exactly what you look for in a show like this.

After the show, Anne and Mark debated whether the story had a true moral to it, vis-a-vis the Scar character.  If you have seen the film, you know that Scar takes control of the kingdom, but runs it poorly and eventually Simba returns from exile at the insistence of Nala and .... some other characters .... to challenge Scar for the throne.  Mark's analysis focused on Scar's management abilities.  Simply stated, the pride never wanted him removed for moral or ethical reasons (even though he was sketchy), they wanted him removed only when it became clear that he did not know how to run a kingdom.  Moral of the story: do not be a bad manager or the lions will turn on you.  Words to live by.