July 4th, Princess Diana Memorial Playground and British Museum
Princess Diana Memorial Playground
Our day started began mid-morning with a trip to Princess Diana Memorial Playground located in Kensington Gardens. The playground’s design was inspired by Peter Pan with playground equipment resembling teepees, pirate ships, and dinghies for the little ones. Olivia (and us) thoroughly enjoyed the park and their thoughtfulness in the design of the layout. Each area of the playground has equipment that is age appropriate and surrounded by bamboo or a hedge to prevent our toddler from seeing whether or not the grass is greener on the other side (which it was). They are also very particular about making sure that no adult may enter unless there is a child to accompany them. I noticed most of the children there were foreign nationals accompanied by their mothers. Olivia enjoyed the swings and exploring the sandbox. We had trouble trying to explain to Olivia that unlike daycare, she wasn’t allowed to go up to any unused toy to freely play with it.
Burgers
Since today was the 4th of July we felt it was our duty as American citizens to have at least one hamburger, so we went to Byron’s for dinner. I had some fantastic bacon typer burger while Janine got a classic cheese burger. We split an order of onion rings and fries while Olivia barely touched her Mac N Cheese. My patriotism and stomach were bursting by the end of the meal. The meal was good, but it did taking time out of our next stop…
British Museum
This is on the list of museums I never have enough time to see and my frustration hit peak levels as our best laid plans of touring the galleries were foiled by an awake toddler. We began our tour with an accident induced frantic search for a diaper changing stall. Once that crisis was solved, we made our way to the Egyptian wing. Olivia knocked out not too long after we moved past the hordes of people admiring the Rosetta Stone. I am not much for Egyptology, but there were a few sights that I found interesting. I saw a good example about the profound effect a conquering nation/culture can have on their subjects. The classical Egyptian burial would often look like this, but as Egyptians began living under Greek, and subsequently Roman, control they shifted away from their traditional methods. This resulted in painted portraits on their sarcophagus, which is often called The Fayum Mummy Portraits. I was largely impressed with the interactive model of the famed Gebelein Man. I had seen this exhibit before, but since I have returned they had completed a CT scan on the remains to allow museum goers to go through there different levels of tissue and bone of the deceased and walk through the cause of death. I always enjoy when history and science come together in cool ways!
I found myself growing frustrated that the little time we had left in the museum was being eaten away by the large tourist groups swarming around particular items. This also didn’t help the fact that the large number of tourists happened to wake up Olivia thus making our time/attention split between dodging people, claiming a toddler, and enjoying the museum. Halfway through the Egypt wing we had to play smart and figure that 90% of these groups probably don’t clamour for Assyrian art, so we cut our losses and went to Nimrod...er...Nimrud! As expected, not a busy section of the museum, but we still had to deal with our daughter who was increasingly angry that we wouldn’t let her touch/climb/smack whatever she wanted in the museum. This too had to be cut short.
In our last desperate attempt for making this trip worth the frustration, we went to the Greek exhibits. Funny enough, Olivia began to chill out as we toured the Elgin Marbles. We left the Greek wing and made our way back to the center of the museum. I wanted to try to poke my head into the reading library where Karl Marx, Lenin, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle studied, but it was closed. It would have most likely been an empty room anyways since they moved all the books to the British Library awhile back and use it for special exhibits and random events.
The larger importance of the British Museum for me isn’t so much what is inside the museum, but how the items were acquired. The museum really is a testament to British Empire and their ability to acquire items from places they have been around the globe. The Elgin Marbles, in reality should be called the Parthenon marbles, are a perfect example of this. The story behind how Earl Elgin acquired the marbles under Turkish approval is a bit shady, but the British at the time whole heartedly believed that it was their duty as the torch bearers of Western Civilization they needed to protect the culture and heritage. Of course, Greece does not see it this way and it has been a sore spot in Anglo-Grecco relations. With most items in the museum, I often find the story of acquirement the most interesting.
Once we left the museum we walked back to our apartment and made a quick stop in the Tesco for an easy dinner. On the menu for that night was ready made mash, microwaveable peas/carrots, oven ready Toad in the Hole, and a oven ready Cornish Beef Pasty. Bon appetit! As we prepped our meal and began discussing plans for our big travel day tomorrow, we noticed that there was a lot of activity outside that night. We watched crews assemble screens and barricades for the following night’s London premiere for Tarzan. As you may recall, Leicester square’s Odeon theater is the major spot for London major film premiers.
No comments:
Post a Comment