Day 10 - Mummies my dear Watson

Today we set out early to the Sherlock Holmes Museum. We decided to skip the tour since it was expensive and only of replicated rooms from the novels. The downstairs shop was cool enough with pipes, hats, syringe pens, magnifying glasses, and secret ink paper. We purchased a hat and pipe for my brother and a hat for myself along with some other curios. I especially enjoy the compass I purchased.

Leaving the Sherlock Holmes Museum we took the tube again to the British History Museum to see some Mummies! The Musuem was featured in The Mummy Returns with shots of the outside along with scenes inside the Mummy rooms. I have always wanted to see Mummies and visit Egypt, so this was the next best thing. We started out on the ground floor in rooms dedicated to sculpture from the different Egyptian Dynasties. Next we moved upstairs to the Mummy rooms. I'll admit I gave a small squeal of excitement as we reached the rooms haha. I was just floored the minute I saw my first sarcophagus. I took over 150 pictures greedily soaking up the Egyptian artifacts. Here are a few pictures. Below is the Rosetta Stone which stunned me. Amazing to think that one bit of stone opened up the secrets of an incredible civilization.

The Rosetta Stone

After the Egyptian exhibits we headed downstairs for some lunch and then on to the British exhibits. The rooms traced Britain's history from Pre-Roman, Roman, and Medieval. They had hordes of gold, silver, and armour that had been buried with important warriors and kings, bits of Hadrian's Wall, and pieces of medieval buildings. It was fascinating to see how Britain changed over the centuries and how previous civilizations influenced it over time.

The coolest bit, however, in my opinion was the Lewis Chessmen recovered from a bog on the Isle of Lewis. The chessmen were carved by Vikings out of alabaster and whale teeth. In the first Harry Potter movie the chess set was used to create the Wizard chess pieces used by Harry and Ron at Christmas. Originally one half of the pieces were red, but over time the dye has faded away due to sunlight and being exposed to air. They believe as red dye became cheaper, and black dye became more expensive, that chess went from being red and white to black and white.

Going downstairs we passed a hall built to house King George III's library. It's massive and reminded me very strongly of the library in Beauty and the Beast. If I had to guess it was probably as wide as an Olympic sized Hockey Arena and as long as a football field.

And now for a few Mummy pictures!

Finishing up our day we saw The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre by Trafalgar Square. It was superb and brought tears to my eyes as always. The singing was polished and the pit band was excellent. The theatre was full of red velvet once again exactly the way I like it!