Back in London

We left our adorable bungalow in Clacton on Sea for the little over 2-hour drive back to Heathrow. The first stop was the Hilton to unload the luggage then it was on to Europcar. We put about 1400 miles on the car in 3 weeks. Other than never being able to figure out how to use cruise control, it was a great car for us.

Then we headed to the Piccadilly underground line for the trip back to London for our visit to the British Museum. We could have taken the Heathrow express and, after connecting with the brand new Elizabeth line, been at the museum in about 40 minutes each way. But, round trip, it would have set us back about $120 ($25 pp each way on the express train). We paid $14 RT on the Piccadilly line and it too just about an hour each way. It was worth the extra 40 minutes to save $100.

The British Museum is free (as are many of London’s museums) so it was very crowded. We were there only 90 minutes so we saw only a small fraction of what the museum has to offer but we enjoyed what we saw.

Sunday at Sutton Hoo we saw the replica of the King’s masks. This is the original. It’s in great shape considering it’s about 1500 years old.
Ring of King Richard I (Richard the Lionhearted).
The Lycurgus Cup. It’s from the late Roman period (about 300 AD) and is very rare because it has small amounts of silver and gold that turn the glass from opaque green to translucent red when light is shown through it.
These painted jugs are from central Iran circa 10th-9th century BC. Do the math on that. These babies are about 3,000 years old.
This is a mast from a Roman ship.
This dude is the Gebelein Man. He was named after the area in Egypt where he was buried around 3500 BC…over 4500 years ago.

After leaving the museum, we headed to Trafalgar Square.

Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square
National Gallery. We didn’t feel up to another museum so we’ll catch this next time.

Our last stop was a quick peek in St. Martin in the Fields church just off the square. The earliest reference to this church was 1222. Unlike most of the churches/cathedrals we’ve seen in the UK, this one is a neoclassical design rather than gothic.

St. Martin in the Field
The inside was relatively simple but still very beautiful.

Tomorrow we begin the 2nd leg of our UK adventure when we head to Scotland. I’m very excited.

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