'Mind the Gap' and all that Jazz...

We left our cozy little hotel on the Left Bank in the wee hours to catch the Eurostar to London. The streets were empty, the sky was dark, and the morning baguettes were just being delivered. We were already worn out by the time we got to London, either that or the pace of London is so much more intense that we felt slow by comparison.

Parisians stroll. Even on busy streets during rush hour, people were walking at a stately pace or steady clip. In London, regardless of the time of day, commuters are basically running all the time. Limping along on blistered toes, I thought I was going to get trampled in the tube station. Despite the rush of people, they all lined up and took turns boarding the fullest trains.

We stayed at a hostel near King Cross station, which turned out to be a really hopping neighborhood, a complete contrast to the sleepy little street in Paris where we'd stayed. But it was nice to be close to a station where it was so easy to make bus and tube connections. When we got to London, went to the nearby British Museum first thing:

 

This was Lee's first visit to the BM, here he is symmetrically flanked by tourists.

 

I believe our free audio guide (a la ricksteves.com) said that this enclosed courtyard is the size of a football field. I believe it. My aching feet are a testament to how big this museum is, let alone the courtyard.

The Rosetta Stone is probably the most ogled rock in Britain. There is a replica in one of the other rooms that you can touch, I think it is worth it to see both.

You have no idea how hard it was to get a picture with no other shoulders or heads in it. That is why it's a close up.

 The Egyptian collection here is extensive. If I remember rightly, it's the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts outside of Egypt. There are mummies and sarcophagi galore. We liked the remnants of this big ole statue. Lee accepts a fist bump from a Pharaoh many millennia dead.

 

There are some impressive Assyrian carvings--most notably the lion hunting flats--not to mention like six of these winged, man-headed lions. I really like these guys, I suppose because they look like they walked out of a bible story. They probably did!

 

Of course, the oh so controversial Elgin Marbles: stolen, or gifted, or rescued, or whatever from the Parthenon in Greece. This fellow stood out to me as being particularly photogenic, maybe because he has a head...

 

As you can see, most of his buddies have long since lost theirs.

 A pretty large number of Grecian treasures live in England now, including practically a whole temple. I had such deja vu visiting this room. I have a picture of my sister Lisa and I posing in front of this monument from 2001, was a crazy experience to come back after so many years.

The Nereid Monument, almost completely reconstructed.

We had only one other destination for our first day in London: St-Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar Square.

St-Martin-in-the-Fields is known for it's music. There are always concerts going on there. The main church is where the classical music concerts happen, down in the crypt there are weekly jazz concerts. The café that rests on top of the final resting place of some old Brits hosts a different jazz group every Wednesday night. It was a blast!

Trafalgar Square after dark.

 

St-Martin-in-the-Fields

 

At our table in the Crypt.

 

Under our feet are memorial plaques for the dearly departed of the parish.

As you can see, the Crypt wasn't creepy or dank, it was really quite comfortable! It would be a fun place to get dinner or lunch even if there weren't a concert on. We returned to our hostel to sleep via a much calmer Kings Cross Station. The late hour meant there wasn't a queue of school children so we could do this...

 

The icing on top of our exhausted and exciting first day in London was being awakened at midnight by the Germans down the hall who couldn't get their door to latch properly. So they slammed the door. Repeatedly. For and hour. We slept better the next night.