British Museum

There are at least two different types of museum people:

- The sort that read every card and truly delve into the mysteries of the past. They ask deep questions and want to know history

- The sort that prefer to proceed quickly through and "see" everything, reading the cards for things that interest them, skipping entire rooms if the contents do not appeal.

If you are the later, as I am, do not schedule the in-person highlights tour. Do the audio highlights tour instead IMO. I did both tours in a recent visit to London. I found myself listening to an incredibly knowledgable guide (14 years at the museum) talk slowly through each nuance of a single piece of history. That is great, but I also about died when we walked by the Rosetta stone and saw 4 people in front of it. Yes, only 4. We were going in a specific order, so the fact that there would be 50 people later did not (nor should it have) phase our guide one bit.

So, we switched to the audio tour. It said the same thing (basically)! Wow, we were happy. We heard almost the same depth of knowledge, but could approach a piece of history, enter a number, hear the dialogue, then proceed quickly to the next artifact, even room.

We saw the entire museum in about 3 hours. We went to every room that was open, and listened to every "highlight". The museum is amazing and incredible. I especially like the occasional photos beside items of when they were preparing the item for shipment to Britain. It made it come alive that these items truly came from somewhere, and it took a lot to get them to England.

One hint, sometimes the audio tour line in the main lobby is huge. Go back by the Parthenon area and get the same headsets there with no line. You do need to leave photo ID to get a headset.

First - be warned - you will NEVER get round the musuem in a morning, or probably even a day as you will be completely worn out and unable to appreciate anything after about 3 or 4 hours at the most. People who get round the 'whole' place in less than this time clearly do not appreciate the depth of the collections on display.

The highlight for most people is the Rosetta Stone - amazing to be able to see it up close. The Egyptian collection is also fabulous but the highlight for me is the Elgin Marbles, having studied them in Classics at university.

The exhibitions here are also worth a visit if you can book well enough in advance or are prepared to get there early. I went with a friend to the Terracotta Army exhibition which was superb and well worth getting up at 5am for (well, in my opinion anyway!).

No visit to London is complete without some time spent at the British Museum. Choose your favourite sections and spend your time in them, rather than trying to rush around and see everything.