British Museum

El edificio es impresionante, sin duda no os perdais egipto, la piedra roseta y la seccion de momias, que es lo mas impresionante

About 15 years ago, I went on a tour of London that didn't include the British Museum so, having had a lifelong fascination with the Rosetta Stone and knowing it was there, I took a break from the organized tour and walked to the museum on my own. I floated back on Cloud 9, however.

The day I went, and I have no idea what day of the week that was or what time of day, the museum wasn't all that crowded and I easily found what I was looking for on a pedestal, "guarded" by a woman who sat nearby in a uniform, knitting. The pedestal had a velvet rope thing around the area so you couldn't get closer than about three feet.

While I stared at the artifact that made reading the hieroglyphics possible, thinking about Napoleon and everyone else involved, a little girl darted out of nowhere, ran under the rope, and set her fingertips on the granite slab. Electricity shot through me. It was as though I touched the cold granite myself. I was so moved by the experience that I had to go hide in another aisle and wipe away the tears.

If you love history, the British Museum is the place for you!

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.