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The British Museum
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St. Pancras Intl Station. The hotel at the station. The outstanding Victoria Gothic station was completed in 1876. From here you can board the Eurostar high speed train and travel the chunnel to Paris in under 2.5 hours
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One of the 9 major stations in London
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Basking in the morning sun
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Actual station entrance
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All aboard for the continent!
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The roof which is made of wrought iron ribs is 100ft high, 240ft wide and 700ft long. At the time built is was the largest single spanned roof in the world. Grand Central in NYC is based on this design
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Interesting ironwork
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The far less impressive Kings Cross Station is next door
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The British Library contains more than 150 million items. A copy of every publication in the UK and Ireland is sent here. Exhibits includ historic maps, sacred texts, the Gutenberg Bible, manuscripts by Mozart, Beethoven and others and the Magna Carta.
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In front of the Library is a statue of a nude Issac Newton measuring the universe with a compass. No idea why he is nude!
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Stopped for a hot cup of coffee at Euston Station. This overlooks the somewhat sterile modern concourse.
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Next, the British Museum where you could spend a year seeing all the exhibits. It is the chronicle of Western civilization. This is the interior rotunda.
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Perhaps the most famous archive, the Rosetta Stone
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Closeup of the stone which was unearthed in the Egyptian desert in 1799. The slab dates from 196BC. It contains a single inscription repeated in three languages: Greek, medieval Egyptian and hieroglyphics. This permitted the unlocking of the meaning o
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Though difficult to read, a more detailed description of the Rosetta Stone
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Explanation of sculptures
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Sculptures which stood outside the Palace at Korsabad
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Upper part of statue found at King Ramesess temple
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Expanation of King Ramesses II statue
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The Nereid Monument. Explanation follows
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Explanation of the Nereid Monument
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Overall view of one of the many display rooms
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IMG_3574
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An hour of Egyptian artifacts was sufficient and I headed for lunch after which I came upon Soho Square Gardens. The gardners hut sits in the center. The garden dates from 1731 and borders the Soho entertainment district
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Typical street in Soho. Bars, restaurants, clubs, etc. I'm sure at night this place is jumping, not so much at 300PM
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Like telephone booths in the US, these are about extinct. Found these in Soho district on the walk to Piccadilly Circus
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Piccadilly Circus is like a downsized Times Square. Lots of streets cross here; lots of traffic
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Busy area
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Big jumbo screen advertising all sorts of stuff. From here walked a few blocks to Oxford Circus for a little gift shopping. And I mean little! Lots of walking today. Time to jump on the underground