london pictures, part two

day three: the rosetta stone, elgin marbles, lunch in a crypt and a very long walk to london bridge. i think this was a 14-hour day start to finish.

look for part three tomorrow (i hope)!

gus at the british museum

minoan pottery--love the octopus/squid/sea creature shapes. one of rich's friends in houston, bill dennard, decorated a pot that rich had thrown with an octopus for me--i love it, too. i'll post a picture of it later. (sorry about the photo quality.)

gus lays his eyes on what is probably the most important object in the world, the rosetta stone

detail, the rosetta stone

it is not without its admirers--and i love that they show it in the round, as proper sculpture should be shown...

...and words cannot even begin to describe how much i loved seeing this--gus took notes throughout the british museum

detail, parthenon sculpture

parthenon sculpture

parthenon sculpture--she looks like she is about to take flight

black figure pottery (ajax and achilles playing a game...and sorry for the crummy photo)

cartouche and shabtis

next to the rosetta stone, this was gus' favorite work in the british museum--easter island man...

...and this is the rear view of easter island man. you never see the backsides reproduced, which is a shame.

getting to ride the tube!

here it comes...

...and there we go.

we emerged in front of st. martin in the fields to this charmingly british little square

lunch at the crypt of the church; we did brass rubbings afterwards (gus gave his to george)

the mighty thames and the london eye

beautiful boy crossing the river, about to go on a very. long. walk. indeed.

london bridge...opening!

gus on london bridge

this is the spot the plates of the bridge come together--i think it freaked gus out a bit to stand like this

gus by the tower of london, but, alas, no admission--we were too late for the last tour

but we found augustus prima porta at a nearby tube station, so it was okay.

we walked to st. paul's from the tower of london; probably could have done without that leg of the journey

nice ceiling coffers and engaged piers, though

finally riding the tube back to earl's court station. gus is a total trooper.

london pictures, part one

LONDON! pictures...of days -1, 1 and 2. -1 day is travel-to day. gus and i left iowa, flew to minneapolis, had an 8 1/2 hour layover (!), then boarded a lovely large plane for london. the layover was the hardest part to endure...

parts two and three to come!

day -1: sweetest boy, gus, at the museum of russian art in minneapolis--we actually left the airport for a few hours to try and break up the day, but it wasn't quite enough...that layover was rough.

finally on the plane to london--gus slept most of the flight

day one: our hotel--k+k hotel george, near the earl's court tube station in kensington. wonderful place--would definitely recommend it

as soon as we dropped our bags off we headed out to the museum of natural history

wonderful decorative carvings in the fence's piers

and even more wonderful carvings around the entrance

dino attack! gus is silly...

...but he found a platypus and mellowed

that bear looks a little small...? gus is actually reading the wall texts, which thrilled me to no end

komodo dragon

sad lion

hummingbirds (seriously)

dinner at zizzi's after a very, very long day; gus slept beautifully from day one (i, of course, had to be chemically unconsciousfied in order to sleep)

day two: portobello road market

cool wooden things

cool horn things

cool silver things

cool printer's blocks--basically the whole place was cool

yummy pastries

statuesque tulips

we had a fantastic lunch at books for cooks, just off of portobello road

seriously, it was fabulous. it is a little room, behind the bookstore, where cooks make whatever recipe they feel like making--they always have tea and some desserts, but on this day they had also made coconut carrot lentil soup with fresh cilantro and fresh focaccia bread. freaking delicious.

gus riding the tube to the science museum

wonderful display amidst a collection of household inventions at the science museum

operating room scene, c. 1974 (i think)

tons of fantastic hands-on experiments at the science museum

gus was enthralled; it was easily his favorite place to visit

interesting materials exhibition

the main hall, science museum

gus, tempting fate

dinnertime! this is the fifth floor of harvey nichols...

...and their conveyor-belted sushi bar. it was actually quite interesting and not nearly as unhygenic as it sounds. and the sushi was fabulous. apparently, there is a scene in "johnny english" where rowan atkinson's tie gets stuck in the belts (need to rent that).

le swoooooon. i so should have brought this home with me, damnit.