Days 24-28: The Journey Home

Following our Old London tour, we returned to the hotel to finish packing and get ready to head back to Washington State.  I planned a several day layover back home after which I flew back to Korea.  All in all, the trip covered 22,800 miles in twenty-eight days.

For me, the best thing about the trip was seeing the changes in culture and feel from rural Siberia to European Russia to the more familiar streets of Western Europe.  Without a doubt, doing the trip with friends and family made it immeasurably better than going it alone.  If it weren’t for Lance and his family, we would have never met Svetlana or Vika’s family; the days on the train were made far more enjoyable talking with Dad as we watched the countryside go by.  It was the adventure of a lifetime and well worth every cent.

Dad’s final stop for the trip and my second-to-last – the park and ride in Washington State where Mom picked us up late at night, August 17.

Day 23: Old London

The financial district in Old London, including a statue of the Duke of Wellington.

Our final event in London was another one of New Europe’s walking tours – this one of Old London.  In this case, “Old London” consists of about a square mile in the center of London which predates the founding of the British Parliament, and is essentially a city within a city with its own laws, its own mayor, it’s own police force, etc. – and it’s the one place in all the United Kingdom in which the monarch has no authority.  The old city dates back to Roman times where, thereabouts 47 AD, they founded Londinium.

The Temple Bar monument marks the division of Old London and the rest of the city, and is notable in that the Queen is placed beneath the dragon (featured on the city’s coat of arms).  If the King or Queen were visiting the old city, this is where he or she would meet the mayor and request permission to enter the city.	Bikes are a common site in London due to high congestion (and congestion taxes).  A Top Gear challenge pitted an SUV, mass transit, a bike, and a boat against each other in a race across London (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkOzNK4l8KY).  Richard Hammond, the bike rider in that race, had ample commentary about bikes and busses riding in the same lane.

To make things even more interesting, there’s a city within a city within a city – Temple, an area centered around a temple that formerly belonged to the Knights Templar but whose main specialty in modern days is lawyers which have inhabited Temple for the past six hundred years.  The Knights Templar originally had their start protecting pilgrims in the Holy Land after the First Crusade (roughly the 12th Century), and eventually became a rudimentary bank (banks in the modern sense didn’t exist until the 15th-17th Century depending on location).  Due to the distance and time required back then to travel from Europe to the Holy Land, not to mention the dangers of bandits, the Templars adopted a system of credit in which the Knights would oversee property and assets while the pilgrim was traveling and would be given essentially a receipt which could be redeemed in the Holy Land.  As a result, the Templar organization became very wealthy and following the loss of the Holy Land in the 14th Century they were eventually persecuted and disbanded.

The Temple in Temple, London.

As we continued our tour, we came across the originally named “Monument” which is… a monument to the Great Fire of London which destroyed about 7/8ths of the city as it existed in 1666.  The fire raged for three days having its origins in a bakery and this monument was built a few hundred feet from where the fire started.  Although it is not much higher than the surrounding buildings, when it was initially built in the years following the fire it dwarfed the surrounding buildings.  Even now, it is still the tallest isolated stone column in the world, standing just over 200 feet tall.  There is a narrow staircase with which people can climb to an observation deck at the top of the monument.

Monument to the Great Fire of London.

We came to the Thames and walked along the river for a while, in which our tour guide lamented the exorbitant prices for the London Eye (a Ferris wheel built in 1999 which is the tallest in Europe at 443 feet and was featured in the Doctor Who episode “Rose” as a device by which aliens would enslave the human race).  We saw from a distance the HMS Belfast, a British Navy light cruiser that served during World War II and the Korean War.  The ship is open for tours as a part of the Imperial War Museum but we didn’t have time. 

The HMS Belfast.  To correct a common misconception, a cruiser is not a battleship – the Belfast displaces 11,500 tons, the USS Iowa displaces 55,000 tons and its 6” gun fires a 112lb round, compared to the 2700lb round of an Iowa-class 16” gun.  Still, the Belfast can pump out over one hundred 6” shells a minute.	Tower Bridge in its Olympic décor.  Contrary to popular belief, this is not London Bridge.  London Bridge is a rather unremarkable bridge built in the 70s that replaced an earlier bridge by the same name that was sold to an American and is now located in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

The tour ended at the Tower of London.  The Tower of London is a castle that was originally built in the 11th Century by the Normans during their conquest of England.  It’s been used as a prison for about 900 years, houses the Royal Mint, and holds the Crown Jewels of the UK. 

The Tower of London.  The moat, intended to be filled from the Thames, never worked out.  Poor water flow caused the moat to turn into a cesspit and it was eventually filled in for public health reasons.

Day 23: The Churchill War Rooms

During the New Europe walking tour of London, we passed by the building containing the Churchill War Rooms, but the tour didn’t go inside.  We came back for our last day in London to see the “bunker” (“basement” would be a more apt word) where the British high command carried out their planning and execution of World War II.   What I mean by the bunker/basement analogy is that the facility, built under a government building on Whitehall, wasn’t actually bomb-proofed until 1943, well after the Blitz ended.   Even then it was only armored against a 250kg bomb, in contrast to the Führer bunker in Berlin which had over a dozen feet of reinforced concrete for protection.  (In all fairness, the Germans had to endure near-constant air raids by thousands of heavy bombers)

Well, the protection of the war rooms didn’t really matter much in the end – the Allies won the war and no German bomb ever hit it.  The museum has most of the rooms set up and furnished as they originally were – a very Spartan, cramped environment with numerous maps, compartments, and quarters as well as a mock-up of the encoded, transatlantic phone that Churchill could use to talk with and coordinate with Roosevelt. 

Although the British are very closely associated with the war in Europe, this command center involved their planning of operations all around the world, from the fighting in India and Burma to the Arctic convoys resupplying the Soviets at Murmansk to the late-war British fleet actions in support of the Americans off Okinawa and Japan.  Compared to the modern technology of today, it’s fascinating to think of how a global war was planned back then with push-pins on a map board plotting everything from convoy attacks to front line traces. 

Adjacent to the war rooms, and included with the admission price, is a museum dedicated to the life of Winston Churchill, the stubborn British Prime Minister who stood against Hitler when all else seemed lost.  At the start of the war, Neville Chamberlain was the British Prime Minister – the infamous man who declared “peace in our time” after giving the Sudetenland to Germany in 1938 without the Czech’s consent.  And to think – if Hitler hadn’t invaded Poland, Chamberlain might have turned out to be a pretty famous guy and Churchill remembered only for his service to the government in World War I. 

Chamberlain resigned on May 10, 1940 following the German invasion of the Low Countries and France.  Churchill replaced him and adopted a policy of no surrender, despite the defeat of the French Army in six weeks (regarded as the foremost army in Europe at the time) and the following Battle of Britain (German air raids designed initially to destroy the Royal Air Force to pave the way for an amphibious invasion, and later changed to a terror bombing campaign against British cities known as “The Blitz”).  His resolve prevented the Germans from ending the war in Western Europe with a negotiated peace, holding the line until the United States joined the war in December 1941 and until Hitler decided to attack the Soviet Union in June 1941.

Day 22: The Bovington Tank Museum

An M60 tank drives around the display area during an equipment demonstration.

All in all, I like the Bovington Tank museum.  It’s different than the Patton Museum or Kubinka too and they each have their pros and cons.  Kubinka, for instance, has an amazing equipment display, particularly covering Soviet armored vehicles as well as German World War II vehicles. Unfortunately, Kubinka doesn’t tell you much about each vehicle and unless you already know some background going into it, or ask your guide a lot of questions, you won’t get as much out of it. 

The Patton and Bovington are similar, but each give the tank story from their respective points of view (after all, the Patton museum doesn’t have any Chieftans or Challengers on display) but the British museum seems to be a lot more layman-friendly than the Patton.  For instance, during the vehicle demonstration show they brought out a recon vehicle, an armored personnel carrier, and two tanks – but as each one came out the announcer actually talked about what they were each useful for and their role on the battlefield and how they all work together – that whole combined arms thing that militaries have ignored to their peril over the history of warfare.  Likewise, he dispels the popular notion that just because it looks like a tank it must be a tank (e.g. the FV 432 armored personnel carrier, while technically “armored” against small arms, it won’t stop a tank round or an RPG for that matter).

The ubiquitous Soviet T-34 tank, their mainstay tank throughout the war and one of the best all-around tanks of World War II.  Over 84,000 were produced, compared to 49,000 Shermans and a combined total of about 8,000 Panther and Tiger tanks.  A nearby quote from a German general in February 1944: “[The Führer] says that the Russians are bound to stop attacking sometime.  They… can’t go on forever.”

So, Bovington doesn’t necessarily go into the same sort of detail you might want as a history buff (their gift shop was a bit disappointing and seemed very tourist-oriented) but I think it’d be great for the average person.  They also do a good job tying in public affairs for the Royal Tank Corps (including a section of the museum titled “What if you want to be a member of the Royal Tank Corps?”) which is something the British do better than the US military (with the exception of the Marines, which do an excellent job of it).  After all, the British car show “Top Gear” has featured among other things a Ford Fiesta taking part in a beach assault with the Royal Marines (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e7R3y-qwZ0), a Range Rover attempting to outmaneuver a Challenger 2 tank (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wKfpPrRVIo), and a Bugatti Veyron drag racing a Eurofighter Typhoon jet (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NZ9X9A2efA).  

For me, the most fascinating part of the museum was a section devoted to the activities of the British liaison officers operating in East Germany during the Cold War.  These military liaison missions (BRIXMIS for the British, with the US, French, and Soviets having their own) were formed immediately following World War II when the Allies and the Soviets were on good term, allowing the other side to monitor military forces in their sector of Germany.  These official spies were largely untouchable though they were supposed to stay out of specifically marked areas and there were some instances in which they were injured or killed in the conduct of their duties.

Exhibit on the BRIXMIS liaison missions, including a souvenir sign from a restricted area.  These soldiers did numerous things, ranging from engaging Soviet soldiers on road guard duty in idle conversation to taking back the engines and radar system of a crashed YaK-28 aircraft.

All in all, the trip to Bovington was well worth the day trip and an interesting balance to the military museums I’ve seen in the United States and in Russia.

Day 22: Bovington: A Brief History of Tanks

The tank was invented by the British and French in 1916 to break the deadlock of trench warfare in World War I.  The development of the machine gun, rapid-firing artillery, and smokeless powder made the World War I battlefield extremely lethal and after the initial German successes in Belgium and northern France, settled into a stalemate.  Early efforts at overcoming this firepower involved the initial thoughts of the “spirit of the offense” overcoming all obstacles which led to high casualties and didn’t work, to the “artillery destroys, infantry occupies” strategy of the Allies with millions of artillery rounds being expended in week-long bombardments – which only drove the defenders further underground until the bombardment stopped and then they’d come up and still inflict heavy casualties.  The Germans tried using gas warfare to break through the trenches, but that didn’t work and the Allies employed their own chemical munitions.  Airpower was in its infancy and didn’t have a decisive effect on the ground.  Eventually, the Allies developed tanks as a mobile, armored machine gun platform that could cross “no man’s land” and break through the enemy obstacles.

Although the tank has come to be associated with the German panzers and “blitzkrieg” of World War II, the Germans actually fielded a paltry twenty tanks in World War I, compared to over 5,000 Allied tanks.  The Germans instead looked for a doctrinal solution to trench warfare, developing their infiltration tactics which emphasized small unit initiative and a flexible battle plan to channel all available forces to the path of least resistance.  The German solution almost worked and led to significant gains in 1918 (significant compared to the rest of World War I on the Western Front) but they took heavy casualties and that ultimately broke the back of the German army.  It wasn’t until they matched the concept of infiltration tactics with improved technology of tanks, radios, and aircraft that they developed what many people call “blitzkrieg” in World War II (which led them to victory from 1939-1941, despite in many cases the Allies having tanks with heavier armor, armament, or superior numbers).

A British Mk IV heavy tank, employed during World War I.

The British tanks of World War I were all “heavy” tanks – large, turretless tanks with tracks going around the entire hull (giving them the ability to climb high vertical obstacles and trenchlines).  They were developed in the “male” and “female” variety, the “male” tanks mounting cannon in the sponsons for destroying enemy fortifications while the “female” version had numerous machine guns for anti-infantry work.  The French on the other hand developed “light” tanks with a fully rotating turret.  Both types of tanks moved at about the same speed – not much faster than a person could walk – they also frequently broke down, had thin armor, and unpleasant crew conditions (imagine a dozen people in a pitching enclosed box with a loud engine in there with you, shellfire all around, and with signal flags, a few vision ports, and carrier pigeons your only link to the outside world).

Despite the initial shock of their appearance, the Germans quickly developed anti-tank tactics (employing “elephant guns” and artillery pieces in the direct fire role) and it was nearly a year until the first really successful tank attack took place at Cambrai in late 1917.  The difference at Cambrai was the employment of tanks in mass (versus “penny packets” in earlier attacks) and avoiding the week-long artillery bombardment that churned up the ground making it difficult to traverse and alerted the enemy and his reserves to be ready for an attack. 

The German StuG assault gun, employed 1940-45.  Initially developed as a cheaper version of the tank for infantry support, this assault gun is a little over 6ft high giving it a very low silhouette and thick frontal armor.  This comes at the cost of a rotating turret, which particularly hurts if the vehicle is immobilized.

During the Inter-War period, the Germans weren’t allowed to develop tanks and due to budget cuts the Allies didn’t make significant improvements on their designs.  There was talk of motorization of the previously foot-bound infantry, or mechanizing the horse-mounted cavalry, with the British being major proponents of that.  However, tight budgets and an entrenched, traditional establishment delayed these reforms in any amount until the eve of World War II.  Despite their rushed re-armament starting in 1933, the German tanks at the start of the war were still fairly primitive with their main advantage being in communication (radios in all tanks versus just the “command” tanks).  Then the Germans got a rude shock in 1941 when they started encountering the new Soviet T-34 tanks and the heavy KV-1 tanks, both of which had sufficient armor to defeat the standard German tank-mounted cannon and all but the heaviest anti-tank guns.  That in turn spurred the Germans on to developing their Tiger and Panther tanks and up-gunning their other tanks to fight the Soviets.  The Allies were slow in catching up and it wasn’t until late 1944 and 1945 that the Allies had tanks which might be capable of matching the German best in a fair fight.  Of course, warfare isn’t supposed to be fair and the massive Allied superiority in artillery, air power, and sheer weight of numbers meant that German tank superiority in one-on-one engagements didn’t pan out to much in the big picture.

Tank cannon in World War II.  The Tiger I tank had an 88mm gun, whereas the Sherman had a 75mm.  No big deal, right?  It’s a measly 13mm – half an inch of difference.  However, gun diameter is only one part of the equation: muzzle velocity is the other.  Starting in 1942, the Germans began to use long-barreled guns (longer barrel = higher muzzle velocity and greater accuracy), giving the Tiger 88 (top-most cannon) the ability to cut clean through a Sherman tank, and the Sherman 75 (third from the top) the ability to kill a Tiger at close range from the rear.

Post-war, tanks moved from the 70-ton monstrosities that the Germans built to more manageable all-around “main battle tanks” in the 40-50 ton range.  The main improvements were matching mobility with heavy armor and firepower, as well as developing fire control computers, laser rangefinders, and night vision capabilities.  The widespread employment of shaped charges in the post-war period and their high level of effectiveness led to the French and Germans developing lightly armored, highly mobile vehicles with the thought process that if you get hit anyways you’re going to be in trouble.  The British and Americans opted for the heavier tanks, sacrificing mobility for better protection.  It wasn’t until the development of composite armor in the late 1970s that armor once again got the upper hand over ammunition, leading to the modern-day M1 Abrams tank, the British Challenger, and the German Leopard 2 (and the weight moved back up to the 60-70 ton range).

The British Chieftan heavy tank of the 1970s – its rifled 120mm cannon was the most powerful gun in the West until the widespread adoption of the German 120mm smoothbore in the mid-80s.

In contrast to Western practices, the Soviets kept their tanks in the 40-50 ton range even through the present day.  Their tanks generally had a smaller silhouette than Western types, possible by sacrificing how much the gun can elevate or depress, and also by limiting the size of their tankers and sacrificing crew comfort.  Starting in the 1980s, they were also slow to adopt thermal night-vision technology for their tanks and due to size and weight restrictions didn’t store the ammunition separate from the crew (in contrast, modern Western tanks store ammunition in blow-out compartments designed to save the crew in the event of an ammunition explosion).  In an interesting twist to World War II, the victorious Allies adopted the German “quality over quantity” approach in developing heavy main battle tanks while the victorious Soviets went the other way, deploying tens of thousands of not-quite-as-good medium tanks in Eastern Europe. 

The Russian T-72 main battle tank.  Note the snorkel in the turret roof, which gives Russian tanks the ability to ford rivers and streams given suitable riverbed conditions and assuming the engine doesn’t stall while you’re underwater.

Today, the main growth in technology for tanks is in command and control equipment (digital maps, remote sensors to give a buttoned-up crew better visibility, etc.) and active protection systems (designed to shoot down or destroy incoming projectiles instead of relying on passive armor to absorb it). 

Day 22: Wool, England

Distance from London to Wool: 130 miles
Time of Travel: Approx. 2 1/2 hours one-way

The next day we set off on a day trip to the Bovington Tank Museum, which is located about a mile outside the town of Wool.

On a side note, I used to think that the British really had this naming convention thing down – after all, they name things like Mt. Rainier, have ships named the Indefatigable and the Battleaxe, whereas we name towns “South Hill” because it’s on a hill… on the south side of the valley.  Or we name our capital ships the John C. Stennis – not to take away from what he’s done, but it doesn’t exactly strike fear in the hearts of our enemies either.  Now I see the flip side – the reason that the British named everything so exquisitely now is because they used up all of their more common names back at home. 

Anyways, we took the Tube to Waterloo station and then took the train out to Wool.  Now why Bovington?  Well, it’s the UK’s premiere tank museum, on a par with the Patton Museum in the United States or Kubinka in Russia, and since I’ve seen those other two museums why not see the British one for comparison’s sake?

Dad with an Olympic-branded coke at Wool station.

After we arrived, we took a taxi to the museum.  He lamented the effect of the Olympics on his business (fewer people traveled due to fears of Olypmic congestion) as well as the new style taxi cabs omnipresent in London (the old ones were cheaper and could be repaired much more easily and for less money than the new ones).  Interesting.  Alternatives to the taxi are a local bus that runs infrequently or walking – the taxi was by far the easiest and most convenient option.  A few minutes later, we arrived at Camp Bovington, which is the training camp for soldiers in the Royal Armoured Corps and has been the British tank training center since 1917. 

Day 21: The Reform Club

The Reform Club, at 104 Pall Mall street.

After the end of the tour, we decided to backtrack to the clubbing district of London.  You see, in the novel “Around the World in Eighty Days” by Jules Verne, the protagonist is Phileas Fogg, an English gentleman and member of the Reform Club.  One evening he gets involved in an argument over a newspaper claim that it is possible to go around the world in 80 days (the novel is set in 1872).  The gentlemen think that it makes a fine theory but won’t work in practice, to which Mr. Fogg wagers 20,000 pounds that he can do it and departs the same evening with his assistant, Monsieur Passepartout.

Needless to say, Dad and I set off to find the Reform Club since we were attempting something of a similar vein in going around the world in thirty days.  It was a bit harder to find than I thought.  These Gentleman’s clubs are very selective in their membership and don’t like to advertise, and there weren’t any signs or markings on the outside of the building to indicate it.  However, we asked a passing street cleaner and she pointed us to the proper building.

We took our fair share of pictures and before long the doorkeeper started giving us sour looks and eventually closed the door since the unwashed masses dared to stand outside by the entryway.  In all honesty, they probably do get a fair number of people around the year who try to visit simply because of the Jules Verne novel. 

The Reform Club was founded in 1836 and has admitted women starting in 1981.  If you seek membership in the Reform club, you need to be proposed and seconded by current members with personal knowledge of you.  If accepted, they say that the entrance fee is paid in three yearly arinstallments though they don’t specify exactly how much it is.  According to their website, you can actually arrange tours for about $12 a person.

Day 21: New Europe Tours: London

The gathering place for New Europe’s free London walking tour.  They’re getting people queued up and broken into groups.

The next day we went to Hyde Park for the New Europe walking tour of London.  New Europe is a walking tour group in major European cities and I’d gone on their Berlin and Munich tours in the past.  They break up into smaller groups that go from site to site explaining the history, backstory, and some trivia and humorous anecdotes about the city.  They don’t charge any money, leaving it up to us to decide at the end how much to tip.  Every time I’ve gone on one of their tours, the guide has always been enthusiastic and knowledgeable, and has left me with a much better understanding of the history that’s present in these European cities.  In addition to the free tours, there are several other pay tours they offer, including at least a pub crawl and in the case of London, a tour of the old city of London and the “Grim Reaper” tour of places like the Tower of London.

The Wellington Arch, which was modeled after the French Arc de Triumph but was far less impressive.  The Duke of Wellington is one of the most famous people in English history, famous for his victory over Napoleon at Waterloo, but who also fought and won dozens of battles in Europe and India.	A monument to the Indian, African, and Caribbean soldiers who fought with the British in World War I and II.  In all, these totaled over 5 million people.

The changing of the guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace.	Judging by the number and type of monuments, the British have quite a sense of their history – there’s even a monument dedicated to the British artillerymen who died in World War I.

Buckingham Palace.

London’s clubbing district which contains numerous “Gentleman’s Clubs” (no, not those types of clubs – these are the ones where refined members of society socialize in smoking rooms and make bets about traveling around the world in under 80 days).	Trafalgar Square, named after Admiral Nelson’s victory over the French fleet.  Nelson is at the top of the victory column, and the National Portrait Gallery is behind it.

The Household Cavalry is a ceremonial cavalry regiment stationed in London.  In addition to posing for pictures, they also have a museum open to tourists.	We walked by Downing Street, where the Prime Minister lives.  The street used to be open to the public though after the IRA lobbed a mortar shell at the house in 1991, security has been increased to include fencing off the street to the public.

Big Ben (which is technically just the name of the bell) in Elizabeth Tower.	Westminister Abbey, the place where the British monarchy has historically been coronated.

 

The tour ended at Westminister, with the Palace of Westminister (pictured, where the British Parliament meets) and the Abbey (not pictured here).  This photo was taken a few days after our tour.

Day 20 and 21: Shakespeare’s Globe Theater

What better way to celebrate our first night in London than by going to the rebuilt Shakespeare’s Globe theater and watching his play, “Henry V”?   Shakespeare performed at the old Globe theater, which burned down in 1613, was rebuilt, and then later demolished in 1644.  The modern version was built in 1997 and continues to show Shakespeare in the same manner the English saw the plays 400 years ago.

The stage with the “groundlings” standing around it and the more refined nobility sitting in the balconies surrounding the stage.

Dad and I opted to be “groundlings” – the standing-room only section around the stage (the attendants will make sure that you stand throughout the play).  The rates are very affordable (about $7, which is about 1/10th of what we paid for ballet tickets in Russia) so long as you don’t mind standing the entire time and if you feel lucky about the weather (thankfully it didn’t rain on us).  Apparently this stipulation isn’t too clear to some of the other tourists in the area… but if you want the luxury of sitting then you’ve gotta shell out a bit more than that.  Seating is on hardwood benches (you can rent cushions and backrests for a fee).

I have to say that seeing Shakespeare in the new Globe was an amazing experience.  Even if you aren’t a big theater/Shakespeare type of a person, you should see it.  For one, most of my Shakespeare experience in the past came from public education, where everyone is dragged through the book, trying to recite old English lines without any sort of visual context to go along with it.  I rather enjoyed Othello and Hamlet myself, but it’s hard to really be engaged just by reading it (and besides, when you drag out the reading over the course of several weeks with other competing classes and in-depth analyses, it’s difficult to just enjoy the story).

The Globe at night.	Even for the groundlings, it was pretty packed.

In contrast, seeing Shakespeare was a much better experience – even if you don’t understand exactly what it means to bite your thumb at someone, since it’s all being acted out on stage it’s easy to pick up the intent behind the lines.  Of course, they’re also professional actors which helps convey the emotion, sarcasm, etc. throughout the play.  In the Globe the actors also interact with the audience – at times processing through the audience to get to the stage, at other times talking to the audience as if they were say the crowd trying to crown Richard III, etc.  They even include occasional song and dance routines which I presume is how they did it back in the day as well.

We ended up going back the following night to see Richard III – both plays I’d never read before (nor had much of an interest in reading) but they were both great experiences. For a couple extra pounds you can buy programs which explain some of the backstory behind the play to give it more historical context and they make good souvenirs as well.

Finally, to top it off, on the second night when we saw Richard III, I ran into two college classmates completely by chance.  Sarah and Jordan were on their way back to Med School after doing some summer research in Africa and in their layover in London they decided to go out and try to see a play.

Seeing Shakespeare in the Globe was the highlight of my time in England and one of the highlights of the entire trip. I highly recommend it for anyone traveling to London.

Day 20 and 23: The British Museum

The British Museum has free admission, so that and its proximity to the hotel meant we split up our visits based on time available.  We saw it our first afternoon in London and came back later in the week to finish up what we’d missed.

The British Museum, ironically, has a lot of stuff in it that isn’t British.  It contains numerous artifacts stretching back across the ages, ranging from the Rosetta Stone to ancient Egyptian statues to prehistoric tools. 

An exhibit on currency displaying the results of hyperinflation.  The bill in the top left corner is a 50 billion Zimbabwean dollar note, issued in May 2008, which was worth $1.22 in June 2008, and $0.06 in July.  The inflation rate that month was about 231,000,000%.	There it is: the Rosetta Stone, containing the same royal decree in hieroglyphics, Demotic text, and ancient Greek, which became the key to the modern world understanding hieroglyphics.  It was inscribed over 2000 years ago, found at Rosetta in 1799 by the French and captured by the British in 1801.

It was interesting to see the English take on the American Revolution:
”The wars and colonial struggles of the eighteenth century caused a massive increase in government expenditure, inspiring a search for new sources of revenue, often from previously privileged classes.  England sought to tax its American colonists on a par with its own citizens, although they were not represented in parliament.  The problems of governing across the Atlantic, the more egalitarian American society and the extremely rapid growth of its settlements all added to the tensions which produced the American War of Independence (1775-83). 

The Americans could not easily appeal to traditional rights and had to take their stand on the revolutionary principle of the natural rights of man.  The success of the revolt showed a people deposing their ruler and creating a republic based on a new social contract.  France had allied with America during the war, but emerged financially exhausted, exacerbating its own social and political tensions.  Ideas of the natural equality of man, pockets of hatred for the traditional ruling classes and the financial and political weakness of the monarchy combined in 1789 to inspire the French Revolution, the greatest challenge the old order of Europe was to face.”

Counterfeit currency produced by the BBC for use in an episode of “Doctor Who.”  Doctor Who is a long-running British science fiction show about a man in a police box that flies through time and space to save the human race.	Model of what Olympia looked like in Ancient Greece, where the Greeks held their Olympic games.  The tall, white, columned building in the center held the statue of Zeus, considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

I definitely recommend the British Museum if you have any interest in ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, or Persia.