20 November:We had arisen quite early on Saturday morning and made for the train station after a modest breakfast.
To a Londoner, St. Pancras station might have seemed quite sleepy, but to such small-town travelers such as ourselves it felt all a bustle even so...
Of course, St. Pancras sits adjacent to the more famous King's Cross station...
And for those of you who are familiar with the escapades of a certain young wizard whose name rhymes with "Larry Lotter" then King's Cross for you requires no explanation.
Peter and I searched and found the fabled Platform Nine-and-three-quarters. It seemed hardly magical at all...
It is much more interesting to travel above ground in London rather than beneath it. So we found a double-decker bus and rode out to Marylebone Road.
There we were come to the greatest of all tourist traps: Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum...
Seeing as it was a wax museum I was looking forward to seeing exhibitions on the historical uses of tallow in candle making, or perhaps the role of beeswax in early Christian monasticism, or the rise and fall in the trade and production of spermaceti wax.
Naturally, I was quite shocked, and not a little disappointed, to discover that this particular wax museum contained nothing of the sort. Instead, it was merely a collection of waxwork figurines. What I found most strange and indeed, I think you will agree, astonishing, was that every single one of these wax figurines was of only one person: myself.
I realize that my web log has become quite popular in recent years, but I had no idea it had such a following as to warrant an entire museum of figures dedicated entirely to myself. What made matters all the more curious, and, I must frankly admit, somewhat embarrassing to myself, was that on this particular day, this museum was being patronized by an eclectic assortment of celebrities and heads of state.
Of course as the photographer, I felt compelled to document the scene.
Here is a certain young woman from Montana, a singer of some notoriety as I believe...
An American motion picture actor by the name of Morgan Freeman, posed rather unenthusiastically with my wax likeness here...
Another actor, one Tom Cruise, here positioned himself just so that it appeared my outstretched hand were around his neck in some sort of brotherly greeting. He seemed quite the fop, did Mr. Cruise...
Of course the establishment was filled with other visitors as excited to photograph the celebrities as the wax figurines of myself...
A Mr. Robert Downey Jr. came dressed in costuem to pose with your humble web logger...
I found this wax likeness of myself to be most astonishingly lifelike. A comedian named Robert Williams or somesuch, struck such a merry pose there...
A certain Hindu actor came all the way from Bombay to pose next to a most comical expression of myself...
An Austrian strongman in a most austere pose...
An American golf player of some skill came to pose as if I were some associate of his...
A woman most remarkably attired as Her Majesty Queen Victoria posed most scandalously next to this waxwork pose to which I most strongly objected...
I was rather shocked to learn that the museum staff allowed this scarlet woman onto the premises. I made only a single photograph of her as she posed most gleefully next to a figure of myself whose wax face, as you can see, was still quite unformed...
I was honored to have these distinguished heads of state and look-a-like artists stand in formation around my wax likeness...
Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, was cheeky one...
Here is one of the few wax figures that was not of myself. Here the likeness of Winston Churchill posed next to myself in a scene of "what might have been" had I lived in his great time...
It was a relief, as I imagine it would be to every humble Christian, to leave the extended exhibition of myself and descend to the lower levels of the museum where scenes of torture and execution were displayed...
This was the actual guillotine used in the execution of Marie Antoinette of France...
And the wax heads of victims of La Revolution and the Red Terror...
I found this final exhibit most distasteful, and I let my displeasure be known to the curators of Madame Tussaud's....
From the wax museum we traveled via underground train and then on foot past sites typical of urban life in the great city...
One of the many remarkable pubs with curious names...
I dare say this restaurant chain, to be found throughout London, got straight to the point of things with regards to what it expects its customers to do...
At last we came to the British Museum!
This museum houses the finest and most expansive collection of antiquities in the world, and best of all it is completely free of charge to the public!
Peter and I met our kind hosts, Iain and Paulina there at the museum. Here we are all together in the newly remodeled entrance space to the museum...
This kind gentleman obliged to take our photograph. He then turned the camera on himself and shot exclaiming, "that one's for free!"
The curators of the British Museum instituted a fascinating scheme to facilitate a better understanding of many of the objects in the museum. It is called "The History of the World in 100 Objects." A neat pamphlet is given out to patrons of the museum with a brief description and picture of each object on a timeline. There is also a map detailing the location of each item in museum. There is also an
outstanding internet web site with links to the BBC radio broadcast showcasing each of the 100 items.
Included in the following report are many of the 100 items along with other artifacts of note:
Of course there were a great many mummies and sarcophagi from the tombs of ancient Egypt and Nubia...
Nebamun Hunting in the Marshes 1500 BCOne of the most famous Japanese paintings in the entire world:
'The Great Wave' -Katsushika Hokusai from around 1830Samurai Armour, 1500's-1800'sTang Figures, China, 728 ADDaoist and Buddhist Figures 16th cent...Shiva and Parvati Sculpture, India, 1100-1300 ADHoa Hakananai'a ca. 1400, Easter Island...Ivory Bows, Alaska, 19th century....Striking details on closeup...
Sioux Headdress and Outfit from early 20th century...Mayan Stone Ballgame Belt, 100-500 AD. This is a stone representation of the belts the Mayans used as they played their unique ball game: imagine playing basketball with a gigantic rubber ball (no air) and you were not allowed to use your hands or feet...Bird Jaguar and the Bloodletting of a Noble, Aztec, 755 ADThis exquisite Aztec artifact was on the cover of one of my university textbooks.
Double-Headed Serpent, Mexico, 1400-1600 AD...Aztec Turquoise Mosaic Mask, 1400's...Sculpture of Huastec goddess, 1450Corridors inside the museum...
Hawaiian Feather Helmet, 1700-1800Solar-powered lamp and charger, China, 2010...Olduvai chopping tool, oldest man-made item in the museum (and hence the world), 1.8 million years old...
300,000-year-old handaxe from Dorset, England (made, perhaps by one of my own progenitors)...Your man handling chopping stones from Olduvai, over 1 million-years old, British Museum. Feel the power of oldness!Pharaoh Ramesses II, 1250 BC...
The famed Rosetta Stone, 196 BC...
Closeup of the Rosetta Stone...
Assyrian Winged-Lion with Human Head, 860 BC...Nereid Monument from Lycia, 4th cent BC...At the museum we were joined by another friend of Iain, Paulina, and Peter, a fellow named Ben. We followed Ben to Liverpool Street Station where we went for a quick bite to eat at Sheffield Market. Ben then gave us a smashing tour of the London Banking District.
Proselytizer outside Liverpool Street Station...
New and old in the Financial District...
30 Mary Axe, also known as the 'Gherkin' rising between older banking buildings...
This classic automobile pulled up to the curb as if on cue in front of this old bank...
C3PO made an appearance...
We walked to London Bridge where we caught a fine evening view of the Tower Bridge...
From London Bridge we walked to the great masterpiece of Sir Christopher Wren: St. Paul's Cathedral.
From the rear...
Early each day to the steps of Saint Paul's
The little old bird woman comes
In her own special way to the people she call,
"Come, buy my bags full of crumbs;
Come feed the little birds,
Show them you care
And you'll be glad if you do
Their young ones are hungry
Their nests are so bare
All it takes is tuppence from you
Feed the birds, tuppence a bag
Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag
Feed the birds," that's what she cries
While overhead, her birds fill the skies
All around the cathedral the saints and apostles
Look down as she sells her wares
Although you can't see it,
You know they are smiling
Each time someone shows that he cares
Though her words are simple and few
Listen, listen, she's calling to you
"Feed the birds, tuppence a bag
Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag.
Upon inquiry we discovered that Evensong would soon be given inside the Cathedral. The others went inside to reserve seats while Ben took me across the Millennium Bridge to catch a fine view of St. Paul's at Dusk...
Iain texted Ben saying that they were getting ready to close the doors so Ben and I ran as the Dickens back to the Cathedral. We got there with time to spare. Heaving with exhausted breath and sweating under my coat, it took me a moment to realise what breathtaking beauty the interior of this great cathedral possessed.
Photography was forbidden and so the best I can offer is a summation of my impressions and a link to a 360º in-all-directions flash page
flash internet site.Ushers inquired whether we were here for the service to which we replied affirmatively. They gave us a program and we found our seats right below the cupola.
The choir began singing prelude hymns as people continued to arrive and find their seats. I gazed around at the rounded pillars and archways with grand artwork glorifying God all around. The choir (the cathedral part, not the singers) was as a gold and mahogany corridor to heaven itself.
Evensong began as those sitting in attendance rose and the participants and officiators emerged from a chamber near the transept. They walked solemnly around the transept and up an aisle between the chairs, to the choir (if a cathedral is shaped as the crucifix cross, the choir is where Christ's head would be). With the choir boys in white tunics with high collars and the bishops in white and golden robes, tall spoon-shaped hats, and shepherds' crooks it looked like a procession of lesser chess pieces upon the marble tile.
The choir sang exquisitely, classic English hymnals, sacred Renaissance music, and even a selection from Brahms's
Ein Deutsches Requiem. Between the musical numbers psalms and scriptures were read and the congregation joined in singing a hymn. The priestess offered a fine prayer with which no true Christian, be he of any sect or denomination, could disagree.
It was an extraordinary and most uplifting spiritual experience that I will not soon forget.
After Evensong we went once again across the Millennium Bridge to the Tate Modern. London's foremost museum of modern art. Our visit, however, was just to make use of the cost-free privies.
The Tate Modern was built in a converted power plant on the Thames. The enormous turbine rooms host temporary art exhibits. While we were there we found the exhibit "Sunflower Seeds" by the Chinese artist Ai Wewei. It consisted of over 100 million hand crafted porcelain sunflower seeds...
Art!
We left the Tate and rode the Tube to Liverpool Street Station again. There we met one of Peter's friends from Slovenia, a fellow named Matjaž. He had just flown in and would join us for the weekend.
We walked to where Indian and Bangladeshi restaurants could be found in abundance and tucked into a small Indian restaurant. We ate fine meal of Indian cuisine.
Here we are from left to right: Me, Peter, Matjaž, Iain, Paulina, and Ben...
What a splendid day it had been!
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