July 23-British Museum

The first full day in London started off with sleeping in and then grabbing breakfast down at Costa. I was feeling very British and ordered tea and a blueberry muffin--definitely a good start to the day. Then it was back to the hotel to meet Mom as she arrived from Heathrow. With the reunion complete, we then got straight to work on our London to-do list--The British Museum. With almost 2.5 miles of exhibits, there's absolutely no way to see everything, but we sure tried. Highlights included the Rosetta Stone, Elysian marbles, sarcophagi, the Sutton Hoo burial, the Easter Island statue, and tons of artifacts from around the world (my archaeology class actually came in handy here). There was also a special exhibit on the drawings of famous Renaissance painters. For this exhibit, we joined forces with the lovely Ms. Beall, my 10th grade English teacher who is on a fellowship studying Chaucer in London. The dream team assembled and went through the exhibit, which was essentially the sketches of artists like Michelangelo and Raphael. Some were plans for larger paintings or sculptures, and others were just figure studies and quick sketches. It was pretty incredible to see how these sketches have survived through the years, since they were from before the artists really had the scale of renown they do today.
We needed a little caffeine boost after the museum, so we stopped at Starbucks to regroup. From there, we jumped on the Tube to check out the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. The National Portrait Gallery was pretty cool in terms of all the people I recognized, from historical figures to literary icons (Joyce, the Bronte sisters, and Jane Austen were all present.) After we got kicked out of the galleries by the guards in charge of closing up, we spent a little time in Trafalgar Square to take a few photos. I definitely got my picture taken with the lion. Then it was back to the hotel for a good night's sleep before tomorrow's assignment--conquering Parliament!