London or bust!

Our basic thinking was on the right lines.  Early July; kids would still be in school; holidays would not have started; mid week was a quiet time – the visit to the British Museum would be accomplished with minimal fuss and in the spaciousness of empty galleries.

On every count we were wrong.  The entire youth population of Spain was thronging its way through all the galleries we visited.  British school kids were visiting in phalanxes as an end of term treat.  “Thursdays,” as one taxi driver commented, “are some of our busiest days!”  We couldn’t get a table for lunch.  We couldn’t get anywhere near the Rosetta Stone.  The Egyptian Mummy Room was a nightmare – and I am not referring to the decomposing dead but to the all to lively living who stuck to the glass cases like Amazonian tree frogs!

But in spite of everything it was a successful day.  After misgivings about the willingness of the rail system to accommodate the disabled we were treated with care and consideration not only in Cardiff but also by the incomparable staff in Paddington.  Ramps were provided and porters pushed Louise up them.  In overcrowded trains our seats were, with an imperious flick of a guard’s finger vacated.  Thoroughly tiring but very satisfying sums up the day.

We did not get to see everything that was on the list, but we had a damn good stab at completion and saw a few extras, which were not on the official schedule.

The meal in the museum restaurant was, to say the least, leisurely – it took over two hours for two courses to be served!  But we managed to chat our way through this lacuna and managed to consume a bottle of wine as well.  Louise’s eyelid drooped visibly even when encourage to gloat over the possession of the Elgin Marbles, saved from the hands of the feckless Greeks.  After all, if they can’t run a viable economy they are certainly not to be trusted with some of the greatest cultural artefacts from the Classical World!

Sutton Hoo, the Lion Hunt and various pieces of silverware, not forgetting the Ram in the Thicket and other treasures seen passing through galleries to find the items on our list meant that at the end of the day we were both physically and culturally exhausted.

The taxi drive back from the BM to Paddington was made all the more circuitous because of the road closures to ensure the success of the premiere of the last (positively the last) part of a schoolboy’s adventures in wizardry.

I could have done with a little bit of magic when I was faced with getting all my gadgets fed.  Leads are snaking all over the room as the essential accessories to any attempt at sophisticated living demand their allowances of electricity.

Any nocturnal wanderings will be fraught with peril as I myopically try and negotiate the 3D labyrinth of random wires which would give an athletic bat problems!

But now sleep.  Sleep.  Sleep.