British Museum, Covent Garden, Les Miserables
The British Museum houses so much history from around the world...Egypt, Greece, Africa, Asia, and on up to the present day. The Rosetta Stone is not to be missed. (A friend of mine reached out and touched it once, and set off all kinds of sirens and alarms. It is now enclosed in glass.)I am not someone who ordinarily swoons over anquities, but I have to say the Brits have amassed the rockstar collection of all time! All the best stuff is here. We had planned to spend only an hour, catching the highlights, but instead ended up happily staying much longer.
My favorite was the Enlightenment Room. Floor-to-ceiling bookcases always make me feel right at home (and here they are multiple stories tall). But what really intrigued me here was the intense quest for knowledge during the 18th century, wrapping up in 1820. It was a time of searching and discovery like no other, a renaissance of knowledge and information. It became quite evident that this quest for knowledge was an important precursor to the Restoration. (Joseph Smith's First Vision took place in 1820, in my mind a literal culmination of that intense period of searching.)
The Age of Enlightenment covered seven major areas/themes: Trade and Discovery, Religion and Ritual, Ancient Scripts (including a fascinating section on translation), Classifying the World, Art and Civilization, Archaeology, and the Natural World. It was a very clear and systematic search for Truth with a capital T.
Covent Garden
From there we walked over to Covent Garden (one of my favorite London spots). It's a centuries-old marketplace straight out of Oliver Twist and My Fair Lady.It's always loaded with street performers. Jeff got called out of the crowd, chosen to assist a magician, and he was a pretty fun foil to the performer's tricks.
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