Sounds like your trip is starting wonderfully! It really is a shame about the IWM but at least you got to visit the Churchill War Rooms (I still want to go there).
The CWM were fascinating. The new Churchill Museum which is part of it is VERY large and very poorly organized for all that it's brand new. It's very confusing. Fascinating, but oh goodness I could have spent hours just in there.
We didn't do Pompeii. We're off to the NH tomorrow and I can't wait. My teen and I are really looking forward to it. We saw a few things today in little bits of the Oxford Museum that were open and oh my it's just gorgeous. And the Pitt Rivers. Whoa.
Ah, we went to the landing beaches a couple of summers in a row. Awe-inspiring and the food is excellent! It is so nice making holiday plans, it gives work a purpose....
We are having a lovely time. I think we might be going to Bletchley Park on Tuesday - we were thinking of Greenwich and the Observatory but at least two of us feel there has been insufficient time with WW2 given that the main IWM is closed.
This post made me miss London. Especially its Holy Trinity of wonderful (and free) Museums: the Natural History Museum, the British Museum and the Science Museum; although schismatics are still arguing over whether the V & A should be included in the list. And OH GOD, the Pitt-Rivers in Oxford.It is awesome.
I went to the V&A and wandered around a bit -- it was fun but not something to take my family to. (Boys) I'm not sure if we'll get to the science museum because we're going back to the natural history museum. I've been in natural history museums all over the US at this point and oh my gosh the British one is just the best. Better even than the ANH in New York and the Smithsonian is just so tattered poor thing. I was completely overwhelmed and can't wait to go back.
It was funny but we wandered into the British museum and the usual rooms were just packed so we sort of gave up and wandered into a terrific exhibit on money. The exhibit on the Romans Everywhere else besides Italy was great. The signage was wonderful, the lighting was great and it was just such a pleasure.
We are going to the Pitt-Rivers tomorrow as well as Bodleian which is having an exhibit on Magic Books, including Lewis, Tolkien, and Pullman. Should be great fun!
I had no idea the Pitt-Rivers existed and I'm so glad we went. We all loved it. We all split off and my teen spent 2 hours looking at all manner of ways to kill people on the 3rd floor -- Colt pistols! Uzis! Blowdarts! Boomerangs! Crossbows! Pikestaffs!
I was just amazed at the whole idea behind the Pitt-Rivers. It is so quintessentially odd -- gather all of one thing from all over the world over hundreds or thousands of years and put it in a case. I love the juxtaposition of cheap plastic chickens from Ecuador from Mexico next to lovingly carved renderings of the Egyptian Cat goddess Bastet. Or a giant case of hair pins or razors or ways to smoke things or wooden bowls for eating. these things are all mundane in their own way, the everyday accoutrements of life, but remarkable when taken out of your cupboard or kitchen or curio and placed alongside the thing that did the same thing 400 years ago in sub-Saharan Africa or Japan. It's utterly remarkable and unique. It's art in a way, as well as anthropological.
If you make it to to Leeds, then you should go visit the Imperial War Museum. It has a life-size model of an elephant being attacked by tigers. And if you're heading back to London, Sir John Soame's museum is free and AWESOMEand has candlelight viewings. http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/whatson/sir-john-soanes-museum-by-candlelight-article-10675.html The Pitt-Rivers is fantastic; it's like they collected all sorts of things, but didn't have any idea how to organise them. I remember a display of shrunken heads next to a case of baby bottles from around the world.
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And I did think about your story when I was there....
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And OH GOD, the Pitt-Rivers in Oxford.It is awesome.
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It was funny but we wandered into the British museum and the usual rooms were just packed so we sort of gave up and wandered into a terrific exhibit on money. The exhibit on the Romans Everywhere else besides Italy was great. The signage was wonderful, the lighting was great and it was just such a pleasure.
We are going to the Pitt-Rivers tomorrow as well as Bodleian which is having an exhibit on Magic Books, including Lewis, Tolkien, and Pullman. Should be great fun!
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I was just amazed at the whole idea behind the Pitt-Rivers. It is so quintessentially odd -- gather all of one thing from all over the world over hundreds or thousands of years and put it in a case. I love the juxtaposition of cheap plastic chickens from Ecuador from Mexico next to lovingly carved renderings of the Egyptian Cat goddess Bastet. Or a giant case of hair pins or razors or ways to smoke things or wooden bowls for eating. these things are all mundane in their own way, the everyday accoutrements of life, but remarkable when taken out of your cupboard or kitchen or curio and placed alongside the thing that did the same thing 400 years ago in sub-Saharan Africa or Japan. It's utterly remarkable and unique. It's art in a way, as well as anthropological.
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http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/whatson/sir-john-soanes-museum-by-candlelight-article-10675.html
The Pitt-Rivers is fantastic; it's like they collected all sorts of things, but didn't have any idea how to organise them. I remember a display of shrunken heads next to a case of baby bottles from around the world.
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Have a wonderful time!
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