Thursday, August 19, 2010

London, Part 2: Of Passports and Egyptians

Later in the day, after their trip to Buckingham Palace, Marina met up with a friend of ours who works at a theatre box office. Our friend Nai gave them tickets to see the show, The Railway Children, based on the book by E. Nesbit. This show featured the Hogwarts Express (painted over for this show, of course!)...

13-Marina and Nai

They went for a walk with Nai up one side of the Thames and down the other. Along the way, they crossed the Milennium Bridge, known to the locals as the Wibbly Wobbly Bridge...

14-Milennium Bridge

At some point that evening, they realized that her aunt's passport was missing. The following day, they tried to find Aunt Linda's passport, but they had no luck. This meant a side trip to the U.S. Embassy to pick up a temporary passport. The embassy is near the site of John Adams' home while he lived in England. The statue of FDR is in the FDR Memorial Park. He is one of the few foreigners who has such an honor. See that? She went all the way to England for American history...

15-FDR Memorial

After their trip to the U.S. Embassy, they went to the British Museum. Below is the outside and inside of the museum. This is not a museum you can see in one day. You just hope to finish one section before you tire out...

16-British Museum

17-Museum Inside

A statue of Ramses II, in Marina's words, the king of self promotion. The reason we know so much about him is because he had lots of statues put up of himself!

18-Ramses II

She loves cats. The Egyptians love cats. Is it any wonder they spent hours in the Egyptian section of the museum? Here is one of many cat statues...

19-Egypt Cat

Marina took many pictures of hieroglyphics. She hopes to be able to decipher them with a book she has. Below is the mother of all hieroglyphic knowledge (or at least a section?), the Rosetta Stone...

20-Rosetta Stone

Marina liked this statue of a husband and wife. Their clasping hands have broken off, but at least they have their noses, unlike some statues...

21-Married

This is a fragment of a painting of man and his family. Notice the cat. They are hunting the bountiful waterfowl of the afterlife...

22-Egypt Family

This is a mummy from a later time period. We read about them in the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters. Instead of death masks, realistic portraits were painted on plaster over the mummy's face...

23-Mummy

Below, Coptic text writes about Michael the Archangel. Michael's name is written in red...

24-Nubian Text

What is great about this trip, as well as the Italy trip, is that Marina learned so much, and took so many pictures to share with us, that we are now learning a lot too! I'm so glad she's had these wonderful opportunities (thanks to Grandma and Aunt Linda!) and I hope my other two have similar travel experiences when they get older.

3 comments:

Inner Elder said...

What a wonderful learning experience! I am so glad to have given Marina a start on what I consider "unforgettable education" - world travel! And I can't get over how beautiful she looks in the pictures. Love, Grandma

Sandra B. said...

Marina always takes such great pictures. She could write pamphlets, or tour books.

flmom said...

I remember the British Museum fondly! I believe it was my first real experience with a museum (sadly at the age of 15 - glad I've been able to foster that love in my kids way earlier). We only had one day there and it was not long enough. The photos bring back a lot of memories.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...