By the time we had taken the train from Wales to London, hopped the Tube to our hotel in Camden, and ditched our luggage, it was already after 4 p.m. Luckily, the British Museum was a quick five-minute walk away, and no waiting to get in.
I had about 50 minutes for my first visit to one of world’s great museums before it closed for the day.
Where to begin — not an easy decision when you’re playing “Beat the Clock” in this vast museum with over 70 galleries and a huge range of extraordinary objects. Established in 1753, the British Museum is now home to over eight million artifacts, ranging from small archaeological fragments to massive objects from ancient to contemporary cultures.
Thirty-eight years ago, reading John Keats’ “On Seeing The Elgin Marbles” as a college freshman, I decided that, someday, I really needed to go see what he was talking about. So the statuary and metope panels from the Parthenon were among my first stops in my speed race through the museum.
Here are some photos from my visit.