The British Museum

Its no secret that London has some great museums. Living in the suburbs of the city has its advantages and we regularly try to fit in a daytrip to one of the major attractions during the kids holidays. This time it was the turn of the British Museum which is one of my favorites and always a big hit with the kids. Both my girls were with us this day, along with the eldest's boyfriend who had never been to the British Museum before! 

We started in the Ancient Egyptian collection. 

The museum was absolutely heaving with visitors and it was a struggle to see some of the exhibits, especially the Rosetta Stone which was surrounded by a swirly mass of tourists and tour guides.

We focused on some of the less busy exhibits but when everything on display is this good you're not missing much by staying away from the crowded areas.

I always end up taking a picture of this when we visit. A Pharaoh (probably Ramasess) trampling his enemies under the wheels of his War Chariot. This is a popular image and was used by several Pharaoh's on many buildings as a way of showing themselves as powerful leaders.  

A Topaz covered mask in the mezo-american exhibits.

The main objective of our visit was the Pompeii Exhibition. 

We ended our day at the British Museum visiting the special Pompeii Exhibition. We have done several of these special exhibits before and all have been well worth the special entry price and this was no exception. The items on display were amazing and really helped convey what life was like in a typical Roman town and inside the households of people from a wide range of social positions. The only downside of the exhibit was the presentation. The curators of these special exhibits don't appear to possess the ability of print descriptive labels in anything larger than a 14 point font! The result is that only a couple of people can read the signs at any one time and with an exhibit as popular as this it meant there was a lot of waiting for others to more before you could read anything.

My youngest daughter thoroughly enjoyed looking at all the exhibits and listening to the audio tour that accompanied the displays. Some of the exhibits are understandably gruesome and this being the Romans, a few are quite explicit, but on the whole I don't believe in censoring what my kids learn about. I got a few disapproving looks from other people but I decided years ago that my kids would learn nothing of value if I kept them cosseted and 'protect' them from real life. At the end of the day I asked her if she had enjoyed the exhibits and she gave probably the best reply ever... "Yeh, it was really interesting, but some of it was gross!"