London: Day Two

Having gotten to bed somewhat late the night before, we had to drag ourselves out of bed in time to catch the tube down near the Thames in order to make our apointment with the London Eye.  Holly pre-ordered our tickets from the US before we left, so all we had to do was walk up to the machines for pre-paid tickets and swipe the same credit card in order for the tickets to print.  Pre-paying everything you can in the U.S. will let you pay with dollars instead of pounds, and you can avoid the fees that your credit card company may charge for currency conversion.

The London Eye is a giant ferris wheel that never stops, and each car is big enough to hold about 20 people.  It takes about half an hour to complete a revolution of the wheel, and while it's not a thrilling ride, it does give you a nice view of the city, and helps you establish the layout in your mind before setting off to visit the rest of London.

After the Eye, we caught the Tube to the British Museum, which was the only other thing on our Tuesday agenda.  We ducked into a Starbucks near the museum to grab a quick breakfast, and discovered that the pre-paid Starbucks cards we'd been given for Christmas in the US also worked in Britain. 

In the museum, we opted to rent a couple of the audio tour headsets, which were well worth the few pounds they cost, as they provided much more insight into the 60 exhibits they covered, and told you a great many things that weren't on the placards.

The first thing we saw was the Rosetta Stone, followed by the rest of the Egyptian, then Greek, Roman, Assyrian, and other ancient artifacts.  After about three hours of touring, we stopped by the cafeteria to split a croissant and some cheesecake for lunch. Most of the east wing of the museum was closed, but after five hours of wandering the rest of it, Holly's hip, and my feet had seen more than enough.

The quality of the artifacts at the British Museum blows everything else away, as the sheer size of their exhibits dwarfs everything else we've ever seen.  Many places have pieces of Egyptian artifacts, but most of them aren't of near the size or quality of the ones you'll find here.

Around 5, our tired feet drug us back to the tube, and we stopped in the Mark & Spencer store across from our hotel to grab some sandwiches to eat in our hotel room for supper.