Thurday, Touristing Day 1

It was finally time for a vacation from out vacation.  The public transport rates go down after 9:30, so we gave ourselves a little cushion and left at 12.  (I thought we would be much safer leaving at 1 but it all worked out. -Eric) We walked 15 minutes down to Turnham Green Station, the nearest place to catch the Underground(<--formal name, also the tube or subway).  The ride into the city was about 45 minutes, and involved a changeover that only allowed us 30 seconds to find the next train.  We handled it like pros.  Took the second train to Holborn; we didn't realize how far under the city we were until we got on the escalators to get out- it was a 2 minute ride, and we estimate about 4 or five stories up.  We snagged a map from an information booth, and strolled off, trying not to look like tourists.  We found our first turn fine, but then were a little eager with our strides and overshot the destination by a few blocks.  No worries though, we got a picture of one of the sweetest cars every as a result of going too far.  A few minutes later we arrived at the British Museum.  The bottom floor was all about Africa, the pieces were not extremely old, but it was very interesting.  Next was a section about the Americas, and after was the Asian countries floor.  Probably one of the most popular rooms in the building was the Egyptian exhibit.  They had many different types of coffins, as well as a few actual unwrapped mummies.  (I hope the pictures turn oh well. You can see the hair on some of the mummies because they were so well preserved. -Eric) Next was the Mesopotamian room, which included some of Rome.  By the time we got to the ancient Britain section our intellectual quota had been more than filled, (I have an intellectual quota...? -Eric) and we decided to call it a day.  The museum is unfathomably large, you really could spend weeks there to learn about each piece.  Be sure to check out our slideshow of the museum on the Photos page.   We will go back another day to finish up, and hopefully do one of the Bible Tours that the brothers run.  We will explain more about this later, but if you would like to learn more googling "meander tours" will bring you to the information.  After the museum we grabbed a quick lunch at Subway, and decided what else to do.  After a web search we decided to go down to the theatre district, called Leicester (Pronounced Les-ter. -Eric) Square.  We a good deal a place called tkts, which the the theatre associations official outlet; we got fifth row middle tickets for Friday night at about half of the list price.  The streets around the square were filled with neat shops, and we spend some time checking out the, umm-interesting, fashions in Europe.  (Well some of them are totally sweet. I am going to get this really cool leather jacket before we leave. -Eric) We then took the Underground back home, and ate at a nice place called Gourmet Burger Kitchen.  I think they are a chain, so if you ever see one be sure to check it out, the food was excellent. Afterward we went back home for some tennis again, and played till dark.