Day 21: Journey to the Past

It seems like every day is a journey into the past and today was no exception. A softer start on this Sunday morning with our planned destination apparently the same as everyone else in London, and that is the British Museum. We trundled off again on the DLR and the Central Line and emerged in much finer conditions than we had on Friday night at Tottenham Court Road Station and headed off in search of the Brit. On the way what did we spy but Hillsong London, plying their craft with Darlene Zschech music blasting out of the foyer of none other than the Dominion Theatre... oh dear, that cannot be accidental. It was quite nauseating watching the beautiful people spruiking at the entry, trying to get people to come in: such a contrast to our experience later in the afternoon at St Paul’s where the men in morning dress were so still upper lip and welcoming, but more on that later. 

Enid and Martina and Chris and I decided to pair up as it looked so busy at the entrance and Chris needed a snack. After a stop at Garfunkel’s, we entered around the back entrance of the museum and from the first step inside it was all hustle and bustle. They have built a new rotunda at the front of the museum which acts as the gift shop, a covered linkway between pavilions and a seating and cafe area and in it they have also included pieces of the collection, like the large figure from Easter Island that reaches skyward. We were particularly interested in the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin’s Marbles, oddly names and so we consulted the map and found them... and everyone else who had the same idea. 

The detail on the Rosetta Stone is nothing sort of amazing. As I stood waiting to get a full glimpse of the stone behind rows of people, I was struck at how much like the Mona Lisa experience in the Louvre it was... throngs of people pressing in to get a look. Created in 196BC in Egypt , the stone contains three version of a Ptolemaic decree, in three different scripts, the third being Ancient Greek. What a find when it was discovered in the late1800s.This allowed archeologists to decipher the hieroglyphics on the stone and provided the code breaker to all Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. The interesting thing is that the whole structure stands little more than 1 metre by half a metre. In awe.

On the way through to the next exhibit we were dwarfed by the Assyrian room and paused to admire the massive architectural structure of a pair of matching gates. It appeared as though there were horses riding towards us with wings, floor to a very high ceiling in height in red stone. And the carved detail on there was so clear for something from the 3rd Century BCE. But the quest was for the ‘marbles’, so that is where we went. 

There has been much controversy over the years about the British government’s possession of antiquities under the guise of colonialism, exploration or just plain greed and Elgin’s marbles are a key part of the controversy. Far from being marbles, in the sense of small round rocks, they are marble friezes and statues that used to surround the Parthenon in Athens. They were brought to London to the museum in the early 1800s and have fairly recently found a home in an amazing exhibit that has placed the pieces of the marble frieze and the parts of torsos all the way around a display room. It is quite something, and as I have seen the Parthenon in the flesh without them, I marvel even more at what an amazing structure it would have been in the Ancient World, before wars and gunpowder storage and the ravages of time. The marbles are still a political football. The  Greeks want them back! The British museum’s position is that they are on display free of charge for all visitors and students of history from around the world to study and, as they could never actually be reattached to the Parthenon, they are in a good place. I have mixed feelings about this, and the more I walked around the halls of the museum, the more I was struck, on the one hand by amazing antiquities and on the other by greed and colonial muscle flexing. The jury is still out on that one. 

The other hall that really captivated our imagination was the Hall of Enlightenment. This is a collection of “The Kings Library” which reflects books and scholarship during and before the Enlightenment. The various displays, scientific, religious and historical, point to a real tension between the old world of faith and the power of knowledge in the hands of the royalty and the church, in contrast to the new world of reason. I think I will now teach religion and non religion in the 2 unit course with a whole new focus, far better understanding the milieu of Rational Humanism that emerged from this period. What an awesome display.

The time was moving on and we needed to make our next big item which was Evensong at St Paul’s cathedral. Chris and I had been looking forward to this since our visit to London 9 years ago and were quite astounded at the large number of chairs that they had out in the nave of the cathedral. Being a Sunday service, I guess they were expecting a lot of participants, but the service lacks a certain something when the participants are separated from the Quire. And we were very well ushered and supervised by imposing ushers in mourning coats.. all terribly British really

Musically the choir was fabulous. They were a local London Choir, Epiphoni Consort and their voices were strong and melodious. The challenge was that the Precentor did not have a strong voice and, even though she was microphoned, there was a certain lack of depth and the call and responses fell flat. Enid felt that the music had a surge like sameness at this one so, from and Evensong perspective it wasn’t our best. But, that aside, oh wow! Serious bucket list moment for Chris and I: to sit quietly and contemplatively in St Paul’s for over an hour, with no pushy tourists and just be... in the presence of God celebrated in the gilded mosaics that covered the ceilings and to look to the high altar and the stained glass and just marvel. And of course, the best bonus, and one we didn’t even know about, at the end of the service there is the opportunity for service attendees to take photographs from the foot of the high altar. WOW. It was so absolutely worth it, the entire experience. 

We hopped on our ‘local’ number 15 bus and snaked through the streets back to Limehouse where we had a special dinner reservation tonight. Chris had organised a booking at Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant, The Narrows, which is in Limehouse Basin. How exciting. In fact it is really the restaurant that is closest to where we are. Now perhaps some of the food servings were not what they could have been: Martina’s Sea Bass was decidedly smaller than other dishes, but it was a hoot of a night, sitting in a glass conservatory on the banks of the Thames River. A very special experience. And then it was time for an early night, as sadly Chris and I are getting sicker with an upper respiratory infection :(