My Grand Tour

If I had to choose only one of London’s great sites to see it would be the British Museum. In fact if I had to choose a building in which I had to spend the rest of my life it would be the British Museum. There is that much to find within its halls, chambers and recesses that I think it would be a good five years or so before I got bored.

If anyone comes to visit me in London they can expect my own personal version of the grand tour. It begins with a swift left towards the Rosetta stone then you follow through to the Elgin Marbles, the contentious friezes that came off the Parthenon and ended up in the care of Lord Elgin. There are all sorts of sights to see along the way and each time I go I see something new and ancient but the tour next takes us upstairs to the Egyptian galleries past the rows of sarcophagi to the man I like to call ‘5,000 Year Old Dead Guy’. He ended up buried in a super dry sandy pit which means he still has teeth and hair yet he’s been dead for more than the aforementioned 5,000 years. Seeing him never fails to give me some perspective about my life, prune-like though he is. I then pass though the ye olde Englyish section which includes the treasures from a Viking burial mound, Roman jewellery and coins and a Bronze age cape moulded from gold. Heading back towards the front of the museum looking for the Lewis Chessmen I discovered the final stop on the tour-de-my-favourites by chance, Rooms 38-9 – the Clock Galleries.

Before I entered these rooms I had no idea how interested I am in the mechanisms that make clocks tick, but inside are watches and clocks that have been ticking continuously since the 14th Century. I never knew they had clocks in the medieval period – I thought people were still passing the time burning marked candles, but I was mistaken and I was very pleased to be put right. In fact I was totally fascinated. Now I feel the need to spread my wonder amongst my visitors…but after that I give them some free time and let them finish the tour by looking for their own wondrous discoveries.