Day 6 - British Museum & Bloomsbury Walk

Unfortunately, we only got to see a few rooms in the British Museum today - but don't worry, we will have many more trips over the course of the next few weeks. Whilst examining the assortment of artifacts in the museum's collection, we listened to BBC's A History of the World in 100 Objects. These are podcasts which describe the history of 100 objects throughout the museum. Anyone can subscribe to them at the BBC website, or you can do as I did and simply download them to your ipod (and I am so proud of myself for figuring out how to do that - with a nod to Dan who pointed me in the right direction). If you want to give any of them a listen, here's the site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/ahow/all I believe KQ said that they create new lists of objects every few months or something.

Sitting on the steps in the Great Court of the British Museum - tis FUGE Laura

After the British Museum, KQ took us on a Bloomsbury walk. Bloomsbury is actually the area where the Arran House (my hotel) is located. We are right in the heart of literary London. And the British Museum is only a few short blocks away.

We got see the areas of the Bloomsbury Group met and lived. They were a group of writers, philosophers...including Virginia Woolf, Keynes, E.M. Forster, Strachey and more. I also learned that London is filled with cute little squares with well maintained parks in their center.

Creepy cemetery turned park.

Senate House

The Senate House, located in Bloomsbury, was built in the 1930's and was the 2nd tallest building in London at the time. During WWII it was used as the Ministry of Information (inspired George Orwell's Ministry of Truth in 1984 , thought I'd stick that in there for you Laura since you're reading it this year). It is now a part of the University of London, which is right across the street from me.

We also saw these funny little taxi huts. Only the taxi drivers are allowed to stop and buy things there. Apparently this is one of the few that are left in the city.