London - Croydon for New Year's, the British Museum, and the British Library

So... we finally left Christmas in Rome to fly to New Year's in London.  We stayed at the Jurys Inn in Croydon, just south of London proper, so we didn't have to pay the London prices for everything.  The hotel was wonderful and just a 20 minute train ride north to London and 20 minutes south to Gatwick Airport.  We even rode the tram all the way to Wimbledon and explored.  On New Year's Eve, we could see fireworks all along the horizon and hear the popping in our 12th floor room.  It was pretty amazing and something I'm not used to in the U.S.  British seems to take their New Year's Eve very seriously.

No photo of the outside of Jurys Inn, but this was included in the cost of our room  - every single morning - the "full English breakfast". A buffet with two kinds of eggs, roasted tomatoes, deep fried potatoes, baked beans, sausage, bacon (ham to me), and lightly sautéed mushrooms.  What a way to go!

Around the corner from our hotel was Mr. Shakespeare's funeral parlor.

In Wimbledon, there is a church that seems to have been converted to a Boots Pharmacy (or chemist, as they say), which is also attached to a shopping mall.  Waste not, want not.

There was a gap as you alighted from the train. Really! And, every stop announcement included this reminder.

Arriving in London, we of course went directly to King's Cross Station and Platform 9 3/4, of Harry Potter fame.  It, however, appears to have been moved to a more convenient place against the wall outside the souvenir shop.  You can have your photo taken with the luggage cart for a price after a very long wait in line.

On the other side of Kings Cross Station is St. Pancras Station.

St. Pancras decorated for the holidays.

But, one of my wishlist destinations in London was the British Museum where the Harry Potter: A History of Magic exhibition was being held.  Unfortunately, the tickets are sold out for the next few months, but.. the Harry Potter gift shop was open and we were able to get a thank you gift for our daughter for being our "woman of business" while we were away.

Me and the Phoenix in front of the British Library

Entrance to the British Library

Meghan's gifts - a Harry Potter magic wand and case, the DVD of the exhibition, which will only play on a British DVD player it turns out. :(, and a genuine British Library tote bag.

The front desk.  This is a research library, so you need to be a member or present your credentials and get a pass in order to even enter the stacks.  We were only able to hang out near the cafe, see/hear the Listening display, shop, and visit the Museum exhibit.  Unfortunately, there were no photos allowed in the "reading rooms" and the museum, but I saw the original Magna Carta and some pretty great letters and photographs.  One could spend a great deal of time in that huge room.

The computer area with some very interesting books behind glass.  I don't know if those are movable stacks or just decoration.  Nobody would let me in to find out!

We could spend a lot of time here, but this temporary exhibit has some fabulous recordings that have been archived by the British Institute of Sound since 1955.  There are recordings in many formats from all over the world - performances, environmental sounds, oral history, speeches, and music of every kind.  It's pretty impressive.

Then, we walked through a wonderful city park and a few blocks away found the British Museum, where a person could spend a week combing through the incredible collections.  Especially in the Greek and Egyptian collections, I felt as I did at the Vatican, "didn't they leave anything back in Greece and Egypt?"  There is SO much that has been taken away.  My impression is that Lord Elgin took every decoration from the Parthenon - the friezes that decorated the walls, the statuary, and even pieces of the iconic columns.

Assyrian, I think.

This was as close as I could get to the Rosetta Stone.  It was literally mobbed.

Babylonian or Assyrian?

Mycean jewelry

Greek

One of many, many Elgin marble statues, but this is in much better condition than most.

Hellenic jewelry

Alexander the Great

Sophocles

Homer on the right

Socrates

Local deity in Greece

Lord Elgin's marbles

Egyptian mummies - lots and lots of mummies, some pretty grotesque

Egyptian jewelry

Cat mummies, of course

More Egyptian jewelry, I think.  But, I just went on a jewelry photograph rampage after this.  There were displays of jewelry going all the way through history to modern times in Britain.  I hoped to keep the photos for ideas should I ever decide to create my own jewelry.  Hmmm... hobby?

And, then we left Europe on Norwegian Air to Denver, Colorado on January 2, leaving the cold for another very cold place.  After the 10 hour flight, the jet lag, and the altitude sickness, I barely remember that evening and we got up at 4am to catch another flight the next day to Phoenix.  For the first time in all our travels over the last 6 months, we had to wait - a very long time.  Our flight to Phoenix on American Airlines was to leave at 7:35am, Jan 3, and it didn't actually take off until after 2:45pm.  It was another very long, stressful day.  (Ironically, after all those jewelry photographs in London, I lost my own jewelry in the Denver Airport.  Life is funny in so many ways.)  The good news is our plane was repaired and we landed safely in Phoenix and arrived by airport shuttle at my parents' house, spending about a week visiting, celebrating my Mom's birthday and finding an apartment to live in for a few months while we try out the Arizona climate.

More to come about our sojourn in Tacoma, visiting our children and friends and loading all our storage unit stuff in a rental truck to drive back to Arizona and our new apartment.