Museums For All

 

The British have it right when it comes to museums. They are free all the time for everybody. What a truly democratic idea! London has the most amazing museums in the world (it might have something to do with their empire stretching around the world so they could 'purchase' or 'borrow' antiquities from everywhere). The British Museum has artifacts like the Rosetta stone, Moari from Easter Island, half of the Parthenon sculptures (they let the Greeks keep the other half - how nice), Egyptian Mummies (in surprisingly good shape) and every piece of pottery or sculpture ever created by the Greeks, Romans, Assyrians, Egyptians, Persians and whoever else lived back then (it seemed like that anyway). If you are into the rarest china in the world, it's there. If you are into the earliest forms of writing from Sumeria, it's there. It makes you wonder if there is anything else to find. One of the most wonderful things about museums is not only their displays, but the beautiful buildings they are displayed in. We all fell in love with the old charm of the Natural History Museum. The animal displays from the dinosaurs to the mammals to the birds were fascinating and had lots of hands-on activities. Matthew had a blast and the teacher in me drooled at the thought of taking my class to such a place. In fact due to the non-price of admission, school groups were everywhere in the building moving from one display to another in their cute uniforms and clutching clipboards. There were powerful Earth History exhibits including an escalator ride into the Earth and a simulation earthquake exhibit. We spent more than a day in each museum and even the non-museum lovers of this world  (who could that be?) would be won over by these places. The Victoria and Albert Art and Design Museum as well as the Science Museum were eye-catching as well. We left out at least a dozen other museums but some of those will have to wait for next time.