British Museum and the Lion King Musical - 20 July 2011

Early in the morning, we took the train out to northern London to visit the home of..






Yes, the newly built home stadium of the Arsenal team in Highbury. Situated very near the train station we had no problems getting there.

Here are some photos as requested by an Arsenal fan back home.













Unfortunately visits to the inside of the stadium requires booking for the tour, so sorry Arsenal fans, no insider photos available.
There were many fans going through the stadium tour, all wearing supporter clothing. I think there were locals and tourist alike going to look at the stadium.

We later visited the famous British Museum.

We got off at the Russell Square station on the tube as recommended by our guide, unfortunately one of the lifts to ground level was broken. A massive queue was outside the lift but there were stairs on the side. A sign read next to the stairs something like this "please note this flight of stairs has 175 steps, use only in emergencies".
A lot of people were going up via this way so we thought, what the heck, shouldn't be too difficult! So off we went and boy were we wrong! A lot of people had to stop for breath, it was a narrow and winding staircase, probably a bit of a strain for two to walk side by side.
We were so out of breathe by the time we got out of the station, we had to sit outside the museum after we got there to recover our breathe!
Next time I'll rather wait for the lift!

It is interesting how memory come back with simple visual cues. I have totally forgotten that I have been to this museum before until I walked into the foyer. As soon as I saw the curved walls of the reading room, I realised I have actually visited this museum before, to look at the Greek and Roman history section on my classical studies tour when I was in high school.

This time we could spend the whole afternoon looking through the museum exhibition. The amazing bit for me was this famous museum is absolutely free for the public. Every wing had names of generous donors who helped fund and maintain all the exhibits. A lot of the working staff were in fact volunteers.

There were a lot of visitors and school tour when we were there. The more famous exhibition of Egypt was totally packed with people. It actually got quite stuffy and hot. But it is worthwhile to visit. If you have ever done ancient history studies, chances are much of the textbook photos of items can be found in this museum.

This is the Rosetta Stone, in the gift shops there was also a 800 piece full size rosetta stone puzzle. Crazy to have to put together but pretty awesome!

 I really love this clock, the mechanism is driven by a metal ball, the description says that the clock is very inaccurate but because of the design, there were many people who commissioned these to be made anyway!

 This set of chess pieces was found on a beach in Scotland in 1831. One of the oldest and fullest sets of chess pieces found

We were very interested to see the Chinese Exhibition as we have heard a lot about it. It did not disappoint with the comprehensive display of articles throughout the different dynasties. Mostly it is pottery, but still brilliant to behold if you are interested in these sorts of things.

The museum itself has five levels open to the public, there are many rooms and if you are limited on time, I suggest buying the museum map for one pound then locating the rooms you wishes to visit first as it can be very confusing without once you start navigating through the crowd and exhibition cabinets.

Took us nearly four hours to see the majority of the exhibit without audio guides, I suppose with audio guides it would be much more interesting but definitely need the whole day to see most things there.

As we are going to see The Lion King musical, we walked to the nearby Covent Garden Market for dinner. The place was buzzing!

We went to the famous Punch and Judy Pub for some banger and mash, and steak and fries.

Lyceum Theatre where we went to see the Lion King Musical. It has been a hit since it's beginning, and at our session it was the same. Full packed out.

At the Lyceum Theatre

Here is us waiting for the show to start.

I was amazingly surprised at the choreography and costume of the entire show, by the time the first song "it's the circle of life" has concluded, the actors had me convinced I was watch real animals, not people.

The whole musical sticks very closely to the original cartoon, but in a way also it's own performance as the stage gives the whole musical it's own place and time I felt was different to the movie. Highly recommend! I have heard some rumor that the show will be ending soon!



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