On Sunday my friends took me out for afternoon tea at the British Museum. It was a present to celebrate my 30th birthday. I don’t know what you think when you read those sentences. Maybe “oooo” or “nice” or “how British” or even, “yawn.” But for me, it meant everything. One year ago I had been permanently in London for a month (we moved in March but then I had to go back to DC to do some stuff so I was permanently here in London starting last summer). After a month I was enjoying London but also feeling a little lost. I was thinking about finding friends, work, and a new life in London. And I hoped very much that I would make some lovely British friends who would want to do afternoon tea. Sure, it’s probably a stereotypical dream, but it was the dream I had.And then I got the job at the Science Museum and I made fast friends with Sarah, who I actually met during the interview process. She is bold, smart, and honest. She’s warm, not shy, generous, and the kind of person you want in your corner when the chips are down. And then we started our induction week and met Abbie, who is kind and friendly with a lovely smile. She’s clever, easy going, optimistic and brushes off frustration with an ease and grace that I envy. Then when we properly started work we met Charlotte who has the most piercing blue eyes and the best deadpan humor. She’s an excellent storyteller, she’s quick witted, good at taking charge and making decisions, and is an absolutely no-bullshit kind of person which is refreshing and fantastic. We started as just work friends and then became a crew. And even though they were my besties I didn’t tell them about my afternoon tea fantasy. I didn’t want them to laugh at me for being a silly American with cheesy dreams.

But, that’s the thing, best friends just know. On my actual birthday they said they wanted to take me out for a surprise and I didn’t bug them about it too much. This was big for me, I’m terrible about ruining surprises. We arranged to get together on Sunday and met at Euston station. From there, we walked through Russel Square which was filled with sun dappled tree and people having picnics, and we went on to the British Museum where they had arranged for us to have tea. YAY!

We had tea at the Great Court Restaurant. If you enter the museum through the main gates you walk into the main atrium of the museum, go up the curved staircase and you’ll  be in front of the restaurant. The skylights of the ceiling make it feel like you’re eating outside and the silhouettes of the birds flying outside overhead make really pretty shadows. The restaurant is pretty cute, and it’s sort of exciting to be surrounded by fantastic art. It’s a lovely setting – and obviously the company was perfection too.

We had the Prosecco afternoon tea. For me, tea is already fancy and lovely but adding Prosecco just bumps it up a huge notch. Also, I think all champagne glasses are elegant but I especially enjoy champagne saucers. I think it’s because they’re like a rare bird – I hardly ever see them in the wild. To me, they’re just for the movies. Sarah said maybe they’re modeled after Marie Antoinette’s breasts. I did a tiny internet search and it seems like maybe not. If you’re curious read about it here.

While I’m on the subject of glassware, let’s also talk about dishes. I love the pattern on all of the crockery. First, green is my favorite color and I think it looked original but still classically fancy. I also loved the combination of floral and bird prints. It was intricate but not over the top. I’m at the age when I look at nice dishes like these and actually think about wanting to own a set. And even, one day being the kind of person who has everyday dishes and good dishes. The picture immediately below isn’t the greatest, but you can see the pattern. Also, I like that Abbie’s pinkie’s sticking out as she picks up her tea. Clearly she’s posh.

Beside Prosecco, we of course had tea. Three out of four of us has elderflower & lemon tea which I loved and thought was the right amount of fruity and floral flavors. Sarah had ginger & lemon. There were also non-herbal options. The tea bags were great with big fat leaves in each sachet. Love that because it makes the flavor so much better. For food, we had a raisin scone and a plain scone. They came with jam and a big jar of clotted cream for the table. Clotted cream is an indulgent revelation. It’s luscious and it’s so easy to dollop a huge helping on to your scone. I should learn what else I can use clotted cream for because it’s tasty.

The sandwiches were small and dainty but full of fresh flavor. My favorite was the smoked salmon in part because the fresh dill was so vibrant. It gave the sandwich a good pop. The cucumber sandwich had the thinnest cut cucumbers and it was perfectly crunchy and refreshing. There was also an egg and a ham sandwich. I thought the cakes were the best part. There was a really rich, nearly bitter dark chocolate cake, an almond cake with a fruity surprise inside, a lemon tart, and then the cream puff. Everyone was beautiful to look at except the cream puff (which is behind the lemon tart with the raspberries on it). Sarah said it looked like the character from Fantastic Four. However, it was very nice – light, soft, and filled with lots of delicious cream. It more than made up for its funny looks.

After lots of food and chatting we went to the shop below. The shop is a lot of fun. There are books, figurines, scarves, jewelry, and all kinds of cool things for gifts. There’s also cheesy stuff like pens that look like soldiers and stuffed toys of Egyptian cats. Whether elegant and beautiful or cheesy and touristy – I think it’s all great. I love taking home a piece of a museum. Charlotte found a really intense connect-the-dot book. All the images were of big buildings and were color coded. I found a cookbook I wanted (of course), it was called A History of Food in 100 recipes. I had some self restraint though and didn’t buy it. Sarah and Abbie read some haikus. And here’s a haiku for them to summarize the day.

Surprise birthday tea
Great friends, yummy cake, and booze
Some dreams do come true

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Before I moved here, I was sure that I wouldn’t get complacent. I was sure I’d keep wanting to tour the city. I wouldn’t be like city dwellers all over the world who live in a place surrounded by amazing sights but then rarely visit them. I was sometimes that person in DC, but I was certain I’d be better here. But then yesterday morning I was off of work. I was sitting my pajamas, watching TV, and working on the computer and all of a sudden it was 11:30. I had promised myself I would go out, but it was 11:30 and I hadn’t showered yet, I hadn’t really eaten anything but handfuls of granola, it was rainy, and I was lazy. But I promised myself I’d be better. So, I looked at my visit wish-list and decided to get off the couch and check out the British Library.

It’s a really interesting and nice place, but I’ll be honest it isn’t a very sexy tour. Basically the tour is learning about the history of the library and how people get access to books. I was the only one on the tour, which at first made me feel awkward but it turned out just fine. I don’t know the name of my tour guide. I’m choosing to believe the book Watching the English, which says English people don’t like to introduce themselves at the beginning of conversations with new people. Regardless, he was a great tour guide because he was friendly, and knowledgeable, and so passionate. Learning about how the books travel the building or the inner workings of their storage facility might not sound fascinating, but for me, listening to someone who clearly loves what they do makes the material so much more engaging. He’s also been with the library since before 1997, so he’s seen it when it was housed in the British Museum and when it started in its current location.

Anyway, the tour started properly with this model of the library. It gives you a sense of its really large size and a little bit about the storage. Most of the storage is in an automated facility in Yorkshire, but beneath the main library building are four levels of book storage. He told me about the history of the library and its connection to the British Museum and how eventually it outgrew its original home. The library building dates to 1973. It’s large and allows for a good bit of natural light, but in my opinion it looks like many university or large public libraries.

Books here can’t be checked out, they can just be used for the day in the library. He took me to the staff area to see where the books are collected and how they are sent throughout the museum. Basically, it looks like the conveyor belts at the airport. Books go into a bin and then roll down a belt all across the library. I even saw a DVD of how it all works. It was nice being on the tour myself. I asked lots of questions about using the library, conservation, types of books, digital copies – ever random thing I wanted to know. When I asked about acquiring digital copies over hard copies, my guide said they will continue to get hard copies “in case civilization collapses.” I just love that optimism – if there is a zombie apocalypse and there is no technology, at least we will have all kinds of books.

After that he started to show me some objects. This photo below is of an atlas. I know it looks like a door, but it’s an atlas. It’s called the Klencke Atlas. You can see our reflections a bit in the glass, so you can tell it’s really tall. He said it weighs 30 stone, which equals over 400 pounds! It was owned by King George III and was used at some point as a table. In person you can make out a cup ring in the leather – moral of the story is that coasters are important!

The literal, and to some extent figurative, center of the library is the King’s Library which was donated by George III. It’s a gorgeous tower in the center of the library displaying so many gorgeous leather books. My guide said George III spent his life collecting and then he added “and doing other things of course.” I chuckled because, you know, he collected books and dealt with “other things” like America’s Independence. No biggie. Anyway the books are gorgeous and were donated with the stipulation that they would always be on display and available to the public. It’s lovely to look at.

However, the best things to see are in the Treasures gallery. They have digitized a number of important historic works like Leonard Da Vinci’s notebooks and Lewis Caroll’s Alice’s Adventures Under Ground. They are amazing! You can see the words in the author’s own hand (and Da Vinci’s right to left writing!), you can scroll through each page, you can zoom in, AND you can see all their virtual books online at home.

I took pictures of all kinds of books and realize that those pictures might not be that interesting, but I’m going to go on gushing. I saw a letter to Winston Churchill about forming the Monument’s Men. I saw Gutenberg’s Bible, which was the first real book to be printed using the printing technique Gutenberg invented in the 1450s. And I saw the Magna Carta (below).

I also saw some gorgeously illustrated religious and scientific texts. Look at these beautiful classification of plants!

I’m going to end with the object that really stunned me, even though it’s not visually very astounding. If you’ve read my post gushing about Hampton Court Palace you might know I’m very interested in Tudor History. I watch the dramas and documentaries, I read everything, I have a Henry VIII stuffed bear, and I currently have an Anne Boleyn biography in my purse. So, when I saw this letter I was struck. It’s a letter written by Anne Boleyn and King Henry VIII to Cardinal Wolsey. This is the kind of document that informs all the things I’ve read and seen about these people!  Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII were present there in that letter, and for a second it felt like the gap in history was smaller, that I could be closer to those people and those moments. At its very best, that is what museums, artifacts, and libraries should do – connect people with information and history. And I felt lucky to have that nice experience at the British Library.

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Anyway, one of the last things I did before starting my job was go to the British Museum. I had been there before, but this last time I went on a tour with London Walks. If you live in London, or are just visiting, I highly recommend doing a walk with them. You’ll get to see nooks and crannies in the city that are hiding in plain sight. They tell you amazing stories and some of the guides are hilarious.

For the tour of the British Museum the guide picks their favorite highlights to show to the group. My guide, Chris, is into the Classics so that’s mostly what we saw. I liked her. She said that she thinks museums are places to visit little and often (meaning regularly and for short bursts). I completely agree. It allows you to enjoy yourself, see what you’re in the mood for, and not feel pressured to see it all. Below are my highlights of her highlights. The museum has way way way more to see.

During the tour she showed us lovely reliefs from the North Palace in Ninevah, a city in Mesopotamia. The reliefs show a lion hunt, which was apparently only something the king could do. You can pick out the king because he is more ornate than the others. These are awesome because they are so detailed but in such low relief (compare them to photos of Acropolis reliefs below). How can you have so much detail and be so subtle?! Also, I love how expressive the lions look. They look natural and dramatic all at once. It’s so impressive.

On the way to the Parthenon marbles we saw this statue, which would have been outside an entrance. I don’t remember what culture it’s from, so I’m sorry. Anyway it’s cool because from the front the animal would look normal, you’d see just two legs. From the side it looks normal, because it has four legs. But from diagonal, the animal has six legs!

Chris handled discussing the Parthenon marbles so well! She talked about where they came from and the controversy about having them and returning them. She talked about Elgin honestly, and acknowledged some shadiness but also didn’t vilify him. And for me, that makes sense. He did some clearly wrong things but he was a product of his time and probably not pure evil. (Side note: if you’re interested in learning more, read Loot. It talks about all kinds of repatriation issues, including the Parthenon, and it will make your brain confused and thoughtful in the best way possible.)

But the best part for me, was that she didn’t let the issues of provenance and repatriation overshadow the beauty of the marbles and the stories they tell. Because look at them! This is what I was talking about before with the deeper relief.

These marbles below come from a triangular pediment (triangle part on the top) on the Parthenon. These sculptures show the birth of Athena, who is said to have sprung fully formed from Zeus’ head. You can see in the body language of the women, that they’re a little bit like, “whoa! What just happened?”

The horse would have been in the corner opposite the women. I love that it hangs over the side a bit and comes out at the viewer. I also love how the sculptor really used all the available space to great effective. This horse is either the sun going down or the moon going down, I feel bad I can’t remember which, but that’s why you can only see part of him. So lovely.

This sculpture below is near the Parthenon marbles. It was outside a tomb in Halikarnassos and the sculpture is largely believed to be Mausolus, who was the king. Chris told us his tomb was so large that it was called a mausoleum – and that’s where we get that word today. Cool right?!

If you are squeamish, keep scrolling. If you’re curious, stay with me. Below is Lindow Man. He was found in 1984 in England, but dating shows that he died between 2 BC and AD 119. (Interesting fact #1). This means he was alive when the Romans were in England! The body was found in a peat bog, which is a acidic, oxygen-free environment which allowed so much skin, hair and many of his internal organs to be preserved. (interesting fact #2). Scientists also have a good idea of his age, the work he did, and how he died. It’s incredible.

These photos below also show objects dating from Roman times in Britain. They come from a fort called Vindolanda and are the oldest handwritten documents from this region. What makes them cool is that they are so normal! These letters include invitations to a birthday party and a mom sending socks to her son to keep him warm in the winter. It’s so cool how things can be the same across so much time.

And just to end on something beautiful, here is a picture of a beautiful Sumerian artifact.

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