Day 12: British Museum and Hogwarts

19,150. According to my Fitbit, that's how many steps I walked today. It's 12.63kms. And trust me, my legs, knees and feet believe it. They may have received a little ice TLC when I got back from today's adventures.

I began my day by figuring out how to ride the London Underground (their subway). It wasn't too hard and I only got turned around once. The announcements were easier to hear/understand than those in Montreal and I now completely understand what they mean when they say "mind the gap". It' should be "watch out for the step you have to take to get on/off the train because the train isn't always flush with the platform". But I guess "mind the gap" is shorter.

The British Museum is massive. And their collection is stunning. It's like walking about in time. They also had a cool "hands on" exhibit where I got to hold a carving of a jade tiger that dates back to somewhere between 900-1100AD.  Pretty impressive. I really liked seeing the head from Easter Island. The Rosetta Stone was pretty cool too but I had to fight my way past people in order to see it (written in 196 BC, the stone has three versions of a decree written on it - two in Ancient Egyptian and one in Ancient Greek. The stone was used as the key to deciphering the Egyptian hieroglyphs).

They have a large collection of mummies and a new exhibit with artifacts from Asia (inc. India) which also included a room full of jade. It was very cool.

Next I headed off in search of platform 9 3/4s at the King's Cross train station. Before I go there, I walked through a lovely park called Russel Square. Lots of people were sunbathing or having picnics in the park. It was very lovely and had a beautiful fountain.

As for King's Cross, I found it. Then found platform 9 3/4. And the fun Harry Potter store attached to it. The station was bustling with people, probably because today is a Bank holiday here and people were returning home. It was cool to see the monument to Harry Potter and part of me wished I could hop onto a train bound for Hogwarts. Instead, I hopped on the Underground and came back to the hotel.

It was another evening of ordering dinner in (Thai tonight) and I did some laundry in my sink, grabbed a shower and watched some Netflix. Another thunder storm rolled through while I was having dinner. It wasn't as big as the one the other night but the thunder in this one just kept rolling and rolling. I also saw a very faint rainbow, so that was cool.

I'm very sleepy so I will be heading to bed shortly. I think I'm going to use the Underground again tomorrow and will check out the Sherlock Holmes Museum and the London Eye. Might try to find somewhere to have afternoon tea as well.

I hope everyone back home is keeping cool.

Good Night All!

Sarah
XOXO