London, Days 4-5
Well, the bad news is that I seem to be catching a cold. I’m going to dose up on vitamin C and try to stay warm. I really don’t want to get a full-blown head cold. Right now it’s just a runny nose. I came home today and took a nap, and I am feeling better this evening.
Yesterday was a new record for walking. I took the tube over to Westminster, and after touring the Abbey, I just walked all the way over to St. Paul’s. So I guess yesterday was my “church” day. Both churches respectfully request that you not take pictures inside (not that there are any services going on, I think it’s to boost the postcard trade) so, despite the fact that everyone else ignored them, I did not. Hence, no pictures from inside either of the big churches.
I enjoyed the tour of each of them, in different ways. I thought both of them were more tasteful than St. Peter’s in Rome, but my sister disagrees on Westminster Abbey. All three are quite elaborately decorated. St. Paul’s is unquestionably the prettiest, unless you are into gaudy displays of gold… which, come to think of it, some people are.
I do wish I had a little more notice that I was coming over, and I would have read up on more of the history of the monarchy. I probably would have appreciated the tour of the churches more (because I would have known precisely who that monarch was that was buried there, etc.)
the other unique thing about St. Paul’s is that you can climb to the very top of the dome, and while I did not take pictures of the inside, I most certainly did when I was outside on the ledge. London, like just about any other big city, doesn’t look all that great from above.
On the way back, I had the pleasure to make the acquaintance of a self-professed crackhead named Paul. You see, he wanted to trade me hats (I was wearing my fedora). He was quite pleasant, and claimed to have a cousin who was a chauffeur in Dallas. He was explaining to me that he had been off drugs for 13 days (apparently a new years resolution). Well, except for alcohol, you see, his girlfriend had just walked off to go get some alcohol. Alcohol was fun, so that didn’t count against his pledge of no drugs. Crack was not fun, he explained. “Ah, so you have sworn off drugs that are not fun?” I asked. “Yes, so those hits of marijuana don’t count either, mate. Because that’s minor stuff. Yeah, marijuana is fun.” So he has been off of “non-fun” drugs for 13 days. I wish him luck. I also got the scoop on the magazine he was selling. Apparently there is a publisher over here who, as an attempt to put the homeless (or nearly homeless) to work, he publishes a magazine for that purpose. He sells it to people for 70p, then they can resell it on the streets for 1.50. Paul was quite proud that he was not begging. Sounds like a good idea to me, and it obviously made Paul enough money to keep him and his girlfriend in alcohol.
No, I did not trade hats, and no, he did not steal (nor attempt to steal), my wallet.
Today was spent at the National Museum, and my main task was to answer a question posed to me by my friend Lisa at work… “Why do the vast majority of the Greek statues left in museums in Athens have missing heads and genitals?” Apparently virtually all of these statues have signs on them, indicating that the remainder of the statue was in the British National Museum in London. (Begging the question, “Is there a room full of nothing but heads and genitals from Greek statues somewhere in the National Museum, and if so, can you tour it?”)
Well, my guess is that those signs in Athens are to gig the Brits a bit, because they want their statues back. And the Brits won’t give them up. (More on this below) Because guess what?
The statues in London are missing heads and genitals, too!
So, ever the interested scholar, I walked right up to a curator and asked. “I know that this is an odd question, but I am serious… where are all the heads and genitals? The Greeks say that you have them.”
Here’s the story.
Apparently, rank and file soldiers in the British armies did not have the same level of respect for history and art that their leaders did. While the leaders were loading up the statues for transport back to England, the soldiers where breaking off what they could to take as souvenirs. It doesn’t take too much imagination to guess what would be the most popular souvenirs. So the majority of the missing heads/genitals are missing, presumably lost forever. But the British museum is not hoarding them. I believed him. He seemed like an honest chap.
And it was fairly obvious that I was not the first one who had asked.
I will close today with some observations about British society:
- As far as I can tell, British schoolchildren do not have classrooms. Because they are always on field trip.
- There cannot be more coffee shops in Seattle than there are in London. There are several spots (with limited views, even) where you can see 2 Starbucks, and an assortment of other one-off shops.
- There was as much propaganda within the Allied troops in World War II as there was directed at them. From watching documentaries over here, looking at memorials, etc… Gen. Mongomery damn near won the European theatre himself, and may have done so more quickly if Eisenhower had listened to him a bit more. (For those who are not WWII buffs… that’s not exactly the same story that Americans have been brought up to believe)
- The British are cultural snobs to the core. There is a quite obvious display (with take home flyers) in the National Museum as to why they will not give the Greeks their statues back. It boils down to: We take care of them better than you could have, anyway. I am not denying the truth of this statement. The British have some reasons to be cultural snobs. It’s an impressive history, an impressive culture, and an impressive society. But c’mon… you stole their statues.
More pictures up (at least a few) in the same location: