Beyond Bringing Up Boys

On this trip, Zac and I have adopted the "inductive tourism" strategy. We begin with the big picture, and then learn several smaller details along the way. General to specific. Today's big picture was the British Museum of history. After about five minutes we realized that there was not a chance in the eternal history of time that we were going to be able to see a very large percentage of this museum today. We narrowed the parameters significantly and spent over two hours visiting exhibits from 1000 BC to 1000 AD -- of European history alone. To put that experience into perspective, we visited three or four rooms on one floor. There are at least six levels in this museum. In my opinion, history can be really tedious if I cannot find someway to humanize it. Today I looked for the humanity of the displays. Take, for instance, this piece of lead.  Unseen is a curse written during the time of Roman occupation of England; What an insight into huma...

Zac and I stepped out of the Tube this morning to this beautiful, iconic sight: We were on our way to Westminster Abbey for the 10:00 tour. (The church seems to have been leaning a little bit to the right at this moment. Something about keeping up with that church at Pisa.) The pic above shows the famous west entrance used for state events, including Diana's funeral. W e entered through the north entrance, depicted below. We were met inside by a man who informed us, in hushed and reverent tones, that although we purchased a ticket to get inside the building for a tour, we had not actually purchased the tour itself. The pronouncement sounded odd, but he sounded sincere, so we handed over another £10. (Yes, the dead are pricey these days, but the £10 pounds for a guided tour was a fantastic investment.) The Westminster Abbey tour humbled me. I left feeling very small, wanting to live a life filled with meaning -- a life of consequence. The tour made me ...

This morning Zac and I arrived at the train station 15 minutes before our scheduled departure at 07:00. Answer: "Because Hounslow has two train stations." Question: "Why can we not find our train on the schedule?" We hustled 15 minutes down the road to the other station and watched "our" train leave without us.  No problem-- we caught the next train at 07:31.  One of the unusual sights today was the   number of people dressed in formal clothing. Especially students. We saw hundreds of high school students taking the train to school, and not only were they all in uniforms, they were all wearing coats, too. They looked really spiffy! Oxford was no different. University students and profs wearing suits and ties walked the sidewalks.  To begin the Oxford visit, Zac had some cinnamon rolls with his hot tea. I think most world crises could be solved if the meeting started with a couple of cinnamon rolls. I will share a few Oxford pic...