I used to think that planes were cool, and that the longer I could stay on them, the more fun I would have.  I had ample opportunity to reconsider that opinion on my 8.5-hour flight from Charlotte to London last night.  Some of that time I spent listening to the cheerful and articulate four-year-old in the row behind me.  (Actually, my enthusiasm for flying was as great as his during the first and last fifteen minutes…just not at every intervening moment.)  I finally saw all of Casablanca, which was as wonderful a film as I had inferred from the parts of it I’d seen before.  I slept little, however, even though I set my watch five hours ahead soon after the plane took off.  (“3 a.m. London time?  I don’t feel tired yet.  5 a.m. London time?  I can’t get comfortable in these cramped seats.  7 a.m. London time?  Surely we’re almost at Heathrow…")

[caption id=“attachment_15” align=“alignnone” width=“300”]I was so bored waiting to land that I took my first picture of the trip. Tasty plane food![/caption]

After vanquishing the forces of Immigration and Baggage Reclaim, I and the other program participant on the flight took a cab to the office of our flat.  We ditched our luggage there, ate lunch at Caffe Nero, then wandered around the British Museum for a couple of hours.

[caption id=“attachment_13” align=“alignnone” width=“300”]The British Museum, beneath a characteristically cloudy sky. The British Museum, beneath a characteristically cloudy sky.[/caption]

I saw the Rosetta Stone (most of it, anyway; the crowd made it difficult to examine it closely), the Egyptian Book of the Dead, ancient pages from the Iliad and the Aeneid, mosaics from Pompeii, treasures from the Sutton Hoo burial mound, various ancient sarcophagi, and dozens of Greek urns.  Even so, we barely scratched the surface of the museum’s collections, and I’ll be happy to visit it again soon.

[caption id=“attachment_12” align=“alignnone” width=“300”]One of many examples of cuneiform--sadly not the one from the library at Nineveh. One of many examples of cuneiform–sadly not the one from the library at Nineveh.[/caption]