It's Good to Have an Empire

What can you say about a museum where the first thing you see is the Rosetta Stone? The British Museum contains artifacts like no other... Assyrian gates, the Parthenon frieze, really too many wonderful things to list.

Perhaps my favorite part of the visit was the ceiling over the Great Court, designed by Norman Foster. It's a glass ceiling in triangles that covers the formerly open space between the courtyard of the museum and the circular roof of the Reading Room (which itself has been refurbished and repainted and regilded). The area floods with light, even on an overcast day because of the gorgeously refinished limestone and sandstone walls. I think this would be a warm and welcoming place even in the dead of winter.

After a long visit to the culture of the world, we rested during the afternoon. Last night was our second and last Shakespeare evening, where we saw "Antony and Cleopatra." Not as gripping as Titus, the lead part of Cleopatra was played by Frances Barber. After a particularly vivid scene, when she's literally shrieking with rage and chagrin on hearing of Antony's marriage to Octavia, the audience burst into spontaneous applause. Terrific stuff. We've got modern theater coming for the next two days. Stay tuned.