Pompeii exhibition at The British Museum on a snowy April day

Hello everyone. We went to London to see the Pompeii exhibition at the British Museum today. In the morning, it was snowing heavily for a short time. If we hadn't had dogs (then we hadn't booked the dog walker, our lovely Theresa), we would have postponed the visit. But off we went with snowflakes falling.

As soon as we arrived the station, there was announcement; our train was cancelled due to a problem with the doors. We took the next slow train and changed at Ashford to the next fast train. It was literally freezing waiting for the train to come on the platform.

So when we arrived at St Pancras, it was about noon. We went to our favourite Le Pain Quotidien, and had a lunch there. Because of Eurostar, St Pancars station is very international; there are lots of European visitors. A young family sat next to us. They took a long time to decide what to eat. French mummy looked into a mini dictionary. She discreetly pointed to our bowls of Tuscan soup, and asked her two children if they would like to have soup like ours. That made me smile because in France I often look around what locals are having and look up in my little menu dictionary, too. The father wanted to take a photo of two children, then the daughter immediately protested 'Pourquoi?' It was a good entertainment to me. After soup, I had a cheesecake and espresso, Mike had chocolate bombe and espresso. He is a chocoholic but even he struggled with it because it was 'serious chocolate fix' (his own words).

Lunching at Le Pain Quotidien

In the station, there was an old piano, and one young man, apparently in the middle of his travel, was playing it and singing at the same time. How lovely!

A piano man

Outside was not that lovely, however  It was snowing and freezing. Our bus didn't come for a quite some time. So I took photos of freezing London in April. 

All buses came except for our  no. 59

 

St Pancras and King's cross stations

We were so glad to get on our bus. We got off the nearest bus stop to the British Museum, but somehow walked unnecessarily long to get there in snow. : (

Snowy park in April

By the time we arrived, the snow was heavy, and my head was covered by snow. Mike suggested that I should shake like a dog. I did!

British Museum in the snow in April

Once inside, we soon found that today's tickets for Ice Age exhibition were sold out, but we could see Pompeii still at 3:50. We bought them and decided to look around permanent exhibition until the time. 

I was telling Mike a funny story about witch's house in the train, so somehow I keep seeing displays, which seem related to witches!

Those legs and the tail!

This reminds me of my work, 'Witch with no name'.

A part of furniture, it says.

Wall relief from Central America

They remind me of my rabbit girls!

 I am also drawn to animal objects, as always.

A replica of an ancient polar bear sculpture

Golden Lama

Turtle pot from Central America

A chubby dog pot from Central America

Rabbit quartz from Central America

When the time drew near to 3:50, we went to queue up.

It's a long queue.

We could get in 10 minutes after. We saw the exhibition in detail. One of the saddest things to see was a dog who died in agony. Archaeologists found a void near the front door in a house. They cast it with plaster, and they were surprised at what it was. It was a guard dog. She was upside down and apparently suffering. She died from extreme heat after eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The archaeologists also found the mosaic of the black dog on the floor intact in the same house. That made me feel sadder.

There are also a family; two parents and two children, found in another house. That made us think what the life is.

We left the British Museum to catch our train. This time we took the shortest route to the bus stop and our bus came quickly.

Mike bought four almond croissants and espresso at Le Pain Quotidien before getting our train.
   

Mike buying almonds croissants. 

We are thinking to go back to see Ice Age exhibition soon. I juts hope it will be much warmer next time.