Day 4 London

Today we had an opportunity to go into London and see a bit of the city. We don't have much money so our entertainment had to be cheap. We walked to the train station and took a train ride into the city and a ride on a double decker bus made the trip fun for the girls. We went to the British Museum as the museums in London are free. Taylor wanted to see a mummy and they had a bunch of them. It was really quite interesting to see. After seeing the Mummies we headed for the Africa display where we were determined to find as many items as we could that were from Ghana or Togo. We found a few from Ghana but none from Togo. Many of the Ghanaian items were not on display which was a bit disappointing. So from Africa we decided to head to North America, not sure what we were expecting there but were a bit disappointed at how small the display was. Left there and the gang was getting a bit tired so we were on our way out when we saw a display of pills. It took me a bit to figure it out but it was a neat display once you understood it. It showed how many pills the average person will take during the span of their life, approximately 14,000 pills. While we were looking at this display I noticed a large camera in a glass display box, of course it was a Canon camera. So of course I had to get a photo of it, while I was reading to see what it was about I noticed that there were many things in the cabinet with it that were from Ghana. As I began reading I figured out that everything in this case was from somewhere in Ghana, all of the things that had been missing in their regular display area was in this cabinet. It turns out that the large camera is actually a coffin. That's right a coffin, it was made by two Ghanaian brothers for some poor soul to be buried in. Their grandmother who always wanted to take a ride in an airplane died before getting her wish, so the brothers made her a coffin shaped like an airplane and carried her to her grave sight in it. As a result other people commissioned them to create a unique coffin for them. Probably my favorite thing in the museum was seeing this display, I think I will look them up while there and see how much a camera coffin will cost. After the museum we went to Covent Gardens an area where there are street performers and people selling there wares. While we were there we decided to watch this Brit as he performed for those he could get to stop and watch. While waiting to see what he would do I was called from the audience to help him onto a 15 foot tall unicycle. It was quite humorous and quite surprising when the guy kissed me on the nose and said that Americans were hot blooded. All in good fun though and nobody was hurt. I hope you enjoy the photos as well as the story, more to come later.


Gary